Barking Mad at Barclays Bank

[nglodnig]

My current registered address for Barclays UK (account holder for nearly forty years) is in Switzerland. I've temporarily changed it to my sons address who lives there but my attempt to get the country of residence changed is turning into a Kafkaesque nightmare. I rang the help line - no problem, just use online banking - which I did - but you can't change your country of residence there - go into a branch (10,000 km away and I visit the UK maybe twice a decade). I was asked if I could use the mobile app (which I haven't got) - nope, I can't register outside the UK.

 

Even then, I have to produce a utility bill IN MY NAME to prove my new address. As the house is in my wifes name (as I cannot own property in Thailand) everything is registered to her - which should make it simple to change HER address (it's a joint account). BUT, guess what - it has to be in English.  I offered house and medical insurance policies, even a will - nope only a lecky or phone bill will do. So, maybe I can start a mobile phone account in my name with our house address. I have registered a complaint - this is ridiculous. I don't expect much will come of my complaint though because Barclays are notorious in cancelling non-UK accounts - after more than thirty years with their credit card as soon as I paid off the balance they cancelled my cards.

[DrJack54]

Nothing to do with this forum and just another rant about banks. 

For once thinking your situation is down to your own fault.

[nglodnig]

Just now, DrJack54 said:

Nothing to do with this forum and just another rant about banks. 

For once thinking your situation is down to your own fault.

Thanks for the helpful advice ????  

 

As the last topic I read on this forum was about opening a Thai bank account I judged this to be a suitable forum and one many new (UK)  residents might encounter, which I believe is the purpose of the Thaivisa website?

 

Mea culpa, mea culpa - perhaps you could suggest the correct forum? Or wait for a moderator in their wisdom to move it somewhere?

 

"For once thinking your situation is down to your own fault." Still trying to un-entangle that one.

[Scott]

Moved.

 

[SteveK]

If you don't owe them any money, get ready for them to close your accounts and request a ridiculous amount of paperwork to retrieve your balances. Happened to a good friend of mine who sold his home in the UK.

 

Obviously they won't close the accounts if it's you who owes THEM money.

[nglodnig]

"Obviously they won't close the accounts if it's you who owes THEM money."

 

Good advice - don't pay off my overdraft then ???? 

[SteveK]

6 minutes ago, nglodnig said:

"Obviously they won't close the accounts if it's you who owes THEM money."

 

Good advice - don't pay off my overdraft then ???? 

Depends on whether you plan on going to the UK again.

 

If want an easy life and can afford it then pay it.

 

If you want to run the gauntlet and take the 0.1% chance that your debt gets sold on to a Thai debt collector who gives up when they find out you can't speak Thai - then go for it.

Edited February 3, 2020 by SteveK

[nglodnig]

6 minutes ago, SteveK said:

Depends on whether you plan on going to the UK again.

 

Absolutely zero plans on the moment but who knows what might happen in the future?My concern is that our UK pensions will start kicking in in the next couple of years and I would like a UK bank account for them to be paid in to. At the moment the account is pretty much dormant (but I pay in to it every month).

[SteveK]

3 minutes ago, nglodnig said:

Absolutely zero plans on the moment but who knows what might happen in the future?My concern is that our UK pensions will start kicking in in the next couple of years and I would like a UK bank account for them to be paid in to. At the moment the account is pretty much dormant (but I pay in to it every month).

pay it then.

[UKresonant]

Just leave your main address where it is, and just advise them you may be at the Thai address (secondary).

Do you maybe have a phone, set to UK play/apple stores, together with a VPN, set to a UK server... might work, worked on another UK bank app. (Çant remember if I needed SMS to UK sim or not).

If I get a moment ????, I might try the Barclays app....

(Doing the app dowloads was due to buying a new phone here).

[nglodnig]

20 hours ago, UKresonant said:

If I get a moment ????, I might try the Barclays app....

(Doing the app dowloads was due to buying a new phone here).

Thanks for this - good idea! I set my IPad up as a hot-spot and used a VPN to connect to the UK, then connected my phone to my IPad and installed the Barclays App. Brilliant - except Barclays will only accept UK Phone numbers - can't put in "+" or 00. Ah, well....

