At present, I'm waiting on a written reply from Barclays. if I fail to get a result then, I'll follow your advice. It seems to me that using info for security questions gathered from outside sources or without the knowledge of the customer seems to be a best irrational at worst illegal?

In reality I'm not looking for alternatives, I'm looking for those who have had similar experiences and to check the legality of what the bank is doing.

PS - I have a number for the UK call centre but they ae unable to do international transfers and inevitably transfer you to the new "off-shore" centre that appears to have a different and questionable set of security criteria. i am currently out of the country so local branch doesn't apply and this system has worked for me for several years.....until now!

There are are other methods for doing this e.g. using a card reader - however I've experienced technical problems with this. I also like to speak to a "real" person. However my point is really that there has been a change in the way questions are compiled by what appears to be a new call centre. i've used this system of transfer for about 6 years.... - I set it up in my branch in UK. I've never had a problem until this week when the security questions asked lead me to believe that the call centre is using information that I haven't volunteered to the bank myself. it appears they are gleaning the info from credit rating sites or something like that. they actually used some incorrect information and based subsequent questions on that incorrect info too. it seems to me that anyone who expects to use this call center - for whatever reason - is quite likely to encounter security questions that they have not previously agreed with the bank nd may find themselves through no fault of their own unable to answer.

Has anyone else experienced a problem with international transfer security questions? it looks to me as if the call centre in India is making up they own questions without reference to the actual customer. The information is not coming from the customer - it appears to be gleaned from credit databases I would question the legality of the this. It also makes it nigh-on impossible to get the security questions right - especially as the information they have is INCORRECT.