Barclays
Stranded without cash on holiday

I've been a Barclays customer for over 25 years and have noticed

that the service has got worse and worse. The straw that broke

the cammel's back though was when Barclays left me stranded without

any money for most of my recent boliday to Crete. I tried my

debit (Connect) card in an ATM in Stalis but got a "refer to card issuer"

message. I thought nothing of this - Stalis is a small village and probably

the network connections were down. A couple of days later I visited the

main city on Crete - Hiraklion where there seem to be even more banks than

on the Isle of Man or Jersey (or the Cayman's for that matter). First

one gives - "refer to card issuer", second one "refer to card issuer", third

one same. Now I'm starting to think that there may be a fault with my debit

card so my partner tries her Nationwide card (Note: Nationwide does not

charge their customers fees for foreign transactions!) - it works fine.

Undeterred I try another ATM and another and another...

until after a couple of dozen I finally give up.

Back at the ranch I decide to give the number Barclays have given me for

their call centre a ring to find out WTF is going on. Helpfully there

is a reverse-the-charge-anywhere-in-the-world number. Unhelpfully it

doesn't work (Note to Barclays: Greece is that funny shaped country

in the south east corner of Europe - turn right at Bulgaria). So I try

to give the other number a ring and guess what... yep the dreaded "choose 1 for ..

choose 2 for ... " messages. After a half a dozen menus I'm prompted to enter

my card number (doesn't sound very secure but WTH ... ) and guess what the

line goes dead. I try again this time with the "stolen card" line only

to be put on hold while the phone steadily eats up the last of my euros

at international call rates (to the UK... during office hours ...). Why do

Barclays charge customers to report stolen cars - are they punishing them?

Eventually I hang up in exasperation and the hotel owner, noticing my rather flustered

manner asks what it wrong. I explain the situation and she looks at the

bank card and with a look of deja vu says that "many people have had problems

with these cards, perhaps it is your bank"). You've got to hand it these

people - they didn't invent philopsophy for nothing.

Later on I'm drowning my sorrows in an (obviously cheap!) beer or two

and happen to recount my woes to the barmaid (bit of Dean Martin/Frank Sinatra

in the background please ...). Without prompting she says - "you're not with Barclays

are you, people have had problems all summer with getting money out of the ATM

with them".

So now the penny/euro has finally dropped. Barclays has been blocking the cash

withdrawls of holiday makers all summer leaving them stranded high and dry.

In light of this my partner and I scraped up the last of our euros and worked

out an emergency daily ration to see us through. No more evening meals, no car

hire, no trips out just a whole week and half of scrimping and saving all thanks

to Barclays. Welcome to the return of the student budget holiday - I'd have brought

a backpack and an InterRail pass had I known.

On return to blighty where at least Barclays have graciously allowed me to withdraw

my own money I came home to two letters on the doormat from "the bank that likes

to say no" (to cash withdrawls by its own customers). It turns out

that they had thoughfully decided to block my card because they thought it was

being used fradulently. How very considerate. Seems they've introduced a new

Barclays Fraud Detection service supposedly for my benefit but not actually got around

to telling me about it (perhaps they were too busy sending out unwanted

adverts for loans). Maybe Barclays assume that their customers never go

on holiday abroad or perhaps (because of the credit crunch) they don't want

to give up their sterling - who knows.

Anyway I'm currently chasing Barclays for compensation and I will let you

know how I get on once all the legal bits are tied up.

Moral of this story: if you are going abroad and don't want to use travellers

cheques get yourself a Nationwide account. Amazingly enough they do allow

their customers to withdraw their *own* money and they don't rip you off

with transaction charges like Barclays.

Company: Barclays
Country: United Kingdom
Region: England
City: Bristol

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