[stubuzz]

You can order a UK sim from Ebay and have it delivered to Thailand. 

[nglodnig]

1 minute ago, stubuzz said:

You can order a UK sim from Ebay and have it delivered to Thailand. 

OK thanks - I'll look into that.

[mirage]

I needed to change my country address with NatWest. Could only be done at my branch. I just sent them a letter via post, and all was fine.

[Saltire]

Would they accept a Certificate of Residence obtained from the British Embassy in Bangkok?

 

Just a thought.

 

I make sure my UK (Santander) bank account has 2 or 3 in/out transactons a month as, if they were to close it it would be very inconvenient, and probably impossible to open a new one with another UK bank.

 

Good luck.

 

[natway09]

They do not want or need you as a customer, living that far away they are not interested

[maprao]

On 2/3/2020 at 5:37 PM, nglodnig said:

Absolutely zero plans on the moment but who knows what might happen in the future?My concern is that our UK pensions will start kicking in in the next couple of years and I would like a UK bank account for them to be paid in to. At the moment the account is pretty much dormant (but I pay in to it every month).

While you are waiting  to fix this open an account in the the  Isle of Man. It comes with UK sort code. You can pay using direct debits.

Later have your pensions paid here .

 

Always try and keep 2 accounts out of Thailand as a back up.

 

Opening and maintaining UK banks accounts while not being resident is a nightmare 

[Bogbrush]

I fully sympathise with you - I have had an account with Barclays Isle of Man for a decade or more and they are a combination of incompetence and stupidity. I’ll give you an example - I had a large payment blocked to Kasikorn Bank (funnily enough, it was the 800,000 baht needed for an OA Visa). I received no advice of this, and only found out when I realised the payment had not been received. I queried why I was not told a payment had been blocked and was informed it was a ‘routine stop’ by bank security; when I pushed for an answer as to why I wasn’t informed of the stoppage, I was told that the security division has instructions not to send SMSs to non-UK mobile phones. Considering virtually everyone who banks with the Isle of Man presumably has offshore phones, this is an example of Barclays stupidity and incompetence.

 

Changing addresses and mobile phone numbers is also a Herculean challenge for Barclays who need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century; for a supposedly international banking service, they obviously have no concept of international travel and movement and the fact that people do change their phones and addresses on a fairly regular basis these days and should not be made to jump through hoops and provide all sorts of documentation which, living overseas, is not always easy to provide. It would appear that to Barclays, a customer is somebody there for their benefit, and not the other way around.
 

Having said all this, the fact that most of their top management and a lot of their traders have been designated as crooks and shysters over the last few years probably sums up the standard of probity at that place.

[denby45]

1 hour ago, maprao said:

While you are waiting  to fix this open an account in the the  Isle of Man. It comes with UK sort code. You can pay using direct debits.

Later have your pensions paid here .

 

Always try and keep 2 accounts out of Thailand as a back up.

 

Opening and maintaining UK banks accounts while not being resident is a nightmare 

Yes and no. The sort code is not a UK sort code as I found out recently when trying to open an account at a UK bank. They needed a back up bank sort code and as soon as I put in my Barclays IOM sort code it was rejected and I was informed that this sort code was not a UK bank sort code and so did not qualify.

Ouch.

[steve187]

On 2/3/2020 at 9:37 PM, nglodnig said:

Absolutely zero plans on the moment but who knows what might happen in the future?My concern is that our UK pensions will start kicking in in the next couple of years and I would like a UK bank account for them to be paid in to. At the moment the account is pretty much dormant (but I pay in to it every month).

open a transfer-wise border-less account, pay direct into that account and transfer to Thailand as  required

[madmen]

3 minutes ago, steve187 said:

open a transfer-wise border-less account, pay direct into that account and transfer to Thailand as  required

And they will show as international transfer with correct codes? 

