# Bluddy Banks



## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Bloody Banks.

Dealing with various banks is just getting more and more frustrating by the day.
Banks are hardly holier than though with security, knowingly loosing millions to fraud and hacks. That's without all the sneaky PPI scandal and other underhanded dealings.

They just sent us 6 page a letter indicating our present overdraft facility was to be changed to an identical facility. We need not do anything unless you want to speak to someone about anything in this letter and to call a number.
As my wife is the principal account holder they have managed to get her address correct. But me as a joint account holder they have down at an old address we have not used for four years.

So calling the said number and after getting cut off twice. I end up speaking to a very heavily accented Indian gentleman who gabbles at me in almost unintelligible version of English.
After going through all sorts of obvious and pointless "security" questions, he suggests we initiate another system and pass codes to enable 'Telephone Banking'. As we have multiple codes and numbers with various banks I decline and say I want less complications and can you just change the wrong address.
Ah this is where it gets bluddy ridiculous. He now tells me I can go online and open up our personal account details and change the wrong address there. 
So I waste another 40 mins trying to access the wrong info only to be able to see the correct info. 
I have failed to even see my details as a joint account holder and can only see my wifes correct details.

So I guess it's back to the phone and another garbled conversation with a jobsworth going through all the same pointless security questions again.

Lifes too short and getting shorter by the phone call.

Ray.


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

Don't bother ringing them, write a letter/email the bank detailing EXACTLY what is wrong and ask for WRITTEN confirmation that it HAS been rectified!!

It's very easy to "ignore" a telephone call but a letter/email has to be actioned because there is an audit trail for it 

I always write (or email of course) detailing any changes and ALWAYS asking for confirmation my request has been dealt with. On two occasions I have had compensation out of banks because they told me they had done something when they had actually failed to do so.

The "little man" fights back!!!

Andy


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

Sadly, our UK Bank (Lloyds) will not accept e-mail contact......

but I agree with Andy, put it in writing in detail as bullet points and ask for written confirmation that all the bullet points have been tackled;

Indian non-English call centre, ask for a UK based contact immediately (available normally if you ask),

wrong address,

difficulty to correct or even identify incorrect information,

use of an out of date address (leads to a question about what else they have mis-sent......),

the list is virtually endless......


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## randonneur (Jan 25, 2007)

If its Barclays then you will have problems. We were with them for 30 plus years and my OH asked for a new card, went through all the rigmarole, they wouldn't accept his date of birth, went through our local branch still the same, finished up that ur Son had a Friend in the fraud department who sorted it out. At some point when all details were transferred to new computer system they transposed his date of birth, it was a nightmare, needless to say we immediately withdrew all funds, closed the accounts and went to Nationwide and fingers crossed never had a problem. This all happened when we were living in France as well.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Odd you say that Randonneur.
It is Barclays and while living in France we could access the account online. All of a sudden we could not. So call the 'help' line and try to understand a ***** accent going trough the usual 'security' questions.
My wife knows her date of birth, mothers maiden name and place of birth. But no the ***** says 'wrong' and terminates the call. We try many times and eventually give up. Eventually some years later we call into a branch in UK to explain the problem and find my wife's date of birth has been entered incorrectly. Their fault but it locked us out for several years.

The banks set themselves up as Judge, Jury and Executioners now with Experian help.
Yep, I will write Andy, eventually.

Ray.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

When I have to speak to india, I just say I am struggling to understand them and wish to speak to a supervisor, who so far appear to be in the UK.


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## TeamRienza (Sep 21, 2010)

As the UK becomes more multicultural it is increasingly difficult to tell wether you are speaking to someone in another country. This also begs the question that you could be speaking to a 2nd generation British subject of foreign heritage. Bit like trying to understand some of the dialects spoken the length and breadth of the British Isles.

Davy


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

But it is important we do understand the conversation fully. I love the initial greeting that this call will be recorded for 'training' purposes. Good.

Ray.


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

The recording of phone calls works TWO ways! 

I had an issue with Nationwide when I switched to Flex-plus from Flex just before our last trip in May. 

After a very lengthy conversation with their customer service supervisor I got them to listen to my original call. End result?? £125 "Good will" compensation for all the agrro I had endured trying to sort the problem out, and immediate re-instatement of my holiday ins cover. What they hadn't told me when I "upgraded" was that my old holiday ins cover from Flex A/C would lapse immediately and the cover on the new Flex Plus A/C wouldn't start until 31 days after I opened the A/C. I was travelling abroad 5 days later!! 

Without the original (recorded) telephone conversation I wouldn't have stood a chance, 

Companies USUALLY use them to prove that you have done something wrong or not disclosed something important, but it CAN backfire on them, like in the above case.

Andy


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## randonneur (Jan 25, 2007)

raynipper said:


> Odd you say that Randonneur.
> It is Barclays and while living in France we could access the account online. All of a sudden we could not. So call the 'help' line and try to understand a ***** accent going trough the usual 'security' questions.
> My wife knows her date of birth, mothers maiden name and place of birth. But no the ***** says 'wrong' and terminates the call. We try many times and eventually give up. Eventually some years later we call into a branch in UK to explain the problem and find my wife's date of birth has been entered incorrectly. Their fault but it locked us out for several years.
> 
> ...


This I exactly what happened to us, to a T.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Mrs Eb has been trying to pay off a small mortgage over the last few days and our bank has no record of it. Brilliant.


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

No record means you owe them nothing.

Get it in writing quick!

Andy


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

I'd bet that if we cancelled the monthly payment the record would turn up double quick.


