In Training: A story of two banks: Part Four

A story of two banks: Part One
Part Two
Part Three

This is one woman's story of struggle and hardship... in trying to open a bank account in the United Kingdom... before her husband deploys...
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So okay, Nikki did call us back to let us know that I was added to Royal's account, but because I had no U.K. credit history I was declined a card. Pete could downgrade his card, or we could wait three months and apply again.

We decided to try again at the 3 month mark - Royal needs all the benefits he gets from the card he has now, downgrading would not be good - what Barclays was offering was not good enough.

Earlier we'd visited a different bank who would not accept my proof of address and were told to return when we had the 'correct' documentation. We could either bring in a utility bill, or the Barclays bank statements. We ordered the statements right away and they said it would take a week for them to arrive. After a week of not receiving them, the bank guy said to go ahead and try to get an account open for Royal, and then we would add me later.

Royal had to bring in 3 months worth of bank statements (these did not have my name on them) but these were not good enough because he didn't bring the second page -- the bank wanted to see his salary listed. So we offered a pay slip instead, which the guy said should be just fine. He would call us when he found out if the application went through.

No call. We called him, he hadn't heard anything. He'd give us a call in a few days, surely it wouldn't be longer than that. A week went by, we called him. Nothing so far, possibly because of the bank statement issue, but don't worry or bring them in 'cause we should be fine. I call a week later and am told that they are signing up a lot of accounts now and it must just be we're in line.
Now this is getting ridiculous.
I'm having a harder and harder time keeping Royal from going to bank and slapping this guy. And vice versa.
A couple days later Royal gives the guy a call around 2:30 in the afternoon and surprise! the guy got a call earlier that morning (so much for 'I'll call the minute I know because I know how important this is') saying Royal's application was declined probably because of bad credit. Royal doesn't have bad credit, Royal has great credit. Well that's just it isn't it.

This is the week of Easter now, if you can believe that. We call the bank to get an appointment with this guy - he's unavailable. Same with the bank manager. Royal even asked if there was anyone available, but alas, no.
We sat down and wrote a scathing letter to both the guy and the bank manager and said (among other things) that we expected to see proof of bad credit at an appointment we booked (with the bank manager) when we dropped them off. We also got the name and address of her superior as well.
We didn't hear anything until our appointment that next week.

We sat down with the bank manager who apologised over and over again for the guy's behavior regarding our account - or lack thereof. But there was really nothing she could do because we hadn't given the correct information... that we didn't know we had to give. She asked what we could do to resolve this? Uh, give us a damn bank account. Yeah well. She said she couldn't give us proof exactly, but that we could try again.
She said that the reason might be that their system 'randomly' flags applications to check for more information. But that she does see a lot of military people get flagged because of their moving around a lot (they take 5 years housing history). What... military discrimination? Why don't they ask for military I.D. then.
We said this was bang out of order, that Royal was leaving within 6 days and I had practically no way to access money. We didn't let her get away with anything.

We decided to try again for the basic account but that we were to be told everything that was happening when it was happening. And we wanted it done yesterday. She said okay.

The next DAY she called to let us know the account was declined again. Royal was already downtown so he stopped by and found out that they'd put us in for the extra account, not the basic. Sigh. Royal must have said or done something right because 30 minutes after that he had a bank account! Now, just have to add me or the whole process was in vain.
So we right away take up my proof of address, only to have the lady say she'll need to call and see if it would work. What in the name... don't they do this all the time or am I not standing in a bank? By that time it was too late to call on a Friday, so they'd get to it first thing on Monday. The Monday of this week.
Luckily they did accept me and our cash cards should be arriving any day now. Amazing what you can get done when you stand up for yourself.
Royal left me with £60, so that's all I have until this card comes through!

There it is folks: A story of two banks.

Comments

You know, you're an amazing woman to be this calm! Poor both of you--you, thinking of upcoming expenses, and Royal, trying to make sure you've got provisions. Argh!

You _will_ notify us all when you can confidently access your money, won't you? It'll be an international holiday!

Posted by: Goalie | April 22, 2007 at 07:59 PM