[nglodnig]

Thanks for all the replies. Well, ask three different people the same question and get three different answers - and Barclays is no exception. First I was told use online banking - nope. When I complained about their procedure I got through to a customer service bod in the UK who told me all the ridiculous hoops I have to jump through. THEN, having also enquired on the Barclays Facebook messenger service, I was told use this simple form: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhome.barclays%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fhome-barclays%2Fdocuments%2Fmisc%2FFATCA%2FIBIM5033_WPB%20Overseas.pdf%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1kxu1Dz3fJgWTCMLVNnLaFZmsYc98eL07U6BRv7Ndej3n-E8yayG8qS04&h=AT1eQQ8c1vA-JJNbV3GdQH4kquryJBwDQk585yPNpqZbJNkgha-fDQv4bDDaGaGtFj_wjOcWeZis2xyk4AKkHpyQtriHQbYQTSDT9tNf0n3MpG1PGpdrmwSeJladAaw9fiU

 

And no mention there of any documentation to be provided. So I'm going to go down that route and see what happens.

[Jaggg88]

3 hours ago, natway09 said:

They do not want or need you as a customer, living that far away they are not interested

To comply with current money laundering laws having a customer such as you costs them more than they make so they often just close the account. I bank with First Direct (owned by HSBC) and they are telephone/internet bank. I can call them 24/7 and give my security details plus their system recognises my voice. All transactions can then be carried out verbally. I've never changed address so I don't know what would be required. They also supplied a security keypad (small enough to fit in your wallet) which allows me to securely log on to my account via the internet anywhere in the world. There are many internet/app based banks in the UK now so perhaps you could transfer your account to one of those - Transferwise, Starling, Monzo etc

[nglodnig]

That's strange, the link I posted is NOT the one they gave me originally. Looks like they edited their answer, so - three people, FOUR different answers. Way to go Barclays. Here's what they sent me in the first place and what I will send back.

CoA_Form.pdf

[Letseng]

On 2/3/2020 at 3:24 PM, nglodnig said:

"Obviously they won't close the accounts if it's you who owes THEM money."

 

Good advice - don't pay off my overdraft then ???? 

They charged us 22% on overdraft. Overdraft was created by their exorbitant admin fees. This was Barclays IoM.

[mshs]

On 2/3/2020 at 5:35 AM, nglodnig said:

My current registered address for Barclays UK (account holder for nearly forty years) is in Switzerland. I've temporarily changed it to my sons address who lives there but my attempt to get the country of residence changed is turning into a Kafkaesque nightmare.

Country of residence factors into their reporting.  Consider yourself lucky, some Americans have had their accounts frozen in neutral Switzerland pending a clearance from the IRS which the account holder has to obtain.  Oh, the poor <deleted>! 

[Phulublub]

On 2/3/2020 at 8:35 PM, nglodnig said:

My current registered address for Barclays UK (account holder for nearly forty years) is in Switzerland. I've temporarily changed it to my sons address who lives there but my attempt to get the country of residence changed is turning into a Kafkaesque nightmare. I rang the help line - no problem, just use online banking - which I did - but you can't change your country of residence there - go into a branch (10,000 km away and I visit the UK maybe twice a decade). I was asked if I could use the mobile app (which I haven't got) - nope, I can't register outside the UK.

 

Slightly confusing as to where your son lives...if in Switzerland per the sentence, then you dont need to change country, so will assume he lives in UK. 

 

To get round the "app needs you to be in UK" problem, use a VPN so that the downlaod sirte (and then the app) think you are in UK.  There are several decent free ones, or use a free trial from NordVPN or one of the other pay-to-use VPNs.

 

PH

[lagavulin1]

That happened to me. The way I got round the document was to get my yellow book translated. I had it stamped in Bangkok. Not heard a word from them since. 

Pain of course but I did not have a grand to go to UK. 

[nglodnig]

9 hours ago, Phulublub said:

To get round the "app needs you to be in UK" problem, use a VPN so that the downlaod sirte (and then the app) think you are in UK.  There are several decent free ones, or use a free trial from NordVPN or one of the other pay-to-use VPNs.

Thanks, tried that - no good, they insist on a UK phone number - which I have but the SIM card is the size of a large postage stamp and won't fit any (modern) phone.

[UKresonant]

3 hours ago, nglodnig said:

Thanks, tried that - no good, they insist on a UK phone number - which I have but the SIM card is the size of a large postage stamp and won't fit any (modern) phone.

I have a new Giffgaff sim sitting on the dining table back in the UK, if only I had brought it with me...???? They just push out to suit micro / nano...