Barclays Bank - A moderate rant.

[MATTBIN]

As many of you will probably know I recently got a job in Holland.
So I have a Dutch Bank account, had it since I was last here, it was converted to Euros a few years ago by the Dutch, no problem at all.
I brought some of that money back last time (7 years ago) and placed it into my UK Barclays account, a new one, based in Poole, in Euros. Seemed logical, no conversion costs and we'd be able to get it out and use it on our hols or whatever if we were back in Europe some time later. So far so good, it wasnt a lot of money just some of my earnings that I managed to save last time round.

So a few weeks ago I got the offer of working in Holland again, I asked Barclays to transfer 500 Euro from my Euro Poole account to my Dutch Euro account (not Barclays). I was advised it would take 4/5 working days and cost 20 GBP, seemed both slow and expensive given there was no conversion required. Whatever. A couple of weeks later I needed a much larger amount transferred to pay for flat rental/deposit/agents fees, we left loads of time for it to go through. It never arrived in time which meant I had to draw cash out in the UK and take it abroad in Euros in my wallet, not something I was particularly happy about.
Move on a couple of weeks and my rent is again due (I only paid two weeks previously as it was mid month) and we have been in France so couldnt check the situation regarding the transfer. I get to Holland on Monday, guess what, yep, still no transfer, its been 3 weeks, or 15 working days in Bankers terms. Apparently Poole never got the instructions last time around. So once again I have wads of cash in my wallet. We tried to get our local branch to sort it, they promised they would and get back to us today, we're still waiting, all we get when we ring up is an answerphone with a promise to return our call, they havent. Wife running round lie a blue arsed fly trying to get money to me so I'm not out on the streets by the weekend. No hotels available obviously and I only hope the landlady is understanding if I cant get cash from a cash machine, as it will be an 'unusual transaction' on my account if I am not careful, which results in a lock-out of course.

So apparently its a very difficult job to transfer some Euros from one Euro bank account to another Euro account, well it is if you use Barclays.
There has to be a better way, hang on isnt someone already using that catchline.

Tossers
Matt

[keith_henson]

sounds like HSBC being complete twats with me. I work for a danish company, but get paid in sterling. The money comes from the companies accounts, so no conversion rate required, yet HSBC charge me 6 quid a month for the privilage of having that money being paid into my account. w4nk3rs o_|/