Argh! Furious with Lloyds TSB!!

earthmother

I have a Basic bank account with the TSB - held it for about five years and never once had anything bounce etc.

Today I get a letter saying that they returned two small paypal payments yesterday because they would have put my account OD by £5.33. This is despite the fact that £186 went into the account yesterday, and was showing (according to the online banking) at the time they returned the DDs.

That's bad enough, you'd think.

Anyway, the letter says to give them a call, which I do (on an 0845 number, so I've had to pay them for the privilege).

I'm on the phone 25 minutes, most of which is spent with me on hold while the CSA fills in a form, or looks on another screen etc. She admitted that the money was in the account, but apparently not quite soon enough (debits processed before credits - crafty)

She then mentioned charges - the letter hadn't said anything about this, so I queried it - after a few minutes of 'looking into it' she said £35 per transaction! So I query it, saying I thought that charges like that had been ruled unfair. So she goes away again for a few minutes, then comes back with a 'goodwill gesture' of waiving one charge - this is after she's looked into my account and admitted that I've never had anything like this happen before.

She does mention an address I can write to regarding the other charge - but I have to ask her four times before she actually gives it to me.


Then - and this is the bit that really got my back up - she spends the last few minutes of the conversation first trying to give me financial advice such as I 'really need to be more aware of what's happening with my account' (as if this was a regular occurence!), and then trying to convince me that I'd be better off upgrading my account - to one with fees! Apparently on 'special offer' at only £3.50 a month (for how long she didn't say)!


So, here they have a customer, benefit income (CTC etc), basic bank account that runs to pennies each month, and they're trying to tell me it would be better for me to give them money each month for an account that has AA, travel and mobile phone insurance that I don't need, and in the same breath telling me to be more aware of my incomings and outgoings.

And yet last month when I asked in branch just to upgrade to an account with a debit card so I wasn't having to deal in cash all the time, I was told no chance.

:mad:


I'm off to the charge reclaiming board now - see what chance I have in getting this money back - at least then I'll only have to pay Paypal's fees (what is it these days - £10 for each? :eek: ).


Oh - and any recommendations for someone to move accounts to? Been thinking about it for a while now - this has just put the seal on it.



(if the Mods think this would do better on Vent, I understand - just thought this was the obvious place - if only as a warning to others)

amandathepanda

How was the £186 paid in, was it paid in over the counter during the day yesterday? DD's come out first thing, so the money needs to be in the account the night before.

MABLE

I use to work for LLoyds and that is correct that debits are dealt with first.
Also with the basic account you are not permitted to go overdrawn so I dont think on this occasion they had any choice but the return the unpaid items.

May seem unfair to you but those are the conditions.

earthmother

The money was transferred online from my husband's TSB account - and was in the account before the DDs were presented as there was nothing showing on the online banking when the transfer was done.


To be fair, if I made a mistake with the timing of the transfer, I accept that (although I wasn't expecting the DDs for another couple of days anyway) - what I am more annoyed about in some respects is the blantent mis-selling that was tried on me at the end, and the number of times I had to request the complaints address, despite the fact that it was the CSA who made me aware of it in the first place.

And also the fact that for the sake of a little goodwill on an otherwise immaculate account, I am now at least £55 out of pocket (that's if they remember to waive than second fee, and Paypal only charge me £10 per transaction)

earthmother

Just been checking through my paperwork (niggling thoughts and all that) - when I opened the account, it had a £10 buffer zone and also didn't charge for returned payments.

Both of these facts are backed up by the CAB and FSA links from various places in this site.

I can't find anything from the bank changing these terms - does anyone know if/when it happened.

If they haven't changed terms, then the DDs should not have been returned in the first place, and I most definitely should not be being charged.

Just want to get my facts straight before I go back to them.

regularsaver1

Its always paypal isn't it

mioliere

Next time you are expected to ring an 08 number go to Saynoto0870.com and, if you type in the company name or the 08 number, it will give you either the freephone or geographic number. The 08 numbers make money for BT and the company you are calling and that's not what MSE is about. I've put the website on favourites and use it all the time. As my calls are free (with SkyTalk - an extra £5.00 per month on top of my SkyTV sub.) to geographic numbers, they cost me NOTHING!!

mioliere

Me again - if the bank have changed their terms and conditions they should have let you know. I have just issued two MCOLs on LloydsTSB!! I will keep everyone informed as to progress!

Paul_Herring

Money for Direct Debits should be in the account and cleared the working day before the DD is taken - it sounds like this wasn't the case in this instance.