Halifax and BOS closing my accounts

tg99 · 6 February 2016 at 3:38PM

Received two letters this morning dated 2 Feb , one from Halifax and one from BOS, both stating that all my accounts with them will be closed on 4 April.

Currently have three BOS Vantage with £5k in each purely for savings and have only used for such purposes since opening around mid last year. Plus the Monthly Saver.

Halifax: opened Reward current account last Oct and switched into it for the incentive and have just keep a nominal balance ever since plus 2x DDs to get the monthly reward. Also opened two standard current accounts around same time, one I switched last Dec, the other I have just initiated a switch to M&S current account.

Phoned them and they insisted (as expected) that they could not tell me any reason why over the phone and that I would need to go into branch if I wanted to find out more. When I speculated that it was unlikely to be a coincidence that they have written to me on the exact day / day after M&S would have informed them of the switch, she stated that it would definitely not be for that reason as "lots of people switch accounts away from us all the time but keep other accounts". However, it just seems too much of a coincidence to me; I don't have any issues with credit record, fraud, CIFAS etc and have not had any payments to or from people that could look fraudulent.

Will try and pop into branch next week but in the meantime:

- has anyone else had this or similar situation with Halifax or BOS and managed to find out reasons why ?

- I guess I should expect a similar letter next week from Lloyds for my Lloyds account (the letters say I can use the switching service to move my accounts elsewhere before 4 April but not to any members of Lloyds Banking Group)?

- Anyone got any idea if I am likely to be successful in opening new accounts if I wait say 12 months or something or do these things tend to be 'life bans'?

Hopefully my iWeb share dealing account is not at risk given it is operated by Halifax Share Dealing!

Thanks.

colsten · 6 February 2016 at 3:50PM

urrrgh, nasty. Sorry to hear this has happened to you. I doubt you will ever find out why they are closing the accounts. The Branch will know even less than CS, and all you can do is just cut your losses.

I seem to recall a few moths ago someone reported similar. It might have been Ed-1.

Ed-1 · 6 February 2016 at 3:54PM

tg99 wrote: »

Received two letters this morning dated 2 Feb , one from Halifax and one from BOS, both stating that all my accounts with them will be closed on 4 April.

Currently have three BOS Vantage with £5k in each purely for savings and have only used for such purposes since opening around mid last year. Plus the Monthly Saver.

Halifax: opened Reward current account last Oct and switched into it for the incentive and have just keep a nominal balance ever since plus 2x DDs to get the monthly reward. Also opened two standard current accounts around same time, one I switched last Dec, the other I have just initiated a switch to M&S current account.

Phoned them and they insisted (as expected) that they could not tell me any reason why over the phone and that I would need to go into branch if I wanted to find out more. When I speculated that it was unlikely to be a coincidence that they have written to me on the exact day / day after M&S would have informed them of the switch, she stated that it would definitely not be for that reason as "lots of people switch accounts away from us all the time but keep other accounts". However, it just seems too much of a coincidence to me; I don't have any issues with credit record, fraud, CIFAS etc and have not had any payments to or from people that could look fraudulent.

Will try and pop into branch next week but in the meantime:

- has anyone else had this or similar situation with Halifax or BOS and managed to find out reasons why ?

- I guess I should expect a similar letter next week from Lloyds for my Lloyds account (the letters say I can use the switching service to move my accounts elsewhere before 4 April but not to any members of Lloyds Banking Group)?

- Anyone got any idea if I am likely to be successful in opening new accounts if I wait say 12 months or something or do these things tend to be 'life bans'?

Hopefully my iWeb share dealing account is not at risk given it is operated by Halifax Share Dealing!

Thanks.

Can you post a copy of the letter on here (blanking out personal details such as name and address)? From my subject access request, I have a list of all 'bank letters' from LBG and what they mean and are sent for. Which department is the letter from and does it say 'Our Ref' on it and give a couple of letters and then some numbers next to it?

The thing that strikes me about the letters from the 'Account Closure Unit' (yours sounds like it could be from them) is that they tend to be initiated by Bank of Scotland so if you hold Vantage accounts with them, that is what looks to be the common factor from what other people have posted on here (my letter wasn't from ACU incidentally - mine was from Credit Decisioning and related to credit risk and wasn't a 'lifetime ban' as you put it; those tend to be initiated by Lloyds).

tg99 · 6 February 2016 at 4:25PM

Ed-1 wrote: »

Can you post a copy of the letter on here (blanking out personal details such as name and address)? From my subject access request, I have a list of all 'bank letters' from LBG and what they mean and are sent for. Which department is the letter from and does it say 'Our Ref' on it and give a couple of letters and then some numbers next to it?

