Lloyds Bank's three month rule re 'inactive' accounts

Jenny05

Hazzanet wrote: »

@OP

Is the overdraft still in place?

Normally, a bank will only give an overdraft where it sees some kind of credit coming into the account each month. I would posit that the bank didn't 'see' that credit coming in (although it may be going into the other accounts you hold) and the overdraft was withdrawn, hence the DD being returned as there wasn't an overdraft in place any more.

I may be wrong though.

Yes - the overdraft is still in place and has never actually shown online as being withdrawn. The 'money available' to me, according to the account online, has always been well over £1k, more than enough to cover all payments this month.

While the 'system' obviously clicked into place sufficiently quickly to reject my mortgage payment, it was not sophisticated enough to show that my overdraft was withdrawn in any way. Payments are now going out as normal because I immediately transferred a further sum into the account. I'm still unhappy at the lack of communication, poor customer service and what I consider to be erroneous charges. I've complained formally - watch this space.

jonesMUFCforever

birkee wrote: »

Some contributers seem to get exercise, jumping to conclusions, don't they? (13 & 14, particulary iereboy who's response made no sense at all. Irrational.)

Firstly, to his knowledge, my Grandson had about £30 left in his account the last time he used it, buying a rail ticket from Scotland.
Secondly, since leaving Scotland, his account was untouched, so going into the overdraft situation was not possible.
Thirdly, due to the hostility engendered between himself and his Mother, there is no question of her forwarding post to him. No statements, no warnings of account closures, absolutely nothing he was able to respond to.
Fourthly, he did not use the account during his time with us, he merely went to check it when the machine kept his card.

His only offense, failing to notify his change of address, but, as he wasn't using his account, he probably saw no reason to worry about it. Had he done so......what's the chance of them reissuing all the post sent to his old address since December 2009?

So, iereboy and jonesMUFCforever your 'arrogant, all knowing replies' did not help. Also iereboy, I was not talking about my Grandsons account with regard to interest on his JSA, but mine and everyone elses accounts.

Some people just won't be told will they?!?!:(

iereboy

birkee wrote: »

Some contributers seem to get exercise, jumping to conclusions, don't they? (13 & 14, particulary iereboy who's response made no sense at all. Irrational.)

Firstly, to his knowledge, my Grandson had about £30 left in his account the last time he used it, buying a rail ticket from Scotland.
Secondly, since leaving Scotland, his account was untouched, so going into the overdraft situation was not possible.
Thirdly, due to the hostility engendered between himself and his Mother, there is no question of her forwarding post to him. No statements, no warnings of account closures, absolutely nothing he was able to respond to.
Fourthly, he did not use the account during his time with us, he merely went to check it when the machine kept his card.

His only offense, failing to notify his change of address, but, as he wasn't using his account, he probably saw no reason to worry about it. Had he done so......what's the chance of them reissuing all the post sent to his old address since December 2009?

So, iereboy and jonesMUFCforever your 'arrogant, all knowing replies' did not help. Also iereboy, I was not talking about my Grandsons account with regard to interest on his JSA, but mine and everyone elses accounts.

You have completely missed the point.

His account went overdrawn. The fairies did not spend the money for him. Surely by now, you would have known the exact transaction/s which took him overdrawn.

They won't reissue every letter sent but they would have been able to reissue bank statements or your grandson could use the internet like what you are doing now and check his balance.

"His only offense, failing to notify his change of address" - you got it in one there.

Jenny05

Just as a follow-up to my post regarding Lloyds TSB's poor communication and customer service (as quoted here), I just wanted to let people know that my complaint was upheld after I wrote a detailed letter outlining my concerns.

Praise goes to their customer relations team for handling everything very efficiently. I've had my charges repaid, plus £100 for the inconvenience, and they even offered to write to my mortgage company to explain that the error was their fault.

So it's worth persevering if you feel that you've been the victim of poor service.

Jenny

Jenny05 wrote: »

Having wasted the morning on a series of extremely frustrating calls to Lloyds TSB, I’m just writing this by way of a warning to people who may not be aware of a rule regarding ‘inactivity’ on a bank account.

I would normally transfer money every month from my business account to my budget account (both with Lloyds) to pay all my usual household bills. However, in mid-November I actually deposited a larger sum of money into the budget account. Since then I have just been spending that money as usual without making my regular transfers as they were unnecessary.

The account remained in credit all this time – until yesterday when my normal mortgage payment went out by direct debit. This took me slightly overdrawn, but nowhere near my agreed overdraft limit.

As I check my accounts online daily, I noticed this morning that the direct debit to the mortgage company had been returned unpaid.

I’ve spent the best part of this morning trying to unravel this scenario. It transpires that – because I hadn’t put any further money into the account for three months and regardless of the fact that it remained in credit until yesterday and I have still not gone over my overdraft limit – the ‘system’ automatically rejects all payments until I make another deposit into the budget account. On top of that, I will be charged £10 for the returned item!

I was assured that the ‘three-month rule’ would have been mentioned in the terms and conditions section of documents relating to my account – I haven’t unearthed said documents yet.

I won’t go into detail about the somewhat tiresome exchanges I’ve had with Lloyds about this. I can understand that they need to protect themselves but a little flexibility surely wouldn’t go amiss with someone who has banked with them for over 30 years. I’ve just been landed with an unexpected charge – and the potential of a negative mark against my credit rating for defaulting on my mortgage – which I feel is unmerited.

This might be something which other people have covered before, so my apologies if it is! But be aware!

Cmdr_Bond

Well at least the complaints resolutions team is on the ball.

Well done on getting a favourable outcome.

Nukumai

iereboy wrote: »

You have completely missed the point.

His account went overdrawn. The fairies did not spend the money for him.

Perhaps, and you might be correct in that the young man was the author of his own misfortune.

But, as numerous accounts of bank errors in these and other forums serve to illustrate...banks can and do make mistakes.

pmduk

Well done, thanks for updating us, it's always useful.