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## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

It was years ago we cancelled all accountts from Barclays 

I can't remember why 

But we we were really p****d off at the time

Sandra


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

I do nearly everything by email, text phone call etc but when it comes to complaining I now do it by letter. I've had enough of hanging on the phone whilst someone reads the case history or worse- by livechat when they're chatting to several people at the same time. I find that I get far better results from a letter and a far more "qualified" person responding. My current "dispute" is with BT who is unable to stop charging me for BT Sports even though I cancelled it 12 months' ago. They say it's a computer problem and they've sorted it but they never do - I send off a letter, they phone and apologise and give me a refund and then every few months they give me an extra £15 for compensation"!

I may become quite wealthy at this rate!


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## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

*Barclays administration leaves a lot to be desired.*

We had a mortgage & associated endowment with Barclays. All seemed to be going well until a year before maturity, the endowment part of Barclays said it would just pay off the mortgage, but not provide the expected bonus. Annoying, but not unexpected at the time. Move on a year, Barclays mortgages advised that the endowment was providing £8,000 less than needed & wanted to provide us with another mortgage to cover the shortfall. We weren't having that & arranged a loan elsewhere so it was paid off. Next, we asked for our deeds but were told we couldn't have them as they were security for a loan, which had actually been paid off years previously. Eventually I had to go to the branch in Redditch whilst they phoned Leeds to convince them it had been paid off. That should have been all, but then Leeds couldn't find our deeds. This whole palaver took several months to sort out, good job we didn't need our deeds in a hurry.
Needless to say, we were not best pleased with Barclays, but I got my revenge with my PPI claim. 0 Unknown to me, they had even added PPI on to my mortgage.
Now I'm with Santander who pay interest on current accounts (123 account). It used to be 3% but only half that now. They also pay cashback on certain direct debit payments too. So far, so good.
To be honest, none of the banks are perfect IME. I started off with Midland, who managed to pay my money into someone else's account, moved to the Co-op, who couldn't get my mortgage payments correct to save their life, then on to Barclays. US banks are not much better either but that's another story.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

HSBC has been closing accounts without notice. Just been hearing about it on Money Box.

It's defended as anti money laundering but they're doing it to completely innocent people, businesses and even churches. Small sums are involved. A lot of collateral damage even if they are getting a few bad guys in the process.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Yep emmbeedee.
30 odd years ago Barclays held four sets of our deeds just for 'safety' as the properties were free and clear of any debts.
I asked for the deeds of one property to be sent to our solicitors and bits of all three properties turned up.
I then said I had enough dealing with a bunch of monkeys and went to the storage place to retrieve all my deeds and docs.
This resulted in a standoff till closing time when I refused to leave. They said they would call the police and I said good you have stolen my property.
They found em and I left to change my account to Nat West who 30 years later dumped me.

Banks are judge, jury and executioners.
Ray.


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## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

I remember now why we left

For several months no mortgage payment was being taken from our account

Each time we queried it we were told it was paid, even though we said it hadn't been taken from our account , they just wouldn't listen 

Turns out some other guy with the same name was paying it, he was probabally tearing his hair out wondering what was happening to his money

We changed banks once they sorted it out and hopefully reimbursed the poor guy paying it

Sandra


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## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

raynipper said:


> Yep emmbeedee.
> 
> Banks are judge, jury and executioners.
> Ray.


When I moved to Santander I was a little worried that something might go wrong with the 7 days "Switch" service they have to offer now. As a back-up I also opened a TSB account but so far all has been fine. TSB also pay interest at 5% on current accounts but only up to £1,500. You just have to move money about to get it, not difficult as its all automated. I move it back & forth between Santander & TSB.:grin2:


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## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

But it's exhausting constantly moving money

Until borrowing rates rise, savings rates will be crap

But when and if they raise, our kids, mortgages will rise too , grandkids will struggle to get a mortgage without a bigger deposit 

Which means they struggle 

Heads you lose, tails you lose too

Sandra


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## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

aldra said:


> But it's exhausting constantly moving money
> 
> Sandra


No Sandra, once you've set it up it moves automatically month after month. You only have to set it up once & then it keeps going until you stop it. I couldn't be arsed to do it manually but this way I don't have to do anything except checking my statements monthly.:wink2:


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## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

Never seen anything like that emmbeedee 

Sandra


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

aldra said:


> But it's exhausting constantly moving money
> Until borrowing rates rise, savings rates will be crap
> But when and if they raise, our kids, mortgages will rise too , grandkids will struggle to get a mortgage without a bigger deposit
> Which means they struggle
> Heads you lose, tails you lose too Sandra


I can't have too much sympathy for the so called young who have borrowed more than they can repay if rates do rise. They have benefited with artificiality low rates for 9 years and obviously rates will go up.
If you have borrowed so much at low rates and then find you can't pay the repayments when rates do eventually rise your dumb.
On the other hand we, the old, have had to make do with bugger all rates and interest. No one gives a fig for our losses.

Ray.


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## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

I'm not sure they did Ray

Like us they borrowed at the going rate 

When we borrowed it was the going rate 

Today the going rate could hurtle upwards if the Bank of England increased rates 

The young should have known that??

I don't think we would have 

Sandra


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Bluddy Barclays have just decided my wife doesn't need her overdraft and is removing it next month.
No asking do you mind or can we chat about it. Bi Bi.
I think it's the thin end of the wedge as Barclays does not need ordinary people as clients even though my wife gets absolutely no interest on the cash she has with them.

Ray.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Basts.


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