The thing that strikes me about the letters from the 'Account Closure Unit' (yours sounds like it could be from them) is that they tend to be initiated by Bank of Scotland so if you hold Vantage accounts with them, that is what looks to be the common factor from what other people have posted on here (my letter wasn't from ACU incidentally - mine was from Credit Decisioning and related to credit risk and wasn't a 'lifetime ban' as you put it; those tend to be initiated by Lloyds).

I will try and put copies up later but in meantime have checked and both are from HBOS Account Closure Unit BX1 1LT. Both have the same Our Ref: HRCFOHRC_MW.

Come to think of it, I have not received the letter I was expecting from Halifax confirming that they had been instructed to switch one of my accounts to M&S. Would have expected to get by now since day one of switch was 2 Feb. Highly doubt it but maybe in error they have given notice to close all my accounts rather than just close the one and switch to M&S?

Easiest branch for me to go into is Lloyds but not received a letter from them yet. Hopefully my TSB accounts will escape now that been bought by Sabadell.

grumbler · 6 February 2016 at 4:32PM

tg99 wrote: »

- has anyone else had this or similar situation with Halifax or BOS

>> Bank closing my account with no explanation

Ed-1 · 6 February 2016 at 4:39PM

tg99 wrote: »

I will try and put copies up later but in meantime have checked and both are from HBOS Account Closure Unit BX1 1LT. Both have the same Our Ref: HRCFOHRC_MW.

Come to think of it, I have not received the letter I was expecting from Halifax confirming that they had been instructed to switch one of my accounts to M&S. Would have expected to get by now since day one of switch was 2 Feb. Highly doubt it but maybe in error they have given notice to close all my accounts rather than just close the one and switch to M&S?

Easiest branch for me to go into is Lloyds but not received a letter from them yet. Hopefully my TSB accounts will escape now that been bought by Sabadell.

Looks like it's a non-standard letter as it's not on my list of standard letters. If you have any Lloyds accounts, expect them to be getting the chop too. TSB should be OK.

Rich2808 · 6 February 2016 at 5:00PM

This does seem to happen more frequently with the Lloyds group.

I don't have accounts now with any of the three members and this doesn't encourage me to change that. I know it can happen with any bank but it just seems more common here.

tg99 · 6 February 2016 at 5:00PM

Ed-1 wrote: »

Looks like it's a non-standard letter as it's not on my list of standard letters. If you have any Lloyds accounts, expect them to be getting the chop too. TSB should be OK.

Thanks for checking. On both envelopes it has the return address of lloyds group operations, Andover. Would have thought the Lloyds letter would have arrived in same batch today so will be expecting it on Monday. Think I'll try calling the account closure unit of HBOS on Monday / Tuesday before going into branch but not expecting to get anything insightful from them either although I will query why I haven't received the letter re switching to M&S if it hasn't arrived by then to see if this can give any clues.

Ed-1 · 6 February 2016 at 5:07PM

tg99 wrote: »

Thanks for checking. On both envelopes it has the return address of lloyds group operations, Andover. Would have thought the Lloyds letter would have arrived in same batch today so will be expecting it on Monday. Think I'll try calling the account closure unit of HBOS on Monday / Tuesday before going into branch but not expecting to get anything insightful from them either although I will query why I haven't received the letter re switching to M&S if it hasn't arrived by then to see if this can give any clues.

The wording of the letter is crucial. Just because they are giving 2 months notice to close your accounts with LBG doesn't mean you will not be eligible in future to open further accounts with them unless the letter says so. For example, some letters say 'following a review of your accounts we can no longer run a bank account for you'. That letter makes you ineligible for any further bank accounts with the group.

JethroUK · 6 February 2016 at 5:17PM

The bottom line is both the customer AND supplier have to AGREE to do business

Neither is obligated if the conditions don't suit

Likewise Customers don't have to justify why they don't want to user a particular supplier and suppliers don't have to justify why they don't want to supply a particular customer

Free market economy

JethroUK · 6 February 2016 at 5:19PM

It is a reminder that the customer is not always right and the supplier has an equal say, so don't burn your Bridges with a supplier. Not suggesting the o p is guilty of any of that just a general observation

Halifax and BOS closing my accounts

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