revert to basic account?

makinganeffort

I currently pay £17 pcm for a value added bank account with lloyds. I upgraded last year to cover cost of AA, the OD I had and also to get travel insurance which cover my family of 4 for our holiday. It was worth the money last year.

This year I am making a concerted effort to pay back debts and therefore cutting where I can.

I no longer have an OD. I could get AA cover with my tesco clubcard vouchers or certainly for less than £17 per month.

I am not going on holiday this year.

Can I revert back to a basic account? How do I do this?

thanks

HappyMJ

Speak to the bank. They will do everything possible to convince you to stay so expect to be on the call for a while, stay firm and just ask them to change it to a standard account. If they refuse open a new one and close the account.

makinganeffort

Thanks. Am tempted to close it anyway and switch to a bank that is offering the cashback e.g. santander or first direct. I only use the account for direct debit payments. I am truly lazy and have both my accounts with lloyds.

I don't even know how to close a bank account ?

Savvy_Money

Closing an account is fairly straight forward. Write a letter requesting closure - or better still use your new bank's switching service and after a month or two close the old account. I would recomend keeping the old account open a little while in case of a forgotten direct debit.

I'd be wary of Santander as it receives a lot of negative publicity.

happy_bunny_2

Savvy_Money wrote: »

Closing an account is fairly straight forward. Write a letter requesting closure - or better still use your new bank's switching service and after a month or two close the old account. I would recomend keeping the old account open a little while in case of a forgotten direct debit.

I'd be wary of Santander as it receives a lot of negative publicity.

First direct is the wy ahead. Been with hem or 5 years and great service

anniecave

There are lots of other breakdown providers other than the AA and RAC etc. Take a look at the breakdown provider article on this website.

Just be aware that "length of time that you've had your current account for" is something that affects your credit score.

I wouldn't switch to Santander just for a freebie.

I would be careful when switching direct debits over. Last time I did this my new bank tried to switch over all my direct debits with only a few days before they were all due to be paid. My old bank duly cancelled them all, but were wasn't enough time for the new direct debit arrangements to be set up with the new bank before the due dates. Hence every direct debit didn't go through and I had to make arrangements to pay each one by other means.

[Deleted User]

I've got to say, the best "Added Value" account I've come across is Halifax's URCA. If you're paying in £1000 a month, it's a £10 monthly fee. Comes with AA (with Home Start), worldwide travel insurance, home emergency cover, and mobile phone insurance. If you have it as a joint account, you're both covered for one fee - and if you've both got a sole basic reward account which gets £1000 cycled through it each month too, that's 2x£5 monthly rewards too, effectively making the URCA free

CoffeeCup

Just got rid of my select account with Lloyds and changed it to classic account. Add vantage and you get interest on your account providing you pay £1,000 pm into it and keep it in credit.

So was paying £8.95 a month, and add on the £5 overdraft fee and the £5/6 overdraft interest.
And this month I got 63p interest.

Only got select for phone insurance and we've now got it included in the house insurance.

Although I'm debt free now I've only just come out of my overdraft and paid off my credit card so I'm keeping my hand in with Lloyds for the time being.

I just rang up and did it over the phone, just keep saying no to silver, gold etc accounts. Everytime I said no they offered another level lol. Simple enough to do. You keep the same bank account details so there are no problems with it.