Letting Customers Walk Away (UK Banks)

[Hamlet]

I think that the main areas UK banks fail is that they forget who's money it really is, their lack of customer care, not one person in a branch can make a decision without having to refer it upwards, they still go about business in the same way they have always done & will not move forward with the times in order to comply with the changing needs of their customers.

[Scunner]

My bank are very good - First Direct. But even they do strange things sometimes. They ring me then tell me they need to ask me security questions first - they phoned me! And I answered!

Also, I pay off my credit card every month on the day it is due. I have a text message service which tells me at around 8am what is coming out and what came in. So when I see the credit card figure (a big minus), I transfer the money into my current account to cover it. The bank automatically pay off the credit card with this money I have moved into the current account. This I have done for years, since the text message service began and by the end of play that day all is square and balanced. A few months ago I got a call from the bank - early, before 9am, saying my credit card bill balance was now due and as there were insufficient funds, they may not be able to pay the bill in full as this would put my current account overdrawn.

I pointed out that I hadn't transferred the money yet and that the day was far from over yet. The girl had no concept of what I was saying at all, even when I told her to look at my account history on every credit card payment day for the last four years.

[KKOB]

My bank are very good - First Direct. But even they do strange things sometimes. They ring me then tell me they need to ask me security questions first - they phoned me! And I answered!

I get a call every month on my mobile from my credit card company. The first thing they say is that they have to ask me some security questions. I reply that I'm not prepared to give those details to a cold-caller unless they tell me my account number. They say they're not able to do that for security reasons so I tell them that they're wasting my time and theirs and we end the call there.

A few seconds later I get the same call on our landline and we go through the same script, with the same result.

I hear nothing more from them until the following month when we do it all again.

Mastercard - Priceless

[Hamlet]

My bank are very good - First Direct. But even they do strange things sometimes. They ring me then tell me they need to ask me security questions first - they phoned me! And I answered!

I get a call every month on my mobile from my credit card company. The first thing they say is that they have to ask me some security questions. I reply that I'm not prepared to give those details to a cold-caller unless they tell me my account number. They say they're not able to do that for security reasons so I tell them that they're wasting my time and theirs and we end the call there.

A few seconds later I get the same call on our landline and we go through the same script, with the same result.

I hear nothing more from them until the following month when we do it all again.

Mastercard - Priceless

I used to get very similar calls to both of the above, in the end I refused to answer any questions unless they answered the password that I told them to put on my account, strangely the calls ceased

[SuzzPuss]

Mmm...  Peter still hasn't got his account.  This all started in July.  Can that be normal?  The bank seems to think that it is.  Today they called to ask the address of our place in Ciftlik and what it's worth.  We don't live there and they know that so we're confused about why they need to know.  We answered and then they asked for our last three months bank statements and utility bills.  I guess things have got a lot more complicated here since we last opened an account but we're really astonished that it should take months and so much effort.