Lloyds TSB and their useless advantages!

madfrenchgirl

This is not a rant but a constatation of my bank's stupidity.

I went to my local branch of Lloyds TSB to pay in some cheques for partner and I. Now the lady at the till actually told me: "oh, you qualify for a Premium Gold Current Account, would you like to see an advisor about this?"

Now this name rang a bell in the back of my mind and got me some negative vibes, but I thought "what the hell, nothing to lose here..."

So i said yes.

Now, i already have a Premier current account (the one with all the interest).

Got in the office with smiley blokie, started by telling me about all the advantages of this account:

1) A free overdraft limit of 250... and he lloked at my details on his screen and realised I never requested for an overdraft.

----BAM! One advantage I dont give a !!!!!! about!

2) A preferrential price for the AA for 156 for cover 300... I already have that cover takenj jointly with OH, ended up costing each of us 80 quid.

---- BAM! another advantage I dont give a !!!!!! about!

3) 10% discount all year round with a selection of retailer on electrical goods. I dont have a house of my own and dont plan to buy one until next year, and honestly 10% is quite pants compared to those you can make by scrawling around here.

---- BAM! another advantage I dont give a !!!!!! about!

4) Annual travel insurance worth 156. Well, maybe if OH and I could possibly afford going on hols all year round. travel insurance for one trip is 15 quid each so why bother.

---- BAM! another advantage I dont give a !!!!!! about!

5) The account itself has a fee: 15 a month. Now if I take the account right now, I would get it for 10 a month for the first 3 month. A saving of 15 pounds. WOW! But since I am not interested in any of the advantages....

---- BAM! another advantage I dont give a !!!!!! about!

So well, I really felt like laughing at the poor guy but since he was only doing his job, I said I would think about it.

I do not know who they designed this account for... But it is definitely not for me!


GO ON! Tell us what else stupid stuff they tried to pull on you!

balsingh

I wouldn't just single out Lloyds .... all the rest offer similar useless advantages at extra cost. I have just transferred my current account from Barclays to Lloyds and I remember being offered the same bunch of useless extas by Barclays too.

asandwhen

I have a Lloyds tsb platinum plus account.

I used to pay £5 a month for mobile phone insurance

BAM - £5 a month saving

I used to pay £6 a month for my travel insurance

BAM - £6 a month saving

I used to pay £60 a year aa cover

BAM - another £5 a month saving

I used to pay a few pounds a month in interest for my £200 overdraft

BAM - another few pound a month saving

also gives you £250 cheque guarentee card and one of the best current account interst rates on the market.

Just because its no good for you doesnt meen its "stupid" does it??

Ems!

My hubby was paying approx £8 month for the Lloyds TSB select account, one day he sat down and realised that the only "benefit" he was using was the "free" AA cover, now at that price for roadside assistance single cover with no home start , wouldn't really call it free!! So he goes straight to the bank on his lunch hour and asks to be put on a "normal" account with no fee, and therefore his AA cover is immediately cancelled................... can u guess whats coming yet? ! ... yep he broke down the next morning on his way to work!! - he'd only just told me he'd cancelled aa so i hadn't sorted anything out yet, turns out he had run out of petrol(!!),so was no geat expense but a load of hassle for him having to walk 2 miles in the rain to the nearest petrol station! - so maybe sometimes these " benefits" do come in handy!

madfrenchgirl

no ems!

that was just bad timing, and the thing of paying 8 a month for free AA cover is not very MSE.... is it?

:-)

Plus... he ran out of petrol, now dont want to sound harsh, but that is a tad silly is it? not a proper "breakdown"...

madfrenchgirl

OK asandwhen... you got a point!

but hey, there does not seem to be anything out there that they can actually tailor for me... I mean I am a 24 yo aspiring FTB, every penny I spend I consider carefully because I want a house. It just puzzles me to only see stuff for young people being an invitation to debt (loan or overdraft).

MooseRich

I work for Llyods TSB (non-branch), we get the accounts half price per month. And I'll tell you something, I think they are a joke too. If you work for them you have to have an account with them and they tried to sell me everything too. I would say its ok if you use all the benefits to be fair, but if you only use 1 or 2, whats the point?

Overdraft? Should really come with every account
AA cover? Can get cheaper anyway (most cheaper companies call AA/RAC, your just paying for the brand), I paid £119 for full top cover with Norwich Union who use RAC
Electrical goods? You can buy cheaper if you are net savvy
Travel Insurance? I paid £38 for mine for full european
Mobile Phone? Don't be stupid with your own, keep it covered etc and chances are that it won't go missing
Airport Lounge? I don't intend to spend long at airports anyway
Card protection? I'm sure you can sign up anyway, costs about £25pa
Travel Service? Erm, we use the net to get cheaper
Commision Free Travel Money? Post Office do it
High Interest Savings? Really?? No, not really
Car Select? The price difference isn't that much and you can get similar discounts elsewhere

I think it's a waste of time, but then, like I said, if you use all the benefits, go for it.

realaledrinker

smilemore works for me. Costs £7.50 a month - £90 a year. I need annual family worldwide travel & can't find this for under £100 anywhere. The other benefits are pants although there is an interest-free £250 overdraft

grumbler

realaledrinker wrote:

...I need annual family worldwide travel & can't find this for under £100 anywhere.

Depends on number of children. You can get free insuranse for two adults with A&L joint account; extra child costs £48 each ...

---lee---

madfrenchgirl wrote:

no ems!

that was just bad timing, and the thing of paying 8 a month for free AA cover is not very MSE.... is it?

:-)

Plus... he ran out of petrol, now dont want to sound harsh, but that is a tad silly is it? not a proper "breakdown"...

Running out of petrol is very common and still treat as a breakdown.

Something of interest re AA cover. They have recently reduced their 'will join' fees. 'will joins' are people who break down without cover and call up to get a price to join. This used to be very expensive, well over £100 would be the typical cost.

'will joins' now cost around £50 which begs the question, is it worth having the cover all year round for about £40 when you could call up say once every 5 years and join on the spot for about £50.

exel1966

I have a LLoydsTSB account and get all the above and it doesn't cost me a monthly fee and I still get all the (free) benefits. I just keep the minimum balance (£2000) in the account.

Ok I could move the 2k to a savings account and earn approx £75 per year interest after tax (all tax free optioons are currently used up), but travel insurance (I travel 2-3 times pm), phone insurance ( replacement would cost me £350), AA cover etc would all cost me more than that to purchase seperately unless you know different.

So to me it's very much worth having the account !