Problems for Woolwich account holders

Following the recent decision by Barclays to transfer all accounts from its subsidiary the Woolwich to the main Barclays operation chaos has struck with many customers finding themselves unable to gain access to their own accounts. Barclays is having to urgently review its moves to switch accounts from the Woolwich to Barclays as a result of the confusion.

Barclays has decided to get rid of the savings accounts at its Woolwich subsidiary and instead transfer these accounts to its main operation. By the middle of summer it is thought that around two million customers should have had their accounts transferred from the Woolwich to Barclays. In total over three and a half million customers in all will end up having their accounts switched to Barclays from the Woolwich.

A pass code has been issued to Woolwich current account holders, and this enables them to use banking facilities online and via the telephone. When the accounts switch to Barclays, however, this will be changed to two separate pass codes, one of which can be used for phone banking and the other for Internet banking. These codes have ended up causing confusion for many customers, although they were designed to improve security for Barclays customers.

When the wrong code is used in error by the account holder the account gets locked, and many have accidentally used the phone banking code with Internet banking and vice versa, resulting in disabled access to their accounts. Barclays are now looking to improve the literature that is sent out with the codes, although officials state that the two codes will still be used. Officials state that the bank is urgently reviewing its communications with customers in order to alleviate any further confusion with the matter.