Barclays Stockbrokers move to Smart Investor?

[xeny]

I've a relation who today confirmed that their transfer out had completed. They started the the transfer process in late July, so ~10-11 weeks.

I think that was before the real rush to escape started, so it may now be worse, or the deluge may be starting to abate.

[wilwak]

It’d be interesting to know who people have transferred to....

I look after accounts at iWeb and HL for family members.

The spreads quoted on both are far wider than Barclays. Wasn’t at all impressed with the HL interface. iWeb is ok but feels a bit basic.

I’ve opened sharedealing accounts with IG and AJBell.

IG feels the same as the Spread Betting and somehow feels more risky than a straight broker.

The one that immediately seemed the best and more comparable to the old Barclays platform was A J Bell.

I’m very nervous about making a transfer that makes my entire portfolio untraceable for 10-12 weeks!

[Jon39]

Was very reluctant to even try making telephone contact.
Any automated answering system, and being told you are in a 45 minute queue, just makes my 'blood boil'. I avoid such frustrations.

By careful timing of my first attempt and luck probably, amazingly the call was answered immediately by a human.
Interestingly, he said he was in Sunderland (I think), and was taking 'overflow calls'.
Perhaps Barclays are actually trying to do something, in reaction to the mess they have created.

Oh, and the title 'Smart Investor' is being used for their new scheme, because they are now very aware, that their long-standing smart investors are moving away from it. _

[wilwak]

I made a formal complaint.

1. Dividends are slow to be applied to accounts
2. Online Support Chat is showing as ‘Not Currently Avaliable’
3. Online Support Secure Messaging just produces an error.
4. Telephone Support Lines are suffering long wait times.

I received a written letter today....

1. Dividends are reflected on accounts within 10 working days which is in accordance with T&C’s and also FSA requirements.
2. Online Chat does work.
3. Secure Messaging does not produce error messages.
4. We have transferred 250,000 accounts to Smart Investor. Long call wait times are to be expected at this time.

They hope that these answers satisfactorily resolve my complaint.

Ok. So now I’m furious.

I was willing to give Barclays time to sort this out but their response is totally dismissive of me.

Appalling.

[Jon39]

DISGRACEFUL.

Their replies to you, would appear to confirm there are idiots running the show, who just don't care about their customers, most of whom will soon to be ex-customers. The staff won't be needed at all eventually.

They think dividends being credited 10 days late is acceptable, simply because It complies with some sort of rule. Why then for 20 years, has the same firm been crediting them immediately (on the payment dates)?

They cannot answer the telephones because they say, they have transferred 250,000 accounts.
Those accounts are exactly the same accounts, that they were looking after before, and answering the telephones promptly.

I wonder whether the whole administration has been moved away from Glasgow. The staff there did an excellent job, so what has happened to them? Do you know?
If it is still in the same office, then presumably the new duff computer system has completely overwhelmed and demotivated the employees.

There is so much publicity about this fiasco, that the board of directors must be aware if it. HL even referred to the problems of a competitor, in a public statement about opening many new accounts. No sign of any corrective action being taken though. Presumably Barclays directors are not bothered.

I don't bank with Barclays, but was with someone recently who was using a self service statement machine. The software on that was hopeless too, because a one month back statement was impossible to obtain. An employee was then asked for help, and he could not obtain the statement either. An isolated incident perhaps, but quite a coincidence. Maybe the whole bank is in a mess. Certainly their own share and dividend performance has not been good for a long time.

Edited by Jon39 on Monday 16th October 20:47

[wilwak]

I think if they issued an apology to customers it would help.

Had I received an apologetic response to my complaint with a promise to improve things then I would have been quite understanding and forgiving.

I tried to use chat and secure messaging yesterday. Both failed.

On a plus note, after 12 working days, I ve just received the proceeds of the tender offer. A relief! It was settled on 29th September and I receive payment on 17th October. :-/

[Jon39]

It was more, you are a liar, than we are sorry.

