Barclays Bank
My Crappy Realtionship isn't with a person. Its with a Bank.

Honestly their customer service is so bad Writing a sign outside that says- "thinking of opening an account here, why not piss off and die instead" - would be an improvement.

Having tried to get them to open a student account with them they needed proof that I'm a student. Which is fair enough- I gave them a letter from my college saying so. Which was rejected as it didn't include my address where I'm staying, despite the teensy problem of the fact that it DID contain my address where I'm staying. So I got another letter from my college which contained my address TWICE once in bold making it absolutely clear that I am living there.

Which has now been rejected.

Because it wasn't addressed specifically to barclays.

And because it wasn't stamped- BY THEIR LOCAL BRANCH.- Their fault not mine.

Sadly I think I'm going to have difficulty satisfying their other demands, as my first born child has not yet been born so I cannot offer up its soul in exchange for an ATM card. Similarly I will have difficulting obtaining a dragons egg and vial of angels tears that surely must be the requirements for any kind of monthly statement. Honestly Prometheus stealing fire from the gods probably had an easier time of it.

Still better than Natwest's service mind.
(FondaAccord, Thu 21 Oct 2010, 14:05, 3 replies)

I tried to change from Lloyds to Barclays
I got a chequebook and Connect card almost immediately, but the cretins could never get the Internet banking thing to work. Every time I called up to point out that the umpteenth new password didn't bleedin' work I got told a new password would be issued, and for my trouble a token amount would be credited to my shiny new account. My protests that I wasn't interested in gouging the bank for poor service "credits" but simply wanted a service which worked fell on deaf ears. Almost two months and £200 later I gave up. I told Barclays to keep the two hundred quid, along with the chequebook and card. I ended up going to First Direct, for the sole reason that the bank's call centre is in this country, not somewhere dubious and foreign. The service is largely indistinguishable from Lloyds', so I wonder why I ever bothered making the change. I have to remind myself that speaking to someone whose native language is the same as mine is sufficient reason.
( flake has nothing against your right leg, Thu 21 Oct 2010, 14:16, closed)

You should try spanish banks mates.
This happened to a friend of mine who was needing to transfer a pension from the UK to his spanish account.

"OK your Spanish account doesnt accept international transfers, so we cant put this money into you."
"Oh, so how do I get the money into the account?"
"Well, go to another bank and open up an account that accepts international transfers, then when it arrives in there, you can transfer the money across to this bank account"

So.. they basically told him to go away.. to a competitor to open an account with someone else!! Well done, well done!!
(Miggyman, Thu 21 Oct 2010, 14:36, closed)

Don't worry
When you graduate and get a job paying more than fourpence ha'penny, they'll fall over themselves to offer you loans, insurance, blah-di-blah.

But don't get made redundant, 'cos then (when you actually need their help) they'll close up tighter than Ann Widdecombe's rusty sherriff's badge at a Chippendales gig.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Thu 21 Oct 2010, 18:21, closed)