Is Barclays Barking Mad? (Barclays Bank)

Member Name: anders616

Product:	Barclays Bank
Date:	17/06/09 (162 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good current accounts, seemingly more financially stable than the rest

Disadvantages: Limited online banking, frustrating sometimes, long winded approach to everything

Well First of all I would like to mention that I used to work for Barclays as a cashier so firstly I will tell you about my experiences

I started at 16 and was my first full time job. They put me at a branch even about an hour away even though there were several branches within 20 min. The Induction training (which was a 2 day course) was very good and welcoming, then I got transferred to my branch. At first the people were very friendly and welcoming however this was not to last. There was a set training programme, which the bulk lasted 6 months. But this never happened. The training my branch gave me was very staggered and didn't keep to my plan. I ended up working for 8 months and going through 2 months work of my plan. This was because the staffs weren't able to train me because they had to still do their regular jobs. They practically dumped me on the pod machine (proof of deposit [where the cheques are processed in branch]). When I did get on the counter I had little training and often sent to branches 2 hours away to receive this. This left me quite incompetent. Then the counter manager was wondering why I wasn't performing. Out of the 3 people who started at the same time as me I was the last to leave and I was only there just over 8 months.

Ok so that's my experience but now the bank.

Well I know the security is really good. The bank does take alot of precautions in order to stop fraud and theft with a complex but inefficient fraud dept but they do get the job done. I once caught a fraudster and when he returned to the branch we called the fraud dept and they were giving us mixed information, which was very time consuming, leaving him irritated and probably wondering why. Other than that though they were quite good (or there were some good fraudsters operating that we couldn't tell)

the products are quite good with accounts such as the additions plus (which I currently have) coming in at 14 pounds a month. For this you get several things such as £300 free overdraft, mobile phone insurance, breakdown insurance by the RAC, gadgets insurance for I think £2500 and many more features. This isn't their only current account though. They also do a £3 account which has the £300 free overdraft and 1 or 2 other bits. Don't forget though that if you go over your 0 balance without an overdraft then you'll get a hefty charge. Barclays is about £30. So it's definitely worth it. Also there are more expensive accounts which offer yet more. And if your wadded (£100,000 a year income) then you get extra special treatment with your own financial manager.

Home insurance as I remember it was quite reasonable and they now offer 10% discount online, but then again who doesn't nowadays. There are a variety of options what will suit your needs so I wont go into too much detail or ill be here forever but they do give you £25 towards switching fees if you current provider has one.

After taking over the Woolwich Barclays mortgages have always been quite reasonable but not many people want one at the moment. Currently they are offering interest rates of between 2.9 and 6.5% which may reduce after a while.

Currently if you have an old savers account with them you can look forward to a nice .1% interest rate, which is quite pathetic. However the highest interest you can get with a new instant saver account is 6% but it will drop to 3.03% if you make a withdraw from it in that month. My advice with savers: Always check your interest rate because new accounts come out, making the older one's interest bottom out.

Anyway that is just a selection of their products. If I mentioned them all id be here forever. If you want to have a browse here is their website.

http://www.barclays.co.uk/

Online banking from Barclays is really very limited. Basically all you can do is transfer money between your own accounts. I have heard with other banks you can do alot more than this so if you need a good online banking service then this isn't the bank for you.

Telephone banking is abit of a pain, but when you actually get through security it's functional. However it takes a few weeks to set up telephone banking before an operator will even speak to you. Then they give you this 5 digit number which is stupidly hard to read. If you get it wrong twice they have to send you another, meaning another few days before you have access. Extremely frustrating. I just ended up going to the branch to set up my standing order (which larger branches don't do at the counter, you have to go to a personal banker).

The branches themselves tend to have the atmosphere of an art museum and can sometimes feel quite awkward. Better not make a sound!

Barclays are good for the community. They donate millions a year to charities and sports organizations which im sure most people will be aware of (the sports side that is). However they are not that green (well not from branch view anyway) they use vast amounts of paper and only really have small paper recycle bins. However when I were there the cleaner threw them in the normal waste anyway which was just pointless. The Branch manager knew she did this yet did nothing about it but still forced us to use the bins.

Their shares seem to continuously go down but in the current financial climate it is understandable. However they still appear stable and unlike other banks don't seem to be struggling.

Overall I think that Barclays is a fairly decent bank but nothing special. But really all banks are the same. Some do better offers on 1 product and some do better on the other. Really there is no perfect bank. But something I can definitely say is that Barclays is generally a terrible place to work. I know there will be some people that disagree but most will agree massively.

Thank you for reading my review.

Summary: Fairly decent bank but nothing special