Ricky – Page 5

Brexit, Barclays & HSBC Banks – the third instalment

The irony of this advert is not lost on me 😉 © Ricky Yates

On Friday 2^nd December 2022, I discovered that the age of miracles is not quite yet past. Forty-two days on from when I had made my request, there sitting in my mail box was a large envelope containing detailed statements of my now closed Barclays bank account. A week later, I set out as planned and travelled to the UK. Armed with those statements, together with my passport, on the morning of Tuesday 13^th December I once more visited the 2 High Street, Nottingham branch of Barclays Bank to set about regaining access to several thousand pounds of my money.

Having explained at the downstairs front desk, what it was I wanted to do, I was told I needed to meet with one of their advisors on the first floor. There were three people ahead of me so I would probably be waiting around thirty minutes. Having waited so long to get to this point, I decided that I could happily cope with waiting a further half-an-hour 😉

In due course I was summons by a male advisor who, though not particularly friendly, was fairly efficient. His main concern was that he wanted to see a more recent second letter I had been sent, as it contained a claims reference number. I assured him that the only letter I had received was the first one dated 10^th February 2022, (but not received until mid-March), telling me to close my account or Barclays would do it for me. This is yet another example of the difference between what Barclays say they will do or have done, which bears no relationship to reality 🙁 Fortunately, he eventually, found the required reference number on the internal Barclays computer system.

The advisor then proceeded to make photocopies of my passport and of the first two pages of my recently procured bank statements. These photocopies he then stamped and signed, certifying that he had seen the originals and that they were true copies. In the meantime, I was given two forms to complete and sign. The first was to set out exactly what money I was claiming. The second was to explain where that money was to be sent – in other words, the full details of my new HSBC account.

To his credit, without me needing to ask, he then made a photocopy of everything he would now be submitting to the Barclays office in Leicester later that day, so that I had a complete record, should anything further go wrong. And he confirmed what also appears on the Barclays website, that the money should reach its correct destination within fifteen working days.

After waiting for over fifteen working days, including allowing for the Christmas and New Year public holidays, I discovered that my money was still not in my HSBC account. So on Monday 9^th January 2023, I phoned Barclays on the number that appears on their letterhead, and, after dealing with many minutes of robots, spoke to a human being, but, part way through the conversation, I was cut off. I phoned again, listened to various robots before eventually being able to speak to a lady called Melissa.

Melissa, after several different attempts, was eventually, able to access my account. She told me that my completed paperwork had arrived at Barclays Leicester on 15^th December 2022. However, on 23^rd December 2022, a letter had been sent to me basically saying that I hadn’t proved my address. At this point, I nearly exploded down the phone pointing out that that was exactly what I had done, during my visit to Barclays Nottingham. So Melissa agreed to follow this up and promised me that I would receive a phone call or email in explanation.

I waited for three weeks for the promised phone call or email, or for the letter of 23^rd December 2022 to arrive. With receiving no response, on Tuesday 31^st January 2023, I phoned Barclays once more. When I finally got past another series of annoying robots, the human being I spoke with could not even access my account. Instead, she wrote an email to the manager of the 2 High Street, Nottingham branch of Barclays, asking him to contact me by phone or email. I waited for a further three and a half weeks and still did not hear or receive anything.

Therefore four weeks ago, on Monday 27^th February, I wrote another letter to Barclays Leicester, and sent it by registered post. In it, I explained about my Tuesday 13^th December 2022 visit and all that had happened since – more to the point, what had NOT happened since, as outlined in the previous seven paragraphs of this post.

Although I still do not have a copy of their letter of 23^rd December 2022, I wrote that I think I have now realised what they believe to be the problem. As I explained earlier, the advisor I saw, certified my most recent printed bank statement for my now closed and frozen Barclays account. This was sent to me by Barclays Leicester on 14^th November 2022, arriving at my home on 2^nd December 2022, following a letter from me, requesting printed bank statements, dated 17^th October 2022. Therefore, at the time of certification by the advisor, it was less than three months old. But the statement is dated 6^th September 2022 because that is the date that Barclays unilaterally closed down my account, therefore making it look as though it was more than three months old.

