Citibank Access Current Account Withdrawn

Stompa

I see that Citibank have withdrawn their Access current account:

https://www.emoneyfacts.co.uk/news/current-ac-news.aspx?newsarticleid=208912

I wonder if this means that existing account holders will end up being forced to change to a Citibank Plus account.....?

Hazzanet

Yeah, I noticed this a couple of days ago and mentioned it in this thread.

I'm not sure what they are planning to do with Access account holders; the plus account alludes to fee-free currency accounts as a benefit (which I as an Access account holder already have) so they might be beginning to position themselves to charge for that service unless you are a plus account holder.

Further, the other thread notes that LTSB are ceasing their agency banking services. Citibank with a 30-00-45 sort code would be an angency of Lloyd's so they're being slow about telling us of a sort code change if indeed it is the case that LTSB are leaving the agency services market.

Stompa

Hazzanet wrote: »

Yeah, I noticed this a couple of days ago and mentioned it in this thread.

Thanks, I'd missed that one.

Hazzanet wrote: »

I'm not sure what they are planning to do with Access account holders; the plus account alludes to fee-free currency accounts as a benefit (which I as an Access account holder already have) so they might be beginning to position themselves to charge for that service unless you are a plus account holder.

I suspect they're planning to migrate (free) Access account holders to the (fee-paying, unless you deposit £1800+ per month and have 2 DD's etc.) Plus account. FWIW they've done this sort of thing before. I've held a current account with them for many years, and back in 2007 they withdrew my particular type of account and I had no choice but to migrate to the (slightly lower spec) Access account.

Hazzanet wrote: »

Further, the other thread notes that LTSB are ceasing their agency banking services. Citibank with a 30-00-45 sort code would be an angency of Lloyd's so they're being slow about telling us of a sort code change if indeed it is the case that LTSB are leaving the agency services market.

Oh groan, that could be a real pain. Assuming that the 30-00-45 sort code is only used by Citibank, is there no mechanism by which they could 'take it with them'?

Hazzanet

I suspect you're right on moving Access customers to the Plus account. If this is the case then I can't see that I would want to retain their services as £8/pm for an annual travel policy is a tad steep, and I can access foreign services via other methods if I need to.

With respect to the sort code, 30-xx-xx is the Lloyd's range; the business services they are providing to HMRC are in the 08-xx-xx range which is the Co-op Bank, and off the top of my head, I seem to recall that the IBANs have a 16-xx-xx range which is RBS. They clearly are spreading their business around and I would expect that the simplest change would be to move personal accounts from the 30-00-45 range to the 16-xx-xx range which are already used in the IBANs, if RBS permits.

chinesealan

Hi all - first time poster over here!

I have all three foreign currency accounts with Citi on the free Access level.

Today I noticed that I have been charged $7.47 for depositing a USD cheque into my USD account.

Checked the current rates and charges - and from the 15th Sept it costs £5 to deposit a foreign currency cheque, regardless of the currency of the account your paying into.

I primarily opened these accounts to not get charged for foreign currency cheques - seems I'm not that much better off than depositing the cheque into a UK bank. I'll even get some interest on the money as well.

The benefits of owning these accounts have now become minimal for me.

Hazzanet

Correction to the above. The IBANs are in the 18-xx-xx range, which still belongs to RBS.

Stompa

Hmmm, just had a phone call out of the blue from Citibank, saying that I'd been identified as a customer who might like to upgrade to a Citigold account. I wonder what that's all about? An attempt to persuade customers to shift away from the free Access account?

Stompa

Hazzanet wrote: »

Further, the other thread notes that LTSB are ceasing their agency banking services. Citibank with a 30-00-45 sort code would be an angency of Lloyd's so they're being slow about telling us of a sort code change if indeed it is the case that LTSB are leaving the agency services market.

FWIW I've just noticed this:

http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/customerinfo/usingyouraccount/movingmoney/paymenttransfers.htm?merchant=citi

I see no mention of any sort code changes.

pmduk

There was a warning last weekend on Barclays Internet Banking that the sort code 30-00-45 wasn't accepting any inbound payments at all. I wonder if this is connected to these changes?

pqrdef

pmduk wrote: »

There was a warning last weekend on Barclays Internet Banking that the sort code 30-00-45 wasn't accepting any inbound payments at all. I wonder if this is connected to these changes?

It was connected to their disastrous first attempt at going live with inbound Faster Payments.

CashBash

chinesealan wrote: »

Hi all - first time poster over here!

I have all three foreign currency accounts with Citi on the free Access level.

Today I noticed that I have been charged $7.47 for depositing a USD cheque into my USD account.

Checked the current rates and charges - and from the 15th Sept it costs £5 to deposit a foreign currency cheque, regardless of the currency of the account your paying into.

I primarily opened these accounts to not get charged for foreign currency cheques - seems I'm not that much better off than depositing the cheque into a UK bank. I'll even get some interest on the money as well.

The benefits of owning these accounts have now become minimal for me.

Just came across this thread/post after another poster linked to it in a thread I posted earlier.

I too found out the hard way about Citibanks new fee for depositing foreign cheques and am also peeved by this.

Thought I'd ask if you were aware of any decent alternative US Dollar accounts.