Lloyds overdraft fee

noh

soil wrote: »

I can't, I already have one.

Close it.
Then open a new one.

soil_2

noh wrote: »

Nooo!
Well at least look through these forums and see the problems that others have encountered with them.

I just gave them a call, they seemed quite helpful, she said I can get a zero account as I'm transferring a lot of £££ with free overdraft and free withdrawals worldwide (quite handy as we go abroad a lot, and Nationwide ditched us on that score a while ago)....

jambosans

soil wrote: »

I just gave them a call, they seemed quite helpful

Of course they're nice and helpful when courting new business.

noh

soil wrote: »

I just gave them a call, they seemed quite helpful, she said I can get a zero account as I'm transferring a lot of £££ with free overdraft and free withdrawals worldwide (quite handy as we go abroad a lot, and Nationwide ditched us on that score a while ago)....

By all means open an account with them to take advantage of the zero account but I wouldn't advise moving all your finances to them because it is likely, at some point, something will go wrong and you wont have access to any of your money.

noh

Please don't take this the wrong way but it appears you are more concerned about the £5 monthly overdraft usage fee you have to pay to Lloyds, maximum cost £60 per year, than you are about the interest you are potentially losing by keeping your savings in an account that only pays 1.6% gross.
If your average savings balance is £75000 then your potential loss of interest compared to an account paying 3% is £1050 gross pa.

I would get the savings into a higher paying account as a matter of priority and if you want to avoid the overdraft usage fee keep a buffer of £5k in your current account after adding Vantage. Otherwise just consider the £5 as the cost of running the account in the way you do.

soil_2

noh wrote: »

Please don't take this the wrong way but it appears you are more concerned about the £5 monthly overdraft usage fee you have to pay to Lloyds, maximum cost £60 per year, than you are about the interest you are potentially losing by keeping your savings in an account that only pays 1.6% gross.
If your average savings balance is £75000 then your potential loss of interest compared to an account paying 3% is £1050 gross pa.

I would get the savings into a higher paying account as a matter of priority and if you want to avoid the overdraft usage fee keep a buffer of £5k in your current account after adding Vantage. Otherwise just consider the £5 as the cost of running the account in the way you do.

Yeah that's perfectly logical, you know the thing is you keep a bank account for years the bad rates aren't really the thing that drive you away it's the poor service or irritating charges, I should get more annoyed about losing the £££ but really what bugs me is being nickel-and-dimed on silly charges.

I used to bank with Smile but now I hate them because not only did they stuff up their rates but what got me was they wanted to take my overdraft away and charge me a monthly fee.

Do Santander use that silly card reader like Smile do? I hate those.

noh

No Santander do not use a card reader.
They use a one time password via SMS when setting up new payees. Similar to Lloyds system of an automated voice message.

soil_2

I spoke to a lady at Santander earlier and explained my circumstances including the fact that I had nearly £200k to transfer across to them, and she (unprompted) recommended the Zero Current Account to me. She asked if I'd like someone to call me back to do the change and I said no I'll call back myself.

So I did that and the woman on the phone said 'Sorry you have to have had the account open for 3 months'. I said 'the woman I spoke to said I could have a Zero account', she said 'She was wrong, these are the criteria, you can setup the account now and upgrade in 3 months'. I said 'In that case I'm not interested, goodbye'.

noh

Yes unfortunately the sort of customer service errors that are common with Santander.
The second CS rep was correct. The zero account is only available to certain customers.

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?appID=abbey.internet.Abbeycom&c=Page&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1237851350496&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateT2

So unless you have a mortgage or an investment product with them then you have to have had £10k or more savings with them for 3 months before you can open the zero current account.

Saints2011

Go into a Lloyds branch, im sure they can do a redress for charges if its getting your back up, afterall rather redress a few pound rather than lose £200k from bank.