I enclosed a photocopy of their letter dated 14th November 2022 which accompanied my final bank statements. I had this with me when I visited their branch at 2 High Street, Nottingham on 13th December 2022 and I’m pretty sure I showed it to the advisor. He should have also certified that letter. I then stated that, if I am correct in my analysis, and I suspect I am, then the mistake was made by a member of Barclays staff and not by me. I should not be prevented from accessing my money because of a mistake by a member of Barclays staff!

What is more, their own computer records should clearly show the date when that bank statement was sent out. It would surely only take less than a minute to check. But instead, it took eight days before writing a stupid letter which once again, I suspect was never sent. It would only need a little bit of common sense. But sadly, that is what appears to be completely lacking at Barclays Leicester along with common courtesy.

I completed my letter by saying:

I therefore require the following:

A phone call or email, as twice previously promised to me but not fulfilled, to confirm that my analysis is correct &/or, an electronic copy of your letter of 23^rd December 2022. My home email server is perfectly safe.
The transfer forthwith of all of my money to my HSBC account, as requested on 13^th December 2022. I have no intention of getting anything else certified as I was assured by a member of your staff that I had done everything necessary. If there was a mistake, it was a mistake by a Barclays staff member, not by me. Barclays are responsible!
Compensation for the cost of phone calls, which depending on exchange rates, have put between £20 – £25 on my T-Mobile phone bill.
A serious apology for the way this whole matter has been handled – A combination of carelessness and incompetence on the part of Barclays Bank plc.

Nearly four weeks later, on the afternoon of last Saturday, 25^th February, an email dropped into my Inbox from ‘Barclays Bank Alerts’, with the subject line: An update to your complaint CRYX28K7KH is now available to view online

Clearly my most recent letter has been received and is now regarded as a complaint with its own complaint reference number. The email goes on to tell me that to access this update, I need to use the Barclays App or Barclays Online Banking.

I have never had the Barclays App and, as I no longer have a valid Barclays account, I cannot get one. However, until my bank account was unilaterally closed by Barclays, I regularly used their Online Banking. To log into online banking, you need a membership number, which I do have. But you then need your debit card and a Pinsentry card reader. My debit card expired on 31^st August 2022, the same time as my account was closed. Expired debit cards do not work!

As I wrote, I asked for a phone call or an email. What do I get? An email telling me about a letter hidden online and inaccessible! And no, I cannot reply to the stupid email with advice it is impossible to follow. ‘Replies to this email are not monitored’.

Truth is stranger than fiction, so the saying goes. No! You could not make this up 🙁

A difficult winter

Sunset over Stará Oleška 10th November 2022 © Ricky Yates

I have to start this post by once again apologising for the long time gap since the last one. I had been hoping to publish the final instalment of my ongoing saga with Barclays Bank plc. I’ve already written the first half of a draft post. But unfortunately, the matter is still not resolved so I will hold off posting until it is brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

The other reason for the lack of a new post is that I have had a rather rough winter, particularly with regard to my health. Now that I am finally feeling nearly 100%, here is what has been happening to me this winter.

Back on Thursday 13^th October 2022, I paid my regular visit to my GP in Prague, for my International Normalised Ratio (INR) to be checked, to establish the exact amount of Warfarin that I have to take to thin my blood. I also asked about having a Covid booster vaccination and Dr Stonawski said it could be done there and then and passed me on to Dr Youngová, the boss of the practice. She vaccinated me and suggested that I really ought to also have a flu jab, something I’ve never previously had. So I agreed. Therefore I had a needle in my finger for INR, one in my left arm for Covid, and one in my right arm for flu 🙁

Eleven days later, I visited my friend, Adrian Blank, down in Nepomuk for the changeover to winter tyres on my car. He also accompanied me to the testing station in nearby Horažd’ovice, where the car successfully passed STK, (the Czech equivalent of the UK MOT test), meaning it is safe and legal to drive for the next two years.

