Barclays going at it again. Account on credit, and returned cheques

I don’t normally insult or use swear words, but I think Barclays deserve to be called Bastayrds out loud.
The reason is no other than the fact that the Bastayrds did it again. A while ago I had a go for their twisted ways of playing the hours in a day and poor product knowledge at [...]

On how not to run a bank, don’t trust Barclays online banking to work every day

There was a time when if your competition made a fool of themselves, you would storm in and get their customers. Market mistakes translated into a drop in market share.
But that was in the old days, my friend. We have reached such a level of mediocrity, that not only businesses don’t learn from their own [...]

On HSBC fighting ferociously against online banking convenience

Hobbes, I guess by now you must know I try to keep my paws away from the planned incompetence and limitations of nowadays branch banking.
In a number of occasions I have denounced how by planned sheer incompetence banks are pushing us towards online and telephone banking while making online and telephone more and more difficult [...]

On Barclays customer services trying to mend bridges? There are no bridges to be mended, just apologise and refund your fees

A few weeks ago I wrote what was then the latest of my bank problems (On Barclays profiteering…)
That very day, I tried to send them my complaint using their disastrous online form. For some reason I couldn’t work out (probably the length of my letter?) I couldn’t send it, so I just wrote that, that [...]

On Barclays wasting my time and its shareholders’ money, the squeaking chair gets the oil but at what price?

Today I received another phone call from an “unknown number”. As I said yesterday (On Barclays customer services trying…), I do not normally pick up phone calls from people who’d rather keep their identity anonymous, specially if they are from a bank (what are they scared of anyway, their own customers contacting them?.)
Not surprisingly, M. [...]

On Barclays profiteering from honest customers using their 24/7 rule and the ‘returned payment’ chain

Hobbes, seriously, the banking system in the UK get away with so much that once they put themselves in the spotlight as brainless individuals of dubious IQ as they have, we should move to regulators (SEC? FSA? even worse hollow heads than the bankers themselves), and then get rid of this politicians who, against public [...]

On Barclays scavenging Lehman’s corpse and tasty entrails

Hobbes, Bob Diamond did it again. Buy on dips, sell on rallies, they recommend you, and it seems that we are enjoying the mother of all deeps. AIG, Lehman Bros, HBOS, you name it, the castle of cards is being blown away by the winds of change. Well maybe the lack of spare change.
Why get [...]

On searching the holy grail of decent banking and Barclays blowing its chance (II)

Hobbes, guess what, today the thinking minds at Barclays honoured me with another £35 refund on fees charged due to their illogical system of not paying direct debits unless having money in the account at the same time, not the same day.
I am no fool, I know that the squeaking chair gets the oil, but [...]

On searching the holy grail of decent banking and Barclays blowing its chance

Here we go again, another month another banking trouble. When I first moved to the UK, I never thought that banking could be an issue. Surely UK plc is a sophisticated and state-of-the-art bunch, let along their financial industry, with their City and worldwide banking mammoths.
But I was 180º wrong, and I cannot yet believe [...]

On online banking fraud and Barclays useless answer

Ever since Barclays decided to introduce the PINsentry gadget as a means to reduce online fraud, I thought it was not one of the smartest business ideas you have ever taken.
The bank happily informs us on their website:

We have developed PINsentry in response to today’s increasing security challenges. PINsentry works by building in extra levels [...]