To be really frustrated with the poor level of service when just trying to open a bank account!

[Rainbunny]

We are relocating to the UK after 25+ years spent overseas. My DH has arrived in the UK ahead of me by a couple of months and has opened a regular checking/savings account with Barclays bank, yet after nearly a month and a half he is still waiting on a bank card to arrive! This would be the second bank card that they issued to be sent to him as the first card never arrived after 3 weeks (they said 5-10 days) and now the replacement card is nowhere insight! Are banking services this bad generally in the UK now? (Our address is not strange, new or irregular, all other mail has arrived without issue.) I will arrive in a month's time and I'm already considering trying a different bank to my Dh's due to the awful experiences so far. Any suggestions for good experiences with banks would be welcome!

holidaylady Many thanks. I will be looking into opening an account with them!

I deal with Barclays through work and I wouldn’t trust them to know their arse from their elbow quite honestly

A friend of mine was repeatedly trying to get a replacement cheque book issued recently that they kept sending and she kept not receiving it. It turned out that they were sending it to the local branch (despite her asking them to send it to her address), the branch didn’t bother contacting her and when she hadn’t collected it were returning it. So might be worth trying the branch where he set up the account on the off chance! They should also be able to help him access his money without the card.

Banking has totally gone to shit the last few years, cuts in customer facing staff, transfer of "work" to customers and a general apathy amongst their remaining staff members. The traditional banks seem to be the most affected

Last month I was trying to pay a friend back. He lives out of town and I wanted to pay cash into his account. Queued up, got to the counter, explained what I wanted to do and was told it was illegal as it was a personal account I questioned this and was told that on a specific date that legislation had come in which forbade paying money into a personal account and the only way to do it was at my own bank (not a barclays)

I walked out, went to the bank next door and asked if it was legal to pay money into someone's account to which they replied that of course it was legal

Went back in to barclays and said that the bank next door didn't think it was illegal and the person said that they were lying

According to the person in my own bank, when I went to make the payment, it is just a barclays policy now. So basically there's a bank on the high street and you can't pay money into it

@easyandy101 Barclays were right it is not illegal to pay cash into someone else's bank account. It's a new money laundering related bit of legislation from March this year I believe. So the other bank were wrong and so are you. The fact you went back in to tell them they were wrong when in fact YOU were wrong is just hilarious.

*it is NOW illegal!

Your first mistake is going to Barclays. Awful. I've just moved our accounts to Halifax.

www.gov.uk/guidance/money-laundering-regulations-high-value-dealer-registration

it isn't legislation at all , its' internal bank regulations to do away with cash transactions and force people to use electronic funds transfers.

Apols to those who will be morally offended by a DM article.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5588045/Family-members-blocked-paying-cash-accounts.html

A couple of years ago we had issues with HSBC, whom we've had an account with for 25 years. We decided to change to Nationwide, who promptly made a complete dogs dinner of the account opening. It took more than 2 months to sort out. This is in contrast with Monzo. When I moved my personal account from Smile to Minsk, the account was up and running and I had my debit card within a week. The account has now been running for 18 months without issue. We recently decided to move our last remaining HSBC account to Starling. Like Monzo, they've been efficient, prompt and a week after applying I had my working debit card. We then switched the account from HSBC to the new (joint) Starling account and everything went through fine. I'm so happy we now have easy and simple access to our accounts on our phones and a lot more info and control then we used to have with legacy banks.

Monzo not Minsk. Now the whole world thinks I'm money laundering through Belarus :-D

I'd recommend Nationwide. We've had a joint account with them for years and I recently switched my account to them without a problem.

I tried to open an account with First Direct but it was a nightmare, so many pointless questions. I don't know how many cheques I'll be paying in until I get them!

Quick update, apparently it was down to human error (shock!) somebody entering his information wrongly typed some address information, it was finally noticed so he should get his card soon (3rd time's a charm?). I'm still highly un-impressed so far.

@MrTrebus if you find that kind of thing hilarious then presumably your own utterly incorrect gloat must be the funniest thing in the world

A quick Google (or ask anyone in halifax, lloyds, tsb and several other banks that have not implemented their own, internal, entirely voluntary, code would have saved you from that one

First direct.The customer service 8s excelente.If you do need to phone you are spoken to by a real person quite quickly,no queuing.
If your husband wants to change transfers are now quick and easy.

Go to first direct

Santander were a nightmare when I opened my business account at the same time as getting married. Wouldn't let me bank cheques into our Santander joint account written to Mr and Mrs X without changing my maiden name despite the marriage certificate being produced. Then changed my surname on my business account application which was then rejected because I had no credit as Mrs Married Name. Had an argument with the manager about how I was legally entitled to use Mrs Married Name and/or Mrs Maiden Name. Eventually business account opened after a number of months and so many arguments. Did get a few hundred ££ compensation though after making a formal complaint.