With all of that done, I felt that both my body and my car were ready to face the coming winter. But whilst the car has continued to function perfectly, now nearly two years on from when I bought it, the same cannot be said for my body 🙁

Unfortunately, soon after receiving my jabs in October, I developed a most annoying cough. Particularly during the night, I would wake up, start coughing and then not be able to go back to sleep. It also considerably affected my ability to sing.

The Embassy Singers & part of the congregation on Sunday 4th December 2022 at the Frauenkirche, Dresden © Ricky Yates

It was an absolute delight on the evening of Sunday 4^th December, to be able to hold a service of Nine Lessons and Carols in the Frauenkirche, Dresden, for the first time since December 2019. As in previous pre-Covid years, the Embassy Singers from Berlin under their director Andrew Sims, provided a number of choir items as well as supporting the singing of the congregational carols. But as I tried to sing, I regularly ended up coughing 🙁

Introducing Nine Lessons and Carols at the Frauenkirche, Dresden, Sunday 4th December 2022 © Ricky Yates

The following Friday, I set out to travel to the UK, driving across Germany and the Netherlands to take the overnight ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich. I then spent the weekend, staying with my Czech friend Rev’d Dagmar Wilkinson, who has previously featured in this blog here and here. Dagmar is now the Rector of St John the Evangelist, Friern Barnet in North London. It was a privilege to be the preacher at a Sung Eucharist on Sunday morning.

With Rev’d Dagmar Wilkinson at St John the Evangelist, Friern Barnett, London © Ricky Yates

Here we both are in front of the high altar, following the service. Fortunately, my voice was OK for preaching but I once more ended up coughing when trying to sing the hymns.

That Sunday evening, London had the fairly rare experience of a heavy snowfall. Here is my car parked outside Dagmar’s Rectory on the Monday morning. I had to clear that lot off it before I could drive up to Nottingham.

The centrepiece of my December UK visit was to attend my son Phillip’s graduation ceremony at Nottingham Trent University. He was awarded his Masters in Business Administration (MBA), with commendation, a tremendous achievement for someone with a full-time job, a young family, and coping with the Covid pandemic through most of the time of his studies.

However, I did feel I had the right to stand in front of the board saying ‘Congratulations’ as I proofread, spell checked and grammar checked each of his assignments before he submitted them. As Phillip famously wrote to me after he received his final assessment, we got a commendation, Dad 🙂

I also spent two nights staying near Daventry in order to visit my daughter Christa, son-in-law Ian, and my two grandsons.

Here are my first attempt at taking a selfie with each of my grandsons.

This selfie with Finley was taken at the CBS Arena in Coventry on Saturday 17^th December where we watched my football club, Coventry City FC, playing Swansea City FC. Taking Finley to the match was his Christmas present from me as well as a Christmas present to myself 😉

My return journey started the following day when I drove to Harwich for the ferry back across the North Sea to Hoek van Holland. By this time the cough had become some form of respiratory infection. I was coughing up large amounts of phlegm, had a runny, but blocked nose, problems with my hearing and feeling increasingly weak. Normally I do not mind the long drive across the Netherlands and Germany, in order get home. But I have to say that I struggled to keep driving on Monday 19^th December, not helped by the very limited hours of daylight.

I arrived home late that evening to find snow lying in my garden and a sheet of ice on the driveway and path to the front door. There is a gentle slope from the road up to my front gates but it took three attempts before I managed to drive the car up that slope and into the carport. And the house was absolutely freezing!

During that week before Christmas, I received an email from my GP surgery, setting out dates and times their surgery would be open during the Christmas period. But it also acknowledged that there were a lot of respiratory viruses circulating and offered some helpful advice on how to treat their symptoms, including details of over-the-counter drugs that are available without prescription. I decided that I would try not to trouble the surgery but instead, follow their advice.

Andrew & Gethin’s Christmas Tree © Ricky Yates

On Christmas Eve evening, I was invited to the home of my friends Andrew and Gethin in Obercunnersdorf, about fifty minutes drive north from Stará Oleška, in Freistaat Sachen. A wonderful supper was followed by a candlelit Carol Service in the village Lutheran Church. Unfortunately, because of my respiratory problems, I could hardly hear or sing.

