I once tried to open an account with Barclays .
After filling in numerous documents having them certified my passport etc etc They wanted to see my present bank statements .
As the amount was did not tally with my income . ( so said the 26 year old on the phone ) As I am a pensioner and this was money I had saved during my working life this was not surprising .
I asked her age and hoped that when she reached my age she too would have x amount . I refused to give them any more details and never opened an account with them and pointed out that their boss Bob Diamond was a crook who had just been discovered fixing the Libor .
Seems it is a Barclays tradition.
We had been with Barclays for well over 30yrs and during the last 10 or so were premier account holders. From then on they were absolute crap! We became SO disillusioned by their lack of performance, we moved everything over to Nationwide and have not regretted the move.
I’m not going to tell you which bank we’re with in case some rascal or other breaks in here looking for such details. I will tell you that, when we returned from Italy, I tried to open a current account (so I could have my salary paid into it) with Abbey National as it was then but they refused and wouldn’t tell me why. (We already had accounts with RBS in Birmingham but wanted a local-to-us bank for every day banking matters.) I remember having a jolly good rant over the phone with someone at their head office. In the end, we opened accounts with the same bank as the company I worked for. We’ve been with them ever since and never a single problem.
Many, many years’ ago I banked with Barclays for a business account, then when I realised they were charging me 65p per cheque to withdraw my own money I soon changed banks! Seeing this thread and having just read about a requirement for Barclays Blue Reward customers, thought it worth mentioning here:
“Barclays Blue Reward customers must have signed up for online or mobile banking by 3 August 2021, or run the risk of their membership being cancelled.”
