Barclays - only self service on Saturdays nowadays - fucking annoying!

[AngryHedgehog]

Maybe I'm behind the times but I remember when I used to be able to pop into the bank on Saturday morning.

Lost my wallet today and was assured by Barclays I could withdraw cash in branch with ID or using the app. Thing is, I work Mon-Fri like most people so won't be able to get in tomorrow.

Checked online and 8/10 of my local branches are pop up 'Local' branches which is basically just a room in a library etc which doesn't offer cash services. The only two proper branches (both a fair drive away) only offer self service on a Saturday. I thought "oh well, I'll have to drive half hour into city centre" but that one's the same.

So basically I'm fucked until my new card arrives sometime next week. Got no food in house and had a busy weekend planned.

Maybe people just don't bank instore anymore, hence them removing this option, but it just seems useless for anyone that doesn't work close enough to go to a bank on their lunchbreak.

Is this just Barclays or is this the new standard? I'd probs consider switching after 20 years if it meant I could actually sort stuff like this on a weekend.

I hear you, if there are others much closer, but five branch closures later, it's reached a stage here where it takes almost as long to get to a Barclays with shorter service hours, a stressed 'greeter' trying to insist on machine service only, huge queues for a single cashier, staff available to sell product, but not to deal with account issues, and the latest issue: reticent to provide coin change for those of us who need it for machines.
I now have to drive to get to a bank so it's worth the bit extra to get to a Metro and have a better experience in a more helpful customer focused bank.

I’ve spent about a minute googling and can’t find anything about this (other than you don’t need to unlock for under £45, because you wouldn’t need to for a contactless card).

I also can’t see anything about ApplePay.

And NFC works at less than 5cm so your phone does need to be close to pay…

Instinctively everything about it feels safer and I can’t see anything from a quick google or on this thread that convinces me otherwise… but I would be interested to know if I’m missing something! I

s the security issue just if you lose your phone? Because it’s still safer than cash and equivalent to a debit card.

😆😆

My husband works in financial crime for a UK bank. This is not correct. Scammers target online payment but not Google/Apple Pay because of the encryption. I think you have misunderstood.

"Most banks haven’t had a counter service on a Saturday for over a decade."

You're mistaken about this, at least when it comes to Barclays. I live in a city of 200,000 people. Up until 2022 there were three Barclays branches that had a counter open on a Saturday.

They then closed two of the branches altogether in 2022 leaving just the main branch open. The main branch had a counter service on a Saturday up until about 8 or 9 months ago.

As i said I also work in a bank. I work a lot with the fraud department / financial crime unit. As they are constantly trying to prevent fraud.

So your husband is not the only person that works in financial crime.

Google pay/apple pay is classed as very high risk security in our bank.

Anyway we can move on now.

OP has found her bank card. Great.

Your friend is talking uttter bolloxks of course.

Even if he works in a fraud department in a bank?

I think he has more knowledge than you, a complete stranger who swears on the Internet.

Why on earth would you get that angry over banking?

Do you work in fraud in a bank? No. Then what do you know

Great outcome this time but take heed and protect yourself from this in the future. It’s entirely in your control and would recommend a back up account (or 3). Never have a single point of failure!

I'd just grab husbands card, he would grab mine. But if I was single other bank accounts would be sensible. I keep a cash float in the house too.