Two recent problems with Barclays. And you?

[slackademic]

1. I logged in to the bank on my Windows laptop to pay some money from our joint current account into a savings account I have at another bank and to do the same for my wife - same amount to the same place we both have she savings. The first payment went through fine - I had to use the PIN sentry app on my Android phone to copy a number from the banking website on the laptop into the phone app and then copy a number back from the phone app and enter it into the banking website to make the payment. I could see straight away that the payment (several thousand) had immediately been deducted from our current account. I then tried to do the same thing for my wife - it all seemed to go through fine - no errors on the banking website or in the app - I copied the numbers across both ways - laptop to phone them phone to laptop but I noticed the balance in the current account has not changed - it should have gone down by a could if thousands. It hadn't. I want sure what was going on. I attempted the same 5 payment twice again and it seemed like the payment was not being made yet I had no errors. It turned out that none of the payments into my wife's account had gone through yet Is had no error messages.

I tried to talk to the back via the chat facility on the laptop but that is just an obstructive bot that lets you going round in circles and gives you no help. I then tried Apple messages as I also have an iPad. That also kept me going round in circles having to go through security providing last 4 did of my 16 digit card number, DoB, post code etc and then timing out either after a couple of responses or none at all. I then tried Twitter and didn't seem to get any response until later in the evening when they said they could ring me - so I asked them to. They didn't until I reminded them a while later. Meanwhile I found I had been locked out of my account and could not log in

I had a conversation going on for a very long time trying to find out what was going on - nearly 2hrs. For some as yet unexplained reason, the phone app deliberately started generating incorrect PIN sentry numbers - this is a deliberate ploy Barclays say they use so that transactions do not complete... forcing the customer to contact the bank. I still have no explanation why this happened and why I got no error messages or messages telling me what was going on. I've filed a complaint FWIW.

To resolve them problem I had to uninstall the app on my phone and reinstall and re registry which meant getting an activation code from Barclays. What a PITA! Anyone else every encountered a similar problem or has to reinstall their app?

1. Second problem. Same day. I am buying something from abroad. They want paying in Euros. I could make the payment through Barclays and pay their currency conversion charge but it's cheaper to go through Wise - I have an app to do that. They are a large, reputable, long established banking organisation that specialises in currency conversion at competitive rates. I have used them before with Barclays. I pay the seller through Wise - this means getting the sellers IBAN number and other banking details. I make the payment then go to my bank to pay Wise. I am actually making a payment in GBP from Barclays to my account at Wise and they do the currency conversion and pay the seller. I've done this a handful of times with Barclays and Wise without problem. This time Barclays held up the payment of just over £2k for additional fraud checks. I've never had this before and want sure what I needed to do - whether they would do checks behind the scenes and then approve it without me needing to do anything or whether I would have to ring them or... no idea. The fraud prevention team rang me back in the morning. I didn't want to speak to anyone ringing in - Is be giving personal details to possibly a scammer and there is no way the caller, even if they are Barclays can give me information about my account to convince me that they are Barclays - they'd need me to give them original info first before they could tell me anything to confirm who they are... anyway I rang them back. In spite of answering all the on line questions during the process of paying Wise - Barclays wanted to know all about what I was buying and who from and why etc they were wondering if I was being scammed or attempting something illegal ( I was buying a guitar made in Europe)... finally they agreed I could go ahead - I would have to attempt the payment again and it should go through. Later the same day I tried to put the payment through and it got blocked again! I had to ring them and go through the same process of explaining what I was doing with someone completely different to get them to approve the payment and let it go through - what a FPITA. They asked - had I seen the thing I was buying in person or just photos? No I had demoed the exact same guitar at a dealer and decided to buy direct and not from the dealer. Has this happened to you? I feel it is so invasive and disruptive. The time I've wasted with Barclays this weekend and the torment of trying to sort everything out. I'm seriously going to look at switching everything to First Direct for instance - it had really angered me - all this hassle attempting to spend or move my own money.

Recommendations? Comments?

I've just wasted nearly 2 weeks trying to open a joint account with Barclays. My youngest is revising Kafka for his upcoming German A-level. This morning trying to get the next steps done with the bank was feeling decidedly Kafka-esque.

Gave up on the joint account and used the app to open an individual account. Except the app stalled halfway through. Opening it online meant going back into the branch to leave a signature, which will be uploaded and the account available in "a few days".

We actually want to open a foreign currency account to assist with transferring an inheritance. Apparently all transactions on foreign currency accounts, open or pending, are currently paused due to a regulatory review.

We're now looking at/for other options.

@HalfSiblingsMadeContact disappointing isn't it when an you are trying to do is give them your business. I can say that I opened a Starling account within 15 mins of downloading the app and about the same for Atom bank where we have some savings. You need to takes photos of some ID e.g. drivers licence or passport and the Atom one likes you to have the option to log in using both face ID or voice ID (as well as a passcode) so you have to take a selfie and record a security sentence but in both cases - if you have the info at hand you can open an account in 15mins. Startling is great.

I've been with Barclays since 2001. I have a travel wallet - when the GBP to Euro conversion rate was last at €1.22 to the pound I converted a couple of thousand into Euros and put it into this Barclays Travel Wallet - basically when I use my Barclays debit card abroad it will give me the option of paying in Euros from the travel wallet - I don't have to pay in Pounds and accept the prevailing (currently lower) conversion rate. I haven't used it yet - it will be fine for posting in supermarkets and at petrol stations BUT it that money I have in Euros can't be used to buy things over there internet from Europe - it's only use is when you present your plastic card at as terminal... which is not what I always want. I sometimes want to be able to help my sister out who lives in Europe - I don't really know the best way to do this - I'd prefer to perhaps put some money on a gift card in Euros that she can spend as and when she wants.. I'm just not sure if they're is an economical way to do that. I use the XE app and have an alert set in it to notify me the next time the exchange rate goes back up to €1.22 - that's when I would think about converting some pounds to Euros that I can put aside to give her when the situation arises e.g. birthdays - she's always been very generous with me over the years. I'll be interested to know if you find a foreign currency account. I'll have to look into what Wise offer - I think they do a card of some sorts - I think Mondo make charges on transactions on their travel cards when they are used that are even more expensive to use at weekends - there is still a charge every time they are used during the week. The Barclays Travel Wallet could not be added to our joint account so I had to create a separate account on my name only just to have one - were have always only had one joint account - It's only in the past couple if years we've each opened Atom savings accounts. The reason the travel wallet can't be on a joint account is something to do with money laundering although I'm not really sure how or why - I faintly know what laundering is - but don't really understand it especially with respect to a joint account.

I'm going to look at opening a First Direct account probably/possibly and moving everything out of Barclays. It's a financial dinosaur.