If you could wave a magic wand and improve your banking experience, tell Barclays what your wish would be and you could win a £200 voucher NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

As you know we have been working with Barclays and this week Barclays want to hear ideas from customers and non customers.

They say "we want customers to be at the heart of what we do, but we can only do this if we keep on listening to your thoughts and suggestions. That's why we've created Your Bank, a place where you can go to share whatever's on your mind about banking.

To celebrate the launch of Your Bank, this week we're asking the nation five key questions to help us get some answers on how we can make your banking better.

Before we put the questions to the nation, we also got 20 Mumsnetters together to have a think about how we can make everyday banking better for everyone - you can see what they had to say now".

View the Mumsnet Ideation session here

But they also want to make sure your voice is heard on all the other aspects of your banking, so once you've answered the questions (here) please also let us know (on this thread) if you could wave a magic wand, how you would improve your banking experience?

Everyone who adds a comment below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £200 John Lewis voucher.

thanks and good luck
MNHQ
PS closing date for prize draw: 16 Sept at noon

[Puppypoppet]

Inviting light bright branches with nice modern interiors would be a bonus - the 4 nearest branches of my bank (Lloyds Tsb) are really grim - no daylight, dark wood and horrid scruffy carpets.

I really dislike being bombarded with credit card, loan and mortgage offers. I already have a credit card with Lloyds but they still send through offers of another credit card with them albeit with a different name! It is just plain irresponsible! I also actively avoid going into branches wherever possible as I hate the hard sell.

[bigreddrum]

I am a business account holder and use it to make international payments online a lot. It would be great to be able to search my international payee list as I can with me UK payee list. I would also like the international payee list to be alphabetised.

I would like to be able to upload a list of bulk payments (I know this is possible with your internet business banking product but I would be charged £5 per payment!!! (which for service you are aiming at bulk users) is outrageous.

I would like to be able to put my payees into folders and label them (so for example STAFF DORSET / STAFF KENT / etc.. etc..

In fact I could write on this subject for hours as I am a heavy user but I'll spare everyone the boredom.

Just one more thing though - WHY OH WHY OH WHY can't I send someone in Europe some money and pay all the bank charges? It seems that I can only opt to pick up the Barclays charges. I have asked lots of Barclays people and they don't seem to know. If I want to reimburse expenses to a European staff member who has worked for us in the UK I have to ask them to go into their bank to tell me what the bank charges will be and then add it on to my payment. IT IS MADNESS.

Right I really will shut up now?.

[DontmindifIdo]

Stop sending so much junk to me, esp if I've turned off paper statements, there should also be an option to turn off any sales mailings too. All those letters to say that my terms have slightly changed, could they not be e-mailed?

That said, I had a fraud against my Barclaycard and the people I spoke to were all very lovely, and it was sorted very easily. I'm still upset that someone got a free kitchen with my credit card, bastards... I would like to have a facility that any purchase over a set amount had to have a call to the card holder before the payment would go through.

Oh and I would like to be able to call you in advance and say "I'm going to Canada! Let me use my card." rather than trying to get money out in Canada and you trying to call my mobile to see if it's me.

[HereIsMee]

I'd like to be able to backdate my bank statements to any time I choose using the account manager machine. I don't mind getting only quarterly intervals but the present system is limited to something like 6 months.

[Lizzy3001]

Please find a better way for customers to pay in money. Nearly all other banking transactions can take place from within the comfort of your own home.

Love the Lloyds security process, no card reader.

Decent kids savings account over the long term

[sarascompact]

My bank's phone operators can tell me what my balance will be at the end of business when that day's transactions have gone through. I'd like the online service to give me that too as it currently gives me only my balance and transactions up to the previous day. I'd also like the operators to be able to remind me where I spent the money which is currently going through the system instead of just telling me that, say, a debit card transaction of £6.99 is processing but not who it was paid out to.

If Barclays want an example to follow in terms of customer service they should look to the Coop. I've had nothing but polite, friendly, helpful, efficient and professional service from them for years and have never had cause for complaint.

[KnottedAnchorChief]

Scrap the card reader as others have said. I don't want to have to carry around a little plastic doo-da everywhere in case I need to transfer money or something online.

Stop trying to sell me products. If I want them I will research them and then ask for the appropriate one. I don't want sales patter online or in the bank.

[joanofarchitrave]

I have low expectations of my banking I guess, but I have to say that Lloyds have always provided good service for me and therefore I still bank with them despite their solid credentials in arms sales and investment in dodgy mining interests. Therefore also I don't recognise most of these issues (a card reader?? LLoyds did briefly issue a thingummy that you had to use to generate a random number and that was a nightmare, but it rapidly disappeared again). Where Lloyds don't suit me I tend to find a way round it, e.g. 0845 number for telephone banking was sorted via saynoto0870, inhospitable environment for children was sorted by opening ds an account at a building society, being flogged credit cards when I rang up to check my balance was dealt with by watching some crap on telly while they chuntered on, and then by internet banking.

Mainly I hate that banks appear to feel utter contempt for their customers, typified by the Barclays 'features' campaign, representing the 'give yourself a shiny' approach to banking. Lloyds were as bad, with their MoneyManager thing, which I had a go at; but then it turned out to have no category for donations or presents. What utter vileness that attitude represented, that giving was some sort of optional extra as opposed to a human necessity.

Quite a lot of issues listed above would be sorted by removing some of the purple plastic and polyester branding from branches, and simply rewarding the staff who treat banking clients like rational beings (adult or child). You do find staff like this, but do their employers value them? My relative, an experienced legal professional, stopped working for a bank after she was required to flog clients insurance, despite this having nothing at all to do with her job, and despite her sky-high client satisfaction and retention rates.

