Lloyds regular saver - beware

frivolous_fay

Hello,

If you have one of Lloyds' one year regular saver accounts, watch out for your standing orders!

I had what I thought was a 12 month standing order specifically set up for the regular saver from my token Lloyds current account, into which I was transferring money from my main account each month in time for the standing order into the regular saver.

After 12 payments had been made, I stopped feeding money into the current account, and I have now been hit by a £20 charge because they tried and failed to take a 13th payment (although the regular saver account no longer exists, and has been converted into some other lame Lloyds account, and I have transferred the money out). I have yet to check whether the failed SO was the one into the defunct RS, or the new trash account they set up for me (in which case, why should the SO automatically transfer?)

Anyway, watch out...I'm going up to have a fight with the counter staff later. No doubt I'll turn out to be in the wrong

lpgm

Are you sure your regular saver had come to an end? I've got one of these, which dies this month, but it was for two years, not one.

But even if it had come to an end, I think you have to manually cancel the standing order because it was set up without a term (well, mine was). Otherwise they will continue to transfer money into the replacement account. Or try to...

ray123

That does not make sense...
If you had cancelled a STANDING ORDER then Lloyds should not have attempted to take the money. Standing orders are controlled by you the customer. I looked at t and c for the regular saver, and it states that there are no penalty charges for this account - if you do miss payments, you merely lose the 1.5% bonus interest rate!
Perhaps the charge was due to the fact that you did not put money into the current account? Alliance and Leicester charge £5 per month if you do not credit it with at least £500...

Why are you with Lloyds anyway, the rate is not v good (4.55%?). For regular savers, try Halifax (7%)!

Baldur

lpgm wrote: »

But even if it had come to an end, I think you have to manually cancel the standing order because it was set up without a term (well, mine was). Otherwise they will continue to transfer money into the replacement account. Or try to...

That was the case with my 2-year 8% LTSB Regular Savings A/C, which matured in August - I had to manually cancel the SO after the July payment or the instruction would have continued to pay money into the dire replacement 'Easy Saver' account.

Ian_W

fay,
Didn't they write to you in advance outlining what would happen to the RS and Standing Order when the term finished?

I had a 2yr RS which finished in May. Several weeks before it ended I received a letter, which I don't have to hand, clearly informing me that on maturity the account would be moved to an Easy Saver [lame duck] account and the Standing Order would continue to that account.
It was a simple matter using online banking to cancel the SO and arrange a transfer out of the ES via the current account to a better paying account.

If you didn't get a letter outlining this then I suggest you formally complain to LTSB, as the T&C's of the RS [as far as I recall] made no mention of a transfer to another account on maturity. However, I also don't recall the SO being time limited so AFAI can see it was up to you to cancel it at the end.

leviathan

I have the 2 year Lloyds regular saver account and the token Current account with them as well.

My regular savings go directly from my wage account at a different bank into the regular savings account held at Lloyds.

They never touch the Lloyds token current account.

You set it up incorrectly.
You never needed to use the token account but merely open it.

Baldur

Ian_W wrote: »

the T&C's of the RS [as far as I recall] made no mention of a transfer to another account on maturity.

Mine certainly did

Your Monthly Saver will end on the second anniversary of account opening and we will convert your Monthly Saver to a Guaranteed Tracker (or similar account if that account is no longer available).

frivolous_fay

ray123 wrote: »

Perhaps the charge was due to the fact that you did not put money into the current account?

That isn't the specific problem - the failed SO was because they tried to take £250 out of an account that had £1 in it.

ray123 wrote: »

Why are you with Lloyds anyway, the rate is not v good (4.55%?).

Trust me, I would not have bothered opening the account if it was only 4.55%. It was 7%.

And yes, it was definitely one year. People advised me not to open it because it was 'only' one year but I figured it was better than nothing

I did get a letter a little while before the end of the account - basically it said 'the crappy account we were going to transfer you to isn't available any more, so we're going to give you a different crappy account instead, here's a leaflet'. Sorry to say I didn't read any of it in detail as I knew I would never be using the new account. Both letter and leaflet have probably long been recycled, but I'll dig around.

frivolous_fay

sloughflint wrote: »

It's a shame because you didn't need to fund the current account at all. You could have transferred to your RS from your external acount.

I'm pretty sure I'm correct in thinking that the LTSB accounts need to be operated via a LTSB current account, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to open it.

Milarky

I believe that the operation of the standing order to the Lloyds (8%) Monthly Saver was -and remains - under the control of the current account customer. Unless you had asked Lloyds to set up the standing order (either on a Lloyds current account themselves or by contacting your bank on your behalf) and then not amended it - the standing order could well be 'UFN'.

I know that my SO I maintained myself - somteimes changing the day in the month the of 'next' payment - and it had a 'last payment' date. How that got there I can't reacall.

With certain current accounts there is not as much control of standing orders as others but they should all inform you of whether it has a last payment date or is UFN

Bottom line. This is the current account holder's responsibility to instruct the bank in 99% of cases - and so being charged for going overdrawn in error is not the bank's fault - let alone the poor old Monthly Saver account.

ray123

Sorry, I misread the post earlier (it was a very late night)...

If you did not cancel the standing order, which I presumed you had done, Lloyds are justified to charge you for being overdrawn.
However, as it is the first time (and the last time) you have been overdrawn with Lloyds, there is a good chance they will cancel the charge. Speak to customer services on the phone, explain the situation and how confusing the whole system is, and finger crossed, it will work out for the best! If not, write a letter of complaint...