MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Barclays ‘worst bank for honesty and customer service’ says UK ‘Move Your Money’ rating
Founded in 1690 Barclays is among the world’s leading ten banks Barclays is the worst bank for honesty and customer service, according to an ethical scorecard launched Monday in the UK to guide those looking to switch their current accounts. The bank picked up just four out of 100 points in campaign group Move Your Money’s ratings, with the five biggest banks among the poorest performers in the 70 that were assessed.
The other high street giants, RBS, HSBC, Lloyds and Citibank, were also graded ‘red’ for having less than 25 points in the UK-based survey.
RBS including NatWest was the second worst performer in the scorecard with seven points, followed by HSBC with 18, Lloyds including Halifax with 21, and Citibank with 24.
Smaller current account providers topped the ratings, led by Cumberland Building Society with 89 points.
The scorecard comes alongside a YouGov poll that suggests 80% of consumers would be put off moving their money to a badly behaved bank, with more than half deterred by excess bonuses, high levels of complaints and involvement in criminal behaviour.
Laura Willoughby, head of Move Your Money, said Barclays was dragged down in its ratings by a high number of customer complaints, as well as its involvement in scandals such as Libor fixing and the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance.
She said: “Banks want you to think they have changed. Our scorecard shows that many have not.”
A spokesperson for Barclays in the UK said the bank was “disappointed” by the ranking. “We work hard to put our customers at the heart of everything we do and have taken active steps to ensure this happens.”
“Over the past year we have demonstrated this through the removal of sales incentives for staff and the transparent publication of our complaints data, with a clear action plan for tackling them.”
Barclays vowed to launch a Your Bank campaign this week, which will encourage more feedback from customers to guide its future strategy.
Move Your Money worked with Ethical Consumer to produce a ‘Switching scorecard’ for over 70 institutions using the five criteria of honesty, customer service, culture, impact on the economy and ethics.
Barclays has revealed it is facing a £50 million fine over claims it acted “recklessly” in its multibillion-pound bailouts from Qatar in 2008. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) accused it of agreeing £322 million of secret payments to Middle Eastern investors to secure their support for cash calls totalling more than £5 billion at the height of the financial crisis.
Barclays, which contests the FCA findings, said the fees relate to advisory services over five years.
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Read all commentsBarclays is no better in Spain. Over 8 years ago I purchased a Villa using Barclays in Spain for a mortgage. My Villa is ILLEGAL and I have 2 demolition orders on it. I asked the bank for my documents and was given everything EXCEPT the “tasacion” Initial Survey on my property. I had to get in touch with the EU before Barclays would give it to me. The Initial Survey CLEARLY SHOWS THAT MY PROPERTY WAS AND IS ILLEGAL.
Sep 18th, 2013 - 12:31 pm 0I sent letters to Mr Varley, Mr Diamond, Mr Agius ALL PAID OFF with obscene amounts of money. I also wrote to the BOARD and Mr Jenkins and Sir Walker informing them of my plight. Most of these letters were recorded delivery and I have not had a reply from anyone. Mr Varley did put a Mr Dixon and Mr Williams on my case but Mr Varley instructed an EMAIL to be sent to me informing me that any future correspondence would be ignored.
I must add that up to the I was denied access to the Initial Survey so my case had now the evidence I and my Barrister needed to proceed with court action.
I have a case lodged with the court in Orhuella but I am informed that it could take up to 8 years for it to be heard.
As I am nearly 71, have had over 8 years of hell which has severely affected my health and my wife left me because of my mood swings etc. and I believe this long wait for my case to be heard is against my Human Rights so I will be taking court action against Barclays Bank UK the parent/holding company.
I will be citing ; Mr Varley, Mr Diamond, Mr Agius, Mr Jenkins and Sir William Walker as senior directors of Barclays, by their obvious lack of interest in their Branch in Spain being CORRUPT, being involved in “black money” sales involving a tax fraud and that Barclays Bank Spain did advertise that they were registered with the F.S.A. number 120272 which doesn't exist. This advert cost me over a year to report and await their decision which was that they didn't cover Spain.
I will be coming to the UK armed with these documents. Remember Goliath?
HSBC should be on the same low level of Barclay's. My experience with HSBC os primarily on the international exchange and no-notice changes to accounts. On international currency exchanges, they rob you blind. If everyone complains about black market rates in Lain America, and the banks actually do the reverse, skimming 4 percent or so off the top, then why take steps to preserve official rates.
Sep 18th, 2013 - 03:46 pm 0They also “review” accounts periodically for changes in status, like “Premiere” or some lower level, and if changes are made, there is no advance notice, only additional maintenance fees at the end of the month.
Employees in Brazil routinely mislead customers on conditions of a “capitalization” and have no qualms about whether customers understood the deal or not. I could go on . . .
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