Indian call centres for the poorer customers only

Barclays has found a new route to cut cost and make more profit-outsource jobs to India. Struggling bank customers will be connected to Indian call centres while more affluent account holders will get one in Britain. A new banking phone system will identify those with low credit approvals and put them through to India, the Daily Mail reported.

A cap has been fixed. According to the report, those who have considerable savings or a credit limit that allows them to borrow around £500 from the bank or buy its products will be connected to a British operator.

The bank hopes that the new line will filter out their customers
who do not have the money to buy the bank's products so their British staff will potentially be able to sell to every caller.

The call centre staff have been briefed that it will start on April 1, the paper said. "Before we've had people ringing up who have been overdrawn, so we haven't been able to sell them anything," a Barclays sales executive said. The idea, however, has drawn flak.

Critics say the bank is only interested in people with cash and not the genuine concerns of millions who have queries about the state of their finances.

"This is an apartheid system and certainly preferential to their wealthier customers. This is not intended to give the best advice, but a chance to make more money," Eddy Weatherill of the Independent Banking Advisory Service was quoted as saying. A bank spokesman said: "Customers will speak to different teams in different locations depending upon the nature of their query."      
With agency inputs