Lloyds TSB rant!!!

ThriftyChoche

I feel badly let down by my bank, of which I have been a loyal customer for some nineteen years (yes, I know Martin says loyalty doesn't pay!!). I have a current account which is pretty much always in credit, with a linked instant access internet savings account into which I siphon off savings every month. Through very careful saving I have slowly managed to build up a nice little nest egg over the years of nearly 30,000 (which is about to come in very handy as my OH has just lost his job). In response to something I saw on this site about interest rates, I decided, out of curiosity, to check what the interest rate on my savings account was. Unable to get any accurate information on the Lloyds TSB website, I rang them up: the answer was, 0.08%!!:mad: I then did an online search of my bank statements and realised that while as of November last year I had been earning about 60 pounds in interest per month, this had fallen drastically to 20 pounds in December, 5 pounds in January and 2 pounds in February. And this is supposed to be a SAVINGS account? Incredibly, my current account (with a couple of grand in it) actually made me more interest last month than my so-called savings account did.
Obviously, I am aware that interest rates have been falling drastically, but how can this constitute good customer service? How can my bank allow me to be in this situation without at least making a courtesy call or writing me a letter to advise me that my account no longer meets my needs and my money would be better off elsewhere? I am furious with them.
Anyway, thanks to Martin's wonderful site, I was immediately able to locate an alternative instant-access internet savings account with a decent interest rate (and a cashcard to boot!), which I was able to open on-line within minutes. I also spoke to Lloyds, who offered me an alternative savings account with a better interest rate, but no apology for having let my money sit in a 'losings' account for nearly three months without alerting me. You can guess where my nest egg will be tomorrow....
Rant over...And a million thank yous to Martin for his brilliant site, which is helping to keep us financially afloat while we deal with redundancy.:T

Lokolo

Its not Lloyds fault you can't be bothered to look up the interest rate once a month or whatever

If I had £30k I would make sure I am getting a decent return for it!

ShelfStacker_3

ThriftyChoche wrote: »

Obviously, I am aware that interest rates have been falling drastically, but how can this constitute good customer service? How can my bank allow me to be in this situation without at least making a courtesy call or writing me a letter to advise me that my account no longer meets my needs and my money would be better off elsewhere? I am furious with them.

First of all, it isn't Lloyds' fault that the base rate has fallen, and the fall in your rate (and everyone's rate really) reflects that. Secondly, the costs of telephoning/writing to everyone individually to tell them that their interest rates have gone down would be prohibitive and pointless - they already publish changes to their rates in several daily newspapers whenever they occur, as well as maintaining up to date information on their website. Thirdly, why on earth would you expect Lloyds to tell you your money is better off elsewhere/the product is no longer suitable?

naijapower

Surely, with this level of savings you ought to have a personal banker looking after you and advising you

Kavanne

naijapower wrote: »

Surely, with this level of savings you ought to have a personal banker looking after you and advising you

nah 30k is small potatoes to the bank.

Extant

naijapower wrote: »

Surely, with this level of savings you ought to have a personal banker looking after you and advising you

You normally need about £50k to buy you into the portfolio of a banker who looks after >100 customers.

£1m will usually get you into a private bank where the banker looks after <100 customers with a support team.

£10m will probably get you into something of a select portfolio.

£30k gets you branch staff.

withnell

Pretty much all banks open new accounts and drop the rates on the old ones - you've got to check every few months!

ShelfStacker_3

withnell wrote: »

Pretty much all banks open new accounts and drop the rates on the old ones - you've got to check every few months!

It's not even that. Common sense dictates that if you've got a bog standard savings account (the Liquid Golds and Flexible Savers of the world) and the base rate drops, your savings rate will drop with it. Anyone expecting a stellar rate at the moment is barking up the wrong tree entirely.

ThriftyChoche

Yeah, I take your point (all of them!), but I wasn't expecting a stellar rate - just something better than 0.08% on a "savings" account. Surely this contravenes the Trading Standards Act (yes, this comment is tongue-in-cheek, I am aware it doesn't apply to banks)???.

By the way, this was my very first post - I've been reading the forums for over a year, and finally got up the courage to join in. You should go a little easier on newbies!! We're not remotely wealthy, we've just been saving carefully for many years, and thank God we have, as who knows how long it'll take my OH to find a job in this climate?

girltuesday_2

Secondly, the costs of telephoning/writing to everyone individually to tell them that their interest rates have gone down would be prohibitive and pointless

Lloyds display messages (marketing ones usually) in online banking. It wouldn't cost them anything to post one of those messages on the savings account screen advising of a change in rates.

Rustvaar

What you have experienced OP is a lesson.

It's one of those lessons where you experience it first hand, not the type where you witness another persons error or where you hear of someone elses mistake. You've had the best lesson and it's not really cost you much - a few months lower interest - from now on you'll no doubt be keeping an eye on the best rates, your existing rates and you know a little more about loyalty and Lloyds TSB.

I've never banked with Lloyds and I personally wouldn't avoid them because of this incident - Maybe I've grown up with a different view on banks but as far as I see it they're there to take my money and hold it - so long as they achieve that objective the don't really care about me.