Lloyds and my wife the money launderer.

vacheron

tocsin wrote: »

Be very careful that the Lloyds "higher ups" haven't flagged your wife on the shared bank fraud database - there have been cases in the press and on radio recently where a person couldn't get banking facilities anywhere, even though it was the bank's error!

Just checked - R4 MoneyBox in June -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/9733474.stm

Yes, this is really our only concern, and thanks for the link.

We both have perfect credit ratings (confirmed by the £2 Experian and Equifax reports of around 3 months ago which I order each year as a precaution).

She is a joint account holder on our Barclays Premier account (just because it was free... no way would I pay good money for it. ), and she has owned her own personal credit card with a 5K+ credit limit or years on which the balance is always paid on time (ironically this is also a Lloyds card but amazingly the were happy for her to keep this facility until we asked them to close it when we visited on general principle)!

So if we have the slightest problem when applying for a new account then I'll be straight back to Lloyds and nowhere near as accepting of the outcome as I currently am!

Dave_C_2

This would be the same Lloyds that changed the rules that made it impossible for my wife to withdraw money from her telephone bank account - without telling us:mad:

How on earth this crowd of cowboys retain customers is beyond me.

Dave

Del_Astra

Unsurprisingly, she couldn't care less what Lloyds think of her now as neither of us will ever be banking with them again, but I sincerely hope that the issue remains internal to them.

And you say you changed to the direct debts to Halifax? I might be missing something (probably am) but doesn't this mean you are still with Lloyds? Halifax = Lloyds does it not?

trukdiver

Dave_C wrote: »

This would be the same Lloyds that changed the rules that made it impossible for my wife to withdraw money from her telephone bank account - without telling us:mad:

How on earth this crowd of cowboys retain customers is beyond me.

Dave

The same Lloyds that sent a new credit card card to my old address then charged me £35 for not using it, then another £30 a month in charges for not paying the dormancy fee! :mad:

trukdiver

Del_Astra wrote: »

Unsurprisingly, she couldn't care less what Lloyds think of her now as neither of us will ever be banking with them again, but I sincerely hope that the issue remains internal to them.

And you say you changed to the direct debts to Halifax? I might be missing something (probably am) but doesn't this mean you are still with Lloyds? Halifax = Lloyds does it not?

yes it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBOS

Jinx

My brother banks with Lloyds....... his wife just paid for their house deposit at the solicitors - 50k....... Lloyds paid it twice, cue a few days in the red to the tune of 50k, direct debits bouncing and a nightmare to get the money back! Only when a complaint to the ombudsman was made and the threat of contacting the fraud squad did they put the money back...

vacheron

Del_Astra wrote: »

Unsurprisingly, she couldn't care less what Lloyds think of her now as neither of us will ever be banking with them again, but I sincerely hope that the issue remains internal to them.

And you say you changed to the direct debts to Halifax? I might be missing something (probably am) but doesn't this mean you are still with Lloyds? Halifax = Lloyds does it not?

Yes, I am aware that Halifax are part of the Lloyds group, however Halifax is our main day-to-day joint account and so was the logical place to temporarily redirect the imminently failing direct debits in the limited time available until my wife got her new account sorted out.

In addition I have banked with Halifax since 1995 and have always found them to be exceptional before their recent takeover and have noticed no parent company influence since the takeover so I'm not going to tar them with the same brush.

timdf911

I routinely transfer significant funds from overseas (USA) to my UK bank account and find the only way to do it is via a UK based foreign exchange service which is suitably registered and insured.
Plus you usually get a much better exchange rate into GBP.
Not sure if the op was using a broker or going direct - either way sounds very odd !

Takeaway_Addict

vacheron wrote: »

I thought I'd take the time to share our recent tale of Lloyds and their anti-fraud department's misguided and complete over-reaction concerning my wife and a gift from her parents to their grandson.

My wife has been a Lloyds customer for over 7 years after she opened a current account while studying for her postgraduate degree at Cardiff University. Since then she has added cash ISAs and a savings account which in total added up to approximately £50K.

Two years ago we took out a joint offset mortgage with Barclays and so we moved all of her savings over into that and she used her Lloyds current account for salary and personal direct debits etc.

She put her career on hold in order to be a full time mum and we now have a 4 month old son. I make payments into her account as and when required to keep it topped up at a healthy level.
In addition, since our son was born, her parents (who live overseas) have been sending her money to spend on their grandson as the distance makes it difficult for them to visit as often as they would like. In the last 12 months (while she was pregnant and since our son was born) they have sent 3 gifts of approximately £300, £600 and £700.

All was well until Saturday morning when she received a letter out of the blue from Lloyds stating that they had reviewed her account and that, with immediate effect, all payments to and from her account, including direct debits and standing orders would not be honored, and her balance would be frozen and that all her accounts would be closed in 2 months time. However As the letter arrived on Saturday morning and direct debits were due to come out as soon as Tuesday, this was obviously a major problem. The letter also stated that in order for her to even have her balance returned she had to prove the source of her account balance to their satisfaction!

We immediately made an appointment to visit the main city centre branch on Monday and arrived armed with receipts, bank statements and full traceability of the source of the funds which her father had kindly ran around his home town to collect and had emailed to us. (her Lloyds statement even had her fathers surname against each of the transfers)! In addition her father now felt awful and kept profoundly apologising as his kind gifts had resulted in her being treat as a criminal and that he had "caused us so much inconvenience".

When we arrived at the branch the very helpful customer services manager read all our evidence and agreed that everything was perfectly innocent and completely in order, and rang the "higher up" department which had locked the account. He returned to state that the "higher up" department had received the evidence he had scanned and sent to them, they were now also completely convinced that the whole thing was an error on their part, and of course they would return her balance to her in cash right there and then as the funds were clearly genuine and legally hers... however they still had to close her account! The adviser even had to take her bank cards from her while apologising sincerely!.

And the really ridiculous part... two days later Lloyds sent her a replacement credit card as her current one was approaching expiry. Apparently this was still perfectly OK to have. We cancelled it anyway out on principle as we want nothing more to do with them.

So, in summary, If you have family overseas who wish to send relatively small amounts to their daughter and grandson and would like your accounts frozen and your direct debits to bounce with no notice while being treated like a criminal, Lloyds is the bank for you!

They made a mistake, it was annoying but you are over reacting tbf

Zedicus

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

They made a mistake, it was annoying but you are over reacting tbf

Congratulations! You won the bet.