Knowing that I had my next GP appointment for INR already arranged for Tuesday 3rd January, I spent the days after Christmas and into the New Year, taking things easy and my health slowly started to improve. When I saw Dr Stonawski, he checked me thoroughly all over and declared that I had been suffering with bronchitis as he could hear that there were still problems in my chest. However, all he could suggest was that should continue to take it easy and my condition should slowly improve. It took until the end of January before I finally lost the last vestiges of my cough.

However, at the beginning of February, I began to get an itchy rash on my back, which soon spread around the sides of my chest, to my arms and to my right leg. Again, as I had my next INR appointment booked for Tuesday 14^th February, I decided to hang on until then before seeking medical advice. When Dr Stonawski took one look at my back he immediately wrote a report asking the dermatology department of Vojenské nemocnice, the Military Hospital in Prague, to see me that day as an emergency. There, the dermatologist that I saw, diagnosed it as some form of eczema. I was given a cortisone injection in my rear and prescribed various pills and creams.

The photo above shows all the prescribed drugs I took away from the pharmacy that afternoon. I should stress that it does include repeat prescriptions for the medication I regularly take for the problems with my blood and heart. But I have been rattling with pills in the morning for the last two weeks. Fortunately, I am please to report that my skin is responding to treatment and whilst it is still discoloured, I’ve all but lost the itch. I’ve already had one follow-up appointment and another is due next week.

Logs delivered on Wednesday 15th February 2023 © Ricky Yates

The day after my trip to Prague for INR and my emergency visit to the dermatologist, I had my second delivery of logs for this winter, deposited in my back garden. So despite still not feeling well, I had to transport all of them into my woodshed and stack them there, before they got rained or snowed on. I’m quite proud of myself that I managed to achieve this in the space of a week.

Logs stacked in the woodshed 22/02/2023 © Ricky Yates

Here they all are, stacked in the woodshed.

I’m very glad I did as, on the morning of Sunday 26^th February, my seventy-first birthday, this was the view from my front door…

….and from my back door.

As far as I can remember, it was the first ‘White Birthday’ I’ve had since 1963. Yes, I was singing, ‘I’m dreaming of a White Birthday’, numerous times that day 🙂

Brexit, Barclays & HSBC Banks – the second instalment

Just one day after I wrote the first instalment of this saga, a letter arrived in my mail box. No, not the promised bank statement from Barclays, but a letter from the UK Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). It was a request for the completion and return of a ‘life certificate’ – putting it bluntly, the DWP wanted me to prove that I’m still alive!

The letter arises because I don’t live in the UK. The DWP fear that when I do ‘pop my clogs’, they will not necessarily be told and will be paying out pension to a dead person. I have had a request of this nature previously and have also once signed a life certificate for a member of the St Clement’s, Prague congregation as a Minister of Religion is one of the possible people whose confirmation is acceptable. I was seeing my GP the next day so he happily agreed and signed mine to say that I was still alive. In those immortal words, attributed to Mark Twain, ‘Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated’ 😉

However, according to the HSBC website, a DWP letter confirming your right to benefits (dated within the last 4 months), is acceptable as proof of address. Whilst the letter didn’t confirm my right to benefits, it did state quite clearly that I would lose my right to benefits, unless I filled it in and returned the life certificate. And it was dated 14^th August, less than one month old.

So I photocopied the DWP request and sent the original, with a covering letter, by registered post, to Tracy at HSBC Nottingham. Twenty-one days later, I received an email from Tracy saying that I had now successfully proved my address and the block had been removed from my new account. I’ve since received a shiny new debit card and a PIN code, both arriving in my mail box on the same day, but in separate envelopes.

After failing to act on my first request, the Church of England Pensions Board have eventually managed to pay my September pension payment into this new account and the payment due on Monday 31^st October, arrived safely.

Barclays promising to make money work for me 😉 © Ricky Yates

However, getting access to the contents of my now closed Barclays account is an ongoing saga. According to the advice on the Barclays Bank website, it is possible to reclaim my money online, by post, or by visiting one of their UK branches. But both the online and postal options involve getting certified copies of certain documents to prove my identity and confirm where I live. In other words, a great amount of hassle and considerable cost. For example, to get a certified copy of my passport would involve a trip to the British Embassy in Prague and the payment of a £25.00 fee 🙁 Therefore, I plan to use the third option, by revisiting the Nottingham city centre Barclays branch when I’m in the UK for nine days in mid-December.

