Barclays customer service
When you contact a broker, whether you are a beginner investor or an experienced trader, you’ll be looking for customer service that is fast and truly helpful. These qualities, in turn, will depend on the range of available channels and the relevance of their responses.
To be able to tell at a glance what you should expect from Barclays’s customer service, we collected the following must-know information.
If you want to read our full review, including fees, deposit options and other platforms (like web and desktop) then skip to the Barclays review.
Customer service
Barclays's customer service is very poor and it lasts very long for solving a problem.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| None | • Very slow phone support |
| • Live chat was not working | |
| • No response to email | |
| • No 24/7 support |
You can contact Barclay's Smart Investor via:
- live chat
- phone
Barclays Smart Investor has a very poor customer service and it lasts very long for solving a problem. A simple location change last half an hour for the support and it wasn’t updated by the time we finished the call as they still need to fill a form. It was available only in working hours.
During this time live chat and email were not working.
We missed 24/7 availability. You can contact the customer support between Monday and Friday, from 07:30 to 19:00 (18:00 on Friday).
Check out our summary on Barclays’s customer service compared with similar brokers, Hargreaves Lansdown and Charles Stanley Direct.
| Barclays | Hargreaves Lansdown | Charles Stanley Direct | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK-based stockbroker | UK-based stockbroker | UK-based stockbroker | |
| How fast was customer support when we tried? | Rather slow | Fast | Fast |
| Quality of Customer service answers | Too vague or didn't answer | Good | Good |
| Live chat available | Yes | No | Yes |
| Phone available | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email available | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 24/7 availability | No | No | No |
Let's continue with a more detailed description of Barclays’s customer service features.
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Barclays customer service
Available customer service channels at Barclays
One of the most essential components of a well-functioning customer service is the number of channels through which you can reach out for help. Usually, the more communication platforms there are, the more likely it is that somebody will answer your questions in time.
You can get in touch with Barclays in the following ways.
Please note that Barclays is not available 24/7, so keep that in mind before reaching out for help with an issue that needs an immediate response.
Barclays customer service
Barclays customer service quality
We define the quality of a broker's customer service based on its response speed (e.g. if they answer the phone within a few minutes, it counts as quick, but if they make you wait a lot, that’s considered a poor response speed) and their response relevance (i.e. whether they provide a clear answer to your questions or an ambiguous one that needs further clarification).
Response speed at Barclays
Live chat
Barclays’s live chat speed could be improved. They usually take more than 5 minutes to respond, which may well be enough for you to start guessing the answer on your own!
Phone
Ain’t nobody got time for that. On the phone, Barclays is a bit sluggish, as the waiting time to be connected often exceeds 5 minutes.
Barclays takes its time when it comes to answering your email, sometimes taking more than 2-3 days to get back to you. After all, good work takes time, right?
Response relevance at Barclays
Live chat
Barclays’s live chat is hardly a useful source of information. Maybe we were just unlucky, but when we tried it didn’t provide sufficient (or sufficiently clear) info. We suggest you pick another channel as your go-to source for high-priority questions.
Phone
Although it's possible to call Barclays, they were never really able to provide relevant answers to our concerns; therefore we suggest avoiding this platform as your main source of information.
Barclays's email communication left much to be desired. They didn't really provide us with adequate information, so we suggest you check out other customer service platforms instead.
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Barclays customer service
Barclays customer service bottomline
Overall, Barclays's customer service could be improved in multiple areas. To check out how similar brokers fare compared with Barclays, use our broker comparison tool here.
