Halifax changes...

savagej

I was in the Bank of Scotland today and spoke to one of the "Personal Bankers".

I asked about the change to the computer system and it was said they think it may now have been put back from July.

Also, they were completely open about all of the new products and alignment with LTSB accounts, however, it was clearly stated "if you already have an account of a specific type you will not be forced to change if you dont want to", "the new range is to sell to new customers". I take it from the latter part that the Reward a/c will no longer be available to new customers, but existing customers will see little if any change and you can ask to change to one of the new account range if you wish.

Therefore, it could be concluded this is not the state secret that some people have made it out to be or such a large change in LBG policy. As branch staff are more than willing to discuss both the computer system and upcoming changes to accounts.

jambosans

savagej wrote: »

Therefore, it could be concluded this is not the state secret that some people have made it out to be or such a large change in LBG policy. As branch staff are more than willing to discuss both the computer system and upcoming changes to accounts.

You're no doubt referring to myself? If so, I'd like to point out that I took issue with you name dropping more than anything else, as I've quoted below:

jambosans wrote:

Now obviously it's not as dramatic as I've made it sound, he may not even mind people knowing, but I still think there's been a breach of trust.

I'd imagine that by the time any announcement reaches front line staff the powers that be within an organisation are prepared to accept a level of information leakage. These are big changes, albeit perhaps pre-empted (I've speculated such changes on a few threads now myself), and this thread simply became rife with un-sourced information presented as fact.

pmduk

savagej wrote: »

As it has been announced that LTSB Scotland is to disappear from our high streets, and the LBG brand in Scotland will be BoS then I have a feeling that things may change and that those LTSB customers become BoS customers and that BoS then becomes aligned with Lloyds Bank (to be when TSB is sold in England & Wales) and BoS customers and Lloyds customers will be able to use each others branches again probably for a limited number of transactions types.

LTSB Scotland customers will be transferred to whoever buys the business, together with the LTSB customers of the English and Welsh branches being sold.

pinkdalek

savagej wrote: »

I was in the Bank of Scotland today and spoke to one of the "Personal Bankers".

I asked about the change to the computer system and it was said they think it may now have been put back from July.

Also, they were completely open about all of the new products and alignment with LTSB accounts, however, it was clearly stated "if you already have an account of a specific type you will not be forced to change if you dont want to", "the new range is to sell to new customers". I take it from the latter part that the Reward a/c will no longer be available to new customers, but existing customers will see little if any change and you can ask to change to one of the new account range if you wish.

Therefore, it could be concluded this is not the state secret that some people have made it out to be or such a large change in LBG policy. As branch staff are more than willing to discuss both the computer system and upcoming changes to accounts.

Just goes to show then by speaking to the actual people involved what answers you can get rather than heresay spoken on some internet forum......:T

stclair

pmduk wrote: »

LTSB Scotland customers will be transferred to whoever buys the business, together with the LTSB customers of the English and Welsh branches being sold.

I thought all the lloydsTSB scotland customers were going to become HBOS customers or has that been changed since this press release was issued:

http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media/pdfs/lbg/2010/9910pressrelease.pdf

jambosans

stclair wrote: »

I thought all the lloydsTSB scotland customers were going to become HBOS customers or has that been changed since this press release was issued:

http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media/pdfs/lbg/2010/9910pressrelease.pdf

You've mis-read stclair:-

LBG wrote:

Under the terms of this agreement, the Group has up to four years to complete a sale and is in the preliminary stages of this process.

This business will consist of:
[...]

• the branches and branch based customers of Lloyds TSB Scotland and a related banking licence

Similar idea to the RBS branch sale to Santander south of the border.

savagej

I was not name dropping I sent an email to the CEO Eric Daniel's when he was CEO and Mr Reigner replied for him, the question was about cards issued on current accounts and if any changes were to be made. I then sent Mr Reigner a number of other emails, in the last I asked if the statements put at the very beginning of this post were indeed fact. He replaced, "it is amazing what you can find on the internet these days", "most of the points you make are facts". If you read my posts you will see I only said I had worked for FTSE100 companies and sat in boardrooms with Directors and that they were not the faceless people sometime made out to be and would not make statements that they did not want divulged. I never once said I sat in on the LGB board and I apologies if that is the way it came across, I was merely making a point about large organisations and their leadership.

Some people inferred things into posts, which I simply did not say or imply.

Edit: I have just went back and re-read my posts and indeed in one I said I had done the later, stating I had sat in on an LGB board with the Directors I had actually type the sentence the wrong way around and meant I had sat in on the board with the directors of other FTSE 100 companies working in the field of Data Mining, Balanced Scorecards and general Business Intelligence. I was not attempting to be decepitve and it was an honest mistake.

jambosans

savagej wrote: »

I was not name dropping

I meant name dropping in the sense that you revealed who had given you unannounced information. I was merely pointing out that it could be considered a breach of trust to then post information, provided in a professional and private context, on a public forum.

I'll admit I banded about the term "commercially sensitive" which may have made it seem like I thought this was a bigger deal than it was.

andy_allblack

savagej wrote: »

I was in the Bank of Scotland today and spoke to one of the "Personal Bankers".

I asked about the change to the computer system and it was said they think it may now have been put back from July.

Also, they were completely open about all of the new products and alignment with LTSB accounts, however, it was clearly stated "if you already have an account of a specific type you will not be forced to change if you dont want to", "the new range is to sell to new customers". I take it from the latter part that the Reward a/c will no longer be available to new customers, but existing customers will see little if any change and you can ask to change to one of the new account range if you wish.

Therefore, it could be concluded this is not the state secret that some people have made it out to be or such a large change in LBG policy. As branch staff are more than willing to discuss both the computer system and upcoming changes to accounts.

I hope you don't me asking, if the Reward will not be offered to new customer, will customers in Scotland, be allowed to open a Halifax Reward account, and use BOS branches? Also, do you think BOS, Reward customers in Wales or England would be able to use LTSB as well as Halifax? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Incidentally, I'm a BOS customer myself, thanks

savagej

Good question, I dont know if a customer with a Scottish address will be able to open a new Reward a/c at a Halifax in England and Wales after Bos stop opening news ones, but the current terms and condtions do allow for Bos and Halifax customers to use each others branches. Although that is only for a few different transactions like withdrawals and deposits and there is a limit on the withdrawals as a I recall.

They have not announced yet about the use of what will become Lloyds Bank branches as the TSB brand is being sold as is the whole of LTSB Scotland, so no more Lloyds Banks in Scotland unless they open new branches which I definitely dont think is on the cards. But as they are all going to work on the same computer system and as BoS will be Lloyds Banking Groups brand in Scotland I think it is a fair bet we will be allowed to use English and Welsh branches of Lloyds.