By going in-person, I will just need to produce my passport to prove who I am, without the need for a certified copy. But it is the second requirement that is proving far more difficult. To quote directly from the Barclays website, ‘A document that shows your current full address, and is dated within the last three months, such as a bank statement, credit card statement, or utility bill. You can use a driving licence, if it hasn’t been used as proof of identity’.

I am back to exactly the same problem that delayed the opening of my new HSBC bank account. I don’t hold a credit card. The only utility bill I receive is for my electricity, once a year in June, meaning it is more than three months old. My Czech driving licence doesn’t show my full address. It just says Huntírov, the municipality in which I live.

The one thing that would prove my current address would be a statement from Barclays themselves, showing the current details of my now closed account. But despite requesting one, in-person, on Tuesday 23^rd August, as described in my earlier post, it has not materialised.

So having waited for nearly two months, on Monday 17^th October, I wrote to the Barclays address in Leicester from where the letter telling me of the closure of my account originated, and made a second request. I quoted back the text of that letter which states, ‘If you find you do need statements in the future, you can request them at any point’. And to be sure that the letter reaches Barclays, I sent it by registered post. Twenty days later, I am still waiting…..

Needing to have a printed paper bank statement sent through the post, in order to gain access to my money, when Barclays, several years ago, actively encouraged me to go paperless and rely on online statements, is to say the least, somewhat contradictory. I could use far stronger language! I don’t even know exactly how much is in the account as I was busy spending from it when in the UK in August. But access to online statements was cut off on 27^th August when my account was frozen.

There is one further absurdity in this ongoing saga. The debit card for my Barclays account which I was happily using in August when in the UK, expired at the end of that month, at the same time as Barclays were closing my account. But what should appear in my mail box in mid-September? A new debit card for my closed/frozen account! Unfortunately, the letter enclosing it is undated so I cannot use it to prove my address 🙁

HM Queen Elizabeth II – Ambassador for reconciliation in Europe

Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, much has been written about her life and legacy. Living in Central Europe and with my ongoing ministry at the Frauenkirche in Dresden, two articles have particularly resonated with me. The first, written by the Anglo-German historian Katja Hoyer and published in ‘The Spectator’, has the subtitle, ‘She (QE2) understood the importance of reconciliation’. The second, written by +Robert, my Diocesan Bishop, has the title that I’ve stolen for this post 😉

Both articles mention that the Queen paid an eleven day visit to the former West Germany in 1965, twenty years after the end of the Second World War. Katja Hoyer goes on to say that the Queen ‘did not shy away from making difficult trips to places that had seen large-scale devastation through RAF bombing campaigns.’ She cites the visit to Düsseldorf where 90 per cent of buildings had either been damaged or completely destroyed and 5000 civilians killed.

Hoyer rightly says that the visit was not an easy one to sell back in the UK. Many British cities had experienced bombing by the Nazi Luftwaffe causing serious damage and loss of life, including my own home city of Coventry. But the Queen was determined to move forward and help establish good relationships with the German people, who in turn, warmly welcomed her on that first visit.

Hoyer then recalls a visit in 1992 to Dresden, less than three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Inner German border. Her Majesty visited the ruins of the Frauenkirche, destroyed by allied bombing raids in February 1945. I can do no better than to quote from her article.

‘Ignoring a number of people jeering and whistling, the Queen stoically took in the site and concentrated on the quiet majority of Dresdeners who had come to thank her for attending a reconciliation service nearby. The following year, the Dresden Trust was set up in Britain, collecting donations of over £1 million, including contributions from Her Majesty herself, to rebuild the famous church. Dresden and its partner city Coventry have been powerful symbols of post-war reconciliation – a process that the Queen and her family have lent their invaluable support.’

