Barclays bank.......how stupid

been spending hours today phoning companies about a change of address for my mother for tomorrow........

all were helpful

apart from barclays............told them it was for a change of address for tomorrow as she is moving........the girl took all her details.maiden name...phone etc and then asked her for her password...........my mother hasn't had one as doesn't do telephone banking..................so the girl said that she couldn't do it then but would send her out a password in the post.................WTF...she is moving tomorrow...........the new owners might appreciate the password thoughimageimage

Comments

  • I used to work for Barclays customer service (first job when I turned 18!), and it was rubbish then too! If they got a difficult question, most people would just put the caller on hold and transfer them back to the main customer service number for someone else to deal with image

  • People's details can be obtained by criminals. I wouldn't expect someone to be able to change my address just because they knew a few deatils. Usually tou can do it in the branch with a card and your pin number. It isn't that hard but I would worry more if my bank weren't being protective enough.
  • Mr PuffyMr Puffy ✭✭✭
    Be fair seren, you haven't given them much notice. I know it's the information age and all but it still needs to be done properly and thoroughly.
  • Isn't it more the fact that they ask for a password which Seren's mum doesn't have/ never had issued because she's never used telephone banking? That's what I read as being the annoying issue ...

  • In which case, just say "we can't do this on the phone, go to a branch" - not offer a stupid solution which is not viable due to the circumstances the customer has just explained.  

  • Its not the fact they couldn't do it.........it was the fact that she thought that sending the password out to an address where my mother would no longer be living would be helpful or sensible.............

    we will go into a branch........it would have been easier if she had said at the beginning that without an online password she would have had to go into the bank...........she even had my mother going through 4 different direct debits and dates and companies in the phonecall before realising she couldn't do it..............such a waste of everyones time.................

     

    and Kk all companies will deal with me on the phone as long as she is present and states that she wants them to deal with me...........its a very common practice.........saves a lot of time .......

  • But surely, if she's never used telephone banking, then she can't suddenly decide to use that method to change the address details..... it needs to be done by going into the branch.

    It's annoying, but I have to agree with others, I'd rather have to jump through a few security hoops than for things to be too 'easy' (and hence easy for criminals too).

     

     

  • thats it xine...........it was just the waste of time and the stupid offer of posting the password out to where she wouldn't live that seemed so stupid to me.......

  • but to go through asking for 4 direct debits......her maiden name .......her dob  after they have already got her account details ..to then say you need a password..............on teh bank statement it gives you a number for customer services.........which is where we rang.........so not really trying to do online banking...........just trying to change an address ..........had managed to do it with the 11 other companies phoned that day..........

    i can understand them not being able to do it..................but why not state that at the beginning.........image

    PS royal mail has let me redirect her mail by only knowing her address and phone number and the fact she lived their over 10 years..............image

  • kittenkat wrote (see)
    xine267 wrote (see)

    Isn't it more the fact that they ask for a password which Seren's mum doesn't have/ never had issued because she's never used telephone banking? That's what I read as being the annoying issue ...

    Ah but she might have had it many moons ago by mail and ignored it or just didn't know what it was? Doesn't a system register the fact you have a password, even if it's by infliction rather than choice? I don't know, I'm not a Barclays fan either but without all the facts it's easy to jump to conclusions.

    You'd think you'd have to appy/register a password but I have absolutely no confidence in Barclays image  

    When I worked there one of their genuis marketing strategies to generate new credit card business was to create new accounts and send out credit cards to customers that fit the right profile ... that was pre-chip and PIN so you didn't even have to get a PIN number to be able to use the card. Used to get a lot of card fraud from people who picked up envelopes sent to blocks of flats etc!

    That was pre-credit crunch, can't see them sending out a load of pre-approved credit cards on a purely speculative basis now!

  • but there again......................i haev never used my own personal account with Barclays that they made us set up when they took over the mortgage from woolwich...........we just pay enough money in each month to cover the mortgage,.................so they kindly gave us an overdraft limit of £55,000..............which considering our income is a bit silly ..........

  • Haha, sounds like they are as efficient as ever then Seren!

  • banks are useless, a guy I worked with had an absolulte nightmare when he moved house. the bank sent all his mortgage (including all his personal details for the mortgage application etc, really sensitive highly confidential financial, history etc details) to the next door neighbours house and, to add insult to injury, sent the stuff, apologising and telling him it had been corrected etc, to the same address 

    luckily his neighbours were decent and realised the error before anythig was opened but .....

     

  • my local barclays is in a large town..........so not a village branch............whenever i go in and ask for  2 or 3 thousand pounds in cash.they keep on asking if i have ordered it and look quite worried ........they have to ask their boss if they have enough cash to do it.................its only a couple of thousands...............surely a major branch would carry a few spare pounds............

    never ever have problems with Natwest image

  • SuperCazSuperCaz ✭✭✭

    Nat West started sending all of my bank statements to Hubby's parents address.  This was before we even lived together, so I have no idea how they managed to associate me to that address!

  • That does sound annoying but in the 30 years I've been with Barclays I've never had cause for complaint. The few issues I've had have always been sorted with the minimum of fuss and always very fairly. I suppose when you have as many customers as they probably have, there are always going to be those who have cause for complaint.

  • Just don't mention Natwest! Got 3 accounts with then and on the 1st day of their 'troubles' they shut 2 of the 3 down (with money in - mine) and have only this last Saturday had access to it (no one in Natwest knew what was going on because they 'couldn't access my information'! 

    Wondering whether to open one somewhere else in case it happens again - or go back to keeping my dosh under the mattress!

  • Mr PuffyMr Puffy ✭✭✭
    See I think the banks get a raw pr deal...I remember having to go to the electricity board for the electric bill, the gas board for the gas bill, cheque to the council for the rates, now I don't have to lift a finger, my wages go. Into the bank, the bank looks after them and keeps them safe, pays all my bills for me and it doesn't cost me anything. In fact, they pay me for all this because I get interest on the money that I don't have to keep under the mattress or in the tea caddy.



    Day to day stuff is much easier than it ever was, sure hang the fat cats in paternoster square pour encourager les autres but retail banking is on the whole very good these days.
  • SuperCazSuperCaz ✭✭✭

    Given the amount of additional transactions that we do now, just because we can, you have to say that the banks get it right most of the time.  But when they screw up the effects are devastating to the people who can't get access to their money or who get late payment charged fees on payments that should have gone out.

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    I wouldn't expect a bank, any bank, to accept a change of address on an account over the phone, without a password.

    You could be anyone, even if you do know her maiden name.  Just because you are her daughter doesn't mean that you are not up to no good, either!

    I would criticize the bank if they DID do it, not because they won't.

  • Leaving it to the day before you move seems a bit silly
  • wilkie.............you missed the point...........it wasn't that they wouldn't do it............why not state thatt you have to be set up on internet banking  to use the customer services....................and why offer to send the password to a house where you will not live.......

    Dave.only got told Tuesday late afternoon that they were going to complete and exchange on the Thursday./...............so everything had to be done on the wednesday...................been trying to sell for 10 months and then less than 48 hours in the end to get outimage

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