In the past they have been excellent, when dealing with corporate actions. Letters sent very promptly and accurate too.
With my mirrored certificated holdings, I have always been able to watch how they handled those matters.

The transactions can on occasions be quite complex. While I still remain with Barclays, it will be interesting to see how they cope from now on. Judging by present form, do you think they have any employees left, who even know what a rights issue is ? A half months delay, as with your tender offer, and the rights take up deadline could be passed.

A shambles.

[wilwak]

The other crazy thing is that my wife has had to give her debit card to me following the change.

I used to have access to all her accounts via my login. That is no longer possible.

So, I have to use her debit card to log in and manage her accounts.

I now have to constantly have with me our two debit cards and the chip reader gadget.

My wife no longer has a Barclays debit card to carry. Laughable!

[Jon39]

Are the chip readers only used by ISA customers, who also have Barclays bank accounts?
There would not be any Barclays debit cards in use otherwise.

If you intend to remain the customer of the 'Smart'? Investor, could your chip reader and debit card problem perhaps be resolved, by closing your bank accounts ?

I only recently learnt about access to another family members ISA being possible, from this topic.
Won't say what my arrangements might have been.

I feel they could perhaps be right, to be cautious about this aspect. Nothing to do with you, but say a marriage separation suddenly began, and one spouse sold all the others holdings. Barclays presumably would have written authority for the activity, but they could still be drawn into quite a rumpus.

[fido]

I've given up with them .. haven't a clue why Barclays have changed everything .. it was run a million times better under Bob Diamond.

They've now sent me a letter about MIFID compliance so I will ignore it as they will then close my account by default. It was the easiest route!

[Jon39]

fido said:

They've now sent me a letter about MIFID compliance so I will ignore it as they will then close my account by default. It was the easiest route!

Many ex-Barclays Stockbrokers clients have very little trust in their new arrangements. Therefore there is no telling what they might do. Could they possibly just sell all of your holdings without your instructions, come the MIFID deadline ?

Edited by Jon39 on Tuesday 14th November 17:36

[env]

I have received 6 A4 letters in the post from Mr Alistair Thaw telling me my transfer out has now been completed.

Sadly, they forgot to transfer the cash and the SIPP account to the new provider.

This makes me think I made the right decision. Check your accounts!

[wilwak]

It’s now a couple of months further on.......

Barclays Smart Investor remains a big step backward from the old Barclays Stockbrokers site but I’m getting used to it and the gremlins seem to have been sorted out. It’s nowhere near as easy and quick to use as the old site and doesn’t have the resources that the old one did. I also really miss having a dealing facility. It’s a real pain having to deposit funds before trading only to find that the price has moved or I can’t buy the quantity that I wanted to. I then have to wait a week to withdraw the same funds.

I decided to try some of the other online Stockbrokers so opened accounts...

IWeb. Very quick and easy to use. Wider spreads than Barclays and doesn’t trade in VCTs so no good for me.

HL. No slicker than Barclays and wider spreads.

A J Bell. No better than Barclays and wider spreads.

I G Index Dealing. Easy to use but crazy wide spreads. Also dividends take the longest to arrive. When asked they said they have to wait for the info from their broker. I thought they were a broker?

So, in conclusion, whilst it’s not a patch on the old platform, I’m staying with Barclays.

I think they’ve changed from being a proper stockbroker to being simply a basic online budget dealing facility. With the old system if I tried to place a large trade I had a call from a real person within minutes trying to negotiate it. They really were slick brokers. Not any more. Just a machine.

[env]

I ended up moving to Charles Stanley direct - good service and much like the old stockbrokers one... really set up for equity holders. Customer service is exceptional, much better than Barclays Glasgow centre even.

The transfer out of Barclays has not been smooth - check your dividend payments and holdings in non vanilla things - mine were wrong and this has delayed the transfer. Barclays has moved to and underlying fund platform and for me it is still not working the way I need it to.