The Queen’s support for the work of reconciliation between two nations, previously at war with each other, stands in stark contrast to the words and actions of many right wing British politicians and much of the UK tabloid press. They portray modern-day Germany as the enemy that still needs to be fought against. Margaret Thatcher, for quite some time after the fall of Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, was strongly opposed to the reunification of Germany that finally took place thirty-two years ago yesterday. She expressed the fear that a united Germany would be too powerful.

Part of the Brexit campaign was based on the premise that the EU was run by Germany and that the UK should ‘take back control’. In particular, the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was portrayed as someone to be disliked, even hated.

The tabloid press forever harks back the Second World War, which of course, the Brits won single-handedly. It is as though the UK is still fighting, seventy-seven years after the Second World War ended. As I wrote and preached back in February 2020, ‘the EU was founded in part, to prevent a repetition of the two World Wars which had laid waste the continent of Europe in the first half of the twentieth century, something which the city of Dresden and my own city of birth, Coventry, know about all too well. Seventy-five years of peace have ensued!’

So I am thankful for Her Majesty being an ‘Ambassador for reconciliation in Europe’, especially in Germany, where it is still my privilege to minister once a month in the Dresden Frauenkirche. As Bishop Robert writes, when opening a meeting of General Synod in 2015, the Queen quoted St Paul writing in his second letter to the Corinthians – ‘As ambassadors for Christ [we] are entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation’.

The death of HM Queen Elizabeth II as seen from the Czech Republic

With the new King on Sunday 22nd March 2010. Photo ‘stolen’ from the Daily Telegraph

As I have mentioned previously, HM Queen Elizabeth II had reigned, until her death on Thursday 8^th September 2022, for twenty days longer than I have been alive. She came to the throne on 6^th February 1952 following the death of her father King George VI, and I was born on 26^th February 1952. Along with over 90% of the current British population, the late Queen is the only head of state that I have ever known.

Therefore, the current wall to wall coverage by the British media and the outpouring of public grief and appreciation of her reign in the UK, is perfectly understandable. But as I have remarked previously at the time of both the wedding of William and Katherine, and at the more recent wedding of Harry and Meghan, the fascination with the British Royal Family here in the Czech Republic is massive, as is the media coverage.

Last Thursday, the Queen’s death was officially announced at 18.30 in the UK, which is 19.30 here in the Czech Republic, just as the main news bulletin on TV Nova was beginning. Normally, the news bulletin lasts for forty minutes followed by ten minutes of sports news and a weather forecast. That night, the bulletin ran for a full hour with the only subject being the life and death of Queen Elizabeth II. Coverage of sport and the weather was completely dropped.

The extensive level of coverage has continued every day since last Thursday. On Sunday evening, the first twenty minutes of the news bulletin was given over to the events happening in Scotland that day. The first fifteen minutes of last night’s bulletin was all about the day’s events in the UK. I suspect TV programmes will be completely rescheduled or cancelled next Monday, in order to cover every possible aspect of the funeral.

On social media, I have previously questioned why there is so much interest in the British Royal Family here in the Czech Republic. After all, we are not even fellow members of of the EU following the stupidity of Brexit. Would Czech people really prefer having an hereditary head of state, even a British royal?

Whilst not wanting to be flippant in what is otherwise meant to be a serious post, I did enjoy a couple of the responses I got when I posed this question, I think at the time of the Harry and Meghan wedding. One, from a Czech friend, was that, ‘Anything would be better than Zeman!’, (the current President), a sentiment with which I would agree. The other, which came from an Austrian-American friend, was that, ‘There are a few Hapsburgs around who would be happy to take on the role’.

It will be interesting to see whether this same level of interest and fascination will continue now that Charles has come to the throne. I shall be watching and listening in the coming months. But what has already happened is that his name has suddenly changed. The Czech media has always insisted on calling the late Queen, Alžbeta II, the Czech form of Elizabeth. But her children were always referred to as Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward. But now Charles has become King, suddenly he is Karel III 😉

I intend to write another post regarding the late Queen being, ‘an agent for peace and reconciliation’, as my Diocesan Bishop has put it. But in the meantime, it has been fun telling Czech friends that, not only have I met the new King, I’ve also had to preach with Charles and Camilla in the congregation. Photographic evidence at the beginning of this post.