[Turnipvontrapp]

Less Junk mail post.

Like the idea of a coin sorter machine for kids.

Alerts for when you are getting close to £0 so you don't get charged.

[AFishWithoutABicycle]

I would like not to be charged 1 pound a day for an arranged overdraft. I would like to be able to switch my a/c easily. I would like to continue to have a good online banking system. But above all else I'd like a bank you can ring and get to speak to someone.

[AndThatsWhatIThinkOfYou]

no more bank charges!!

[NonnoMum]

I'd like...

a decent interest rate on my current a/c (or ANY rate)...
a decent interest rate on my savings a/c

and a children's account with one of those little booklets, so that when they get to age 8 they can pay in their pocket money and take it out. No cash cards for children please.

UK call centres
Town centre branches

[williaminajetfighter]

Love your app!

£8 charges for every direct debit that doesn't go through seems absurd. Even billed twice if the same one tries to get put through twice. That seems to me something that could be changed.

Bumpf in the mail promoting other services. A waste of time and money.

[ILoveAFullFridge]

Bank accounts for children where the parents have full control over the account and can gradually relinquish control of various aspects to the child.

Stop sending me junk mail!

[VestaCurry]

I find the Barclays card reader strangely antiquated and would like to have a code delivered via my mobile. As long as my mobile has a secure pin for access before doing this, I could see it working.

I really like the text messages from Barclays, have saved bank charges because of them :)

[ToomuchIsBackOnBootcamp]

Saturday opening ... Or maybe early one morning, like 8am for people on their way to work. My local bank is only open till 4.30 apart from a Thursday .. When it's 5.30. Not helpful for people who are still at work at 5.30...

[NotDead]

1. stop taking charges out from the main fund just because you have access to the main fund. It erodes trust. If you asked a pal to look after £100 and they had their bloody fingers in it all the time, you wouldn't give it to then again (rbs and halifax take note!). invoice charges separately and you'd see which ones customers felt ok about and which ones erode t h e relationship.
2. all this id stuff is a pain. If you lose all id its impossible to get even £20 from your own account even if you can pass all telephone security and hand mgr the phone. set up a security check for customers phonebanking style for these situations please!

[pussinwellyboots]

I already have phone back service rather than one of those little card readers which is good as it saved me loosing it! I like having a local branch to talk to when problems arise.

I'd also like the point to recurve a free daily text balance of my account.

[littlemonkeychops]

I'd also like more upfront interest rates, to find out the rate i'm getting first i have to check the names of my different accounts/isas, then search my bank's website to try and discover the current rate. I'd like it to be clearly shown when i log in.

[Dylanlovesbaez]

I would like cheaper calls to banks and more helpful staff.

[littleducks]

I really like the mobile app, but it seems to have disapeared from the App Store. Others on the Barclays Facebook page appear to have the same issue and Barclays said it was being fixed, but that was weeks ago. What's going on?

I asked in branch but they said it was fine and they were using it

[Kerosene]

The little calculator/pin number machines are a complete ball-ache to use. I can't be the only person who has massive difficulty reading the screen, they're too easy to misplace when you need them and they feel like security theatre, rather than actual security.

Better opening hours. My local RBS is open from 9:30-4:30, and I don't work in town, but I do walk past the branch at 5:15. I'm just trying to give you more money! Please don't ask me to take an afternoon of work to do so. Also, a little flexibility would be nice - I used to work near a Barclays branch, and needed to change my home address, but they couldn't do it there because of reasons, and I'd have to go to the other branch (in a different part of town). I cancelled the credit card instead.

Better apps. The reason I stay with RBS is that their app is actually good. Checking my balance, making payments, transferring money between my accounts, not a problem. I also get weekly balance texts, and alerts when my account is over/under a certain value. I left the Co-op because their web banking was a pain, and I wish CapitalOne would allow me to pay them via the app in the same way as I can on the website.

Most importantly, discover a little humanity. Actual humanity, rather than an inviolate script handed down from head office. I was in some serious financial trouble not too long ago, and the person I had to call from the Lloyds branch was so unremittingly nasty that I broke down in tears. It doesn't look good to have weeping customers in the middle of your busy branch. I was going to have to declare myself bankrupt, but I didn't have the funds to do so. By chance, a fairly senior member of staff saw me and we worked out a plan, which is what I was asking of the hell-creature on the phone. I didn't have to declare myself bankrupt, and I'll be debt-free by Christmas, because that woman had some humanity, and took the time and risk to exercise that humanity. You don't often hire stupid people - trust them to do the right thing for you and your customers, and you'll do better as a business.

[Saltire]

I don't bank with barclays. however what I would like to see with my own bank is that option to ring the branch your account is held at and speak to soemone there. All this faffing around with calling call centres annoys me. Secondly, I'd like cheques paid in immediately or within 1 day, why oh why does it take 5 working days for a cheque to clear?
and the option to transfer money in our out of my sons accounts via online banking. At the minute I can't do it that way and have to ring up, and get put on hold for 5 minutes, then transferred to another dept to do it.

and finally - no matter what time of day or night I call my bank they are always " experiencing a very high volume of calls" what, even at 2am?

[ShatnersBassoon]

YY to £5 notes dispensed from cash machines. It would be very handy for most people (fivers are too rare), and a huge help for those who like to take out exactly what they need.

[nulgirl]

Get rid of the requirement for separate passwords/ details for telephone and internet banking. Why do I need to register separately for telephone banking. I do almost everything online but am not able to contact anyone by phone as it is a different login details/ password etc.