Moving my family and wife's account once they have settled down and transfer times are back to "normal"

[wilwak]

env said:

I ended up moving to Charles Stanley direct - good service and much like the old stockbrokers one... really set up for equity holders. Customer service is exceptional, much better than Barclays Glasgow centre even.

The transfer out of Barclays has not been smooth - check your dividend payments and holdings in non vanilla things - mine were wrong and this has delayed the transfer. Barclays has moved to and underlying fund platform and for me it is still not working the way I need it to.

Moving my family and wife's account once they have settled down and transfer times are back to "normal"

Thanks for the tip. I’ll take a look at Charles Stanley Direct.

All very frustrating indeed.

I dread commencing a transfer. I agree that it’s best left until things calm down!

Edited by wilwak on Sunday 31st December 16:19

[wilwak]

Ok. So I decided that IG Index Broking wasn’t for me. Wide Spreads and very slow dividend receipts. Their spread betting is excellent but not so keen on the dealing.

On 4th January I initiated a stock transfer from IG to my main account at Barclays Smart Investor.

Initiated online in my Barclays account and mailed in the signed authorisation form same day first class.

One week later I get an email asking me to please mail in the form. I phoned them and they said it hadn’t been received. Could I send again? I did.

It’s now nearly a week later and they still haven’t received the form so I’ve sent another today. The third.

Blimey! Is it Royal Mail or Barclays?

The second one I sent tracked and signed for but Royal Mail are having technical problems so the tracking just shows a ‘system error’.

I was beginning to think that Barclays had put the worst behind them. Maybe not.

When I phoned up customer services the adviser seemed quite astonished that I was transferring ‘in’! It was as if he’d never dealt with an ‘in’ before.

So, hoping attempt three may actually get the transfer moving! I’m not holding my breath.

[millen]

I've been very happy with Charles Stanley Direct for my SIPP for the past 5 years. Platform reliable and easy to navigate. A couple of less popular instruments (preference shares for income) weren't tradeable online but they charged me the online rate to deal by phone. Corporate actions etc timely.

Actually the SIPP administrator is James Hay but CSD are one of their direct investor platforms.

As for Barclays, still trying to decide whether to transfer out. I was about to open an IG account but talk of poor spreads is putting me off. Barclays platform seems slightly more stable than in September, but it's still very easy to get logged out, especially when you have two accounts with them. I made a partial cash transfer from my Barclays ISA to a Relendex ISA in October - that simple transfer took a full 5 weeks to transact! What happens when you instruct them to make a full transfer of stocks? Do they give advance notice of a date from which you'll be locked out of trading? I thought I heard somewhere that different lines of stock, funds etc can have different delays depending on how automated the registrars (??) are.

DeGiro looks interesting as an alternative to the trad UK online brokers, or of course the long established InteractiveBrokers https://www.degiro.co.uk/products-and-markets.html

[env]

What happens when you instruct them to make a full transfer of stocks? Do they give advance notice of a date from which you'll be locked out of trading?
[/quote]

They move lines at a time... my transfer started a few weeks after the upgrade, 3 months later they are still moving certain stocks in my ISA to the new provider.

As for my SIPP they seem to be ignoring it completely. I have given up on calling them.

[traxx]

As its that time of year to start thinking about tax returns

Any idea where on the Smart Investor website you get the old tax certificates - they used to just be on the Barclays Stockbroker documents?

[millen]

Thanks env - that makes sense.
Perhaps you should be considering a formal complaint after such a delay!

I've been looking more closely at DeGiro and mostly like what I've seen. Eg for a UK client your base currency for cash fund etc would be GBP although they allow multiple currency accounts eg if I wanted to transact US or European stocks. One criticism from 2015 was they might not deal within the bid-offer spread in the way that a good UK broker would. Not clear if that's been resolved yet.