TSB - new bank for the UK

JuicyJesus

simax wrote: »

I love the way they are marketing it as a new bank. Do they really think we're that stupid?

Focused on personal banking and small businesses, apparently.

In other words - the corporate clients are staying with Lloyds.

pqrdef

Jaycee_Dove wrote: »

We are to be moved with the branch - despite the utter absurdity and unfairness of this.

At some point they'll make out this is your fault for not moving your account to your local branch.

realaledrinker

Jaycee_Dove wrote: »

As I have noted in the other thread where I have been posting my concerns since July - this is fine if you live near your 'branch' that is being transferred. The problem (as in our case) is that we live 100 miles from the branch we are registered with as Lloyds said it was their policy not to have branches. So when we moved to Wales 11 years ago we have a branch where we used to live but use a branch near our home. We were (reasonably) told this would not effect us.

Of course, now it has. The old branch is on the sale list. The new one is not. We are being sold to a bank which has its nearest branch in an impossible to reach town 35 miles away (we are pensioners with no transport). They are transferring all our cards to the 'new' interim TSB over the next few weeks and from next summer we will no longer be able to use the branch where we have banked for the past 11 years. We will be stuck with no local branch through no fault of our own.

Fine, so the answer is to transfer into the bank where we think we have always been - Lloyds TSB - ie to close the account at the old branch and reopen at the one where we have lived for a decade.

Except the literature received from Lloyds today offers no way to do that. And after calling them and the branch we were given lots of sympathy, a 'complaints' form to fill in over the phone but the response that such moves are not being facilitated under government orders. We are to be moved with the branch - despite the utter absurdity and unfairness of this.

I suspect a lot of people are going to get steamed up when they discover what is going on here - presumably to prevent people staying with Lloyds by choice and the branches being sold thus being mere empty buildings with no customers.

A new, regulated, service being introduced across the industry in 2013 will enable you to switch banks within 7 days which will automatically move Standing Orders, Direct Debits etc.

This should enable you to move to Lloyds with minimal pain if nothing specific is offered.

realaledrinker

simax wrote: »

I love the way they are marketing it as a new bank. Do they really think we're that stupid?

Not sure what your definition of a new bank is, but this one will be ringfenced from Lloyds and will operate in very much stand alone mode until it either is floated onto the Stock Exchange or trebles the size of a small, regional bank.

Jaycee_Dove

pqrdef wrote: »

At some point they'll make out this is your fault for not moving your account to your local branch.

I have put a firm but polite letter in writing to 'my' manager at the Welsh branch and copied it to the manager at the branch where we used to live until 11 years ago stating that:

1: I wish to stay with Lloyds TSB and become registered at the Welsh branchimmediately given the impossibility of travelling 100 miles back to England. And reminding that it was they who declined to transfer me 11 years ago stating it was no longer necessary or bank policy to have branches.

2: That if they are unable to help in this regard over the next four weeks then I will very reluctantly - given my 35 years with Lloyds - have to close both mine and my mothers accounts and our respective savings accounts and switch all our money to another bank with a branch that is local to us and who are happy to accommodate us both.

jonesMUFCforever

Jaycee_Dove wrote: »

I have put a firm but polite letter in writing to 'my' manager at the Welsh branch and copied it to the manager at the branch where we used to live until 11 years ago stating that:

1: I wish to stay with Lloyds TSB and become registered at the Welsh branchimmediately given the impossibility of travelling 100 miles back to England. And reminding that it was they who declined to transfer me 11 years ago stating it was no longer necessary or bank policy to have branches.

2: That if they are unable to help in this regard over the next four weeks then I will very reluctantly - given my 35 years with Lloyds - have to close both mine and my mothers accounts and our respective savings accounts and switch all our money to another bank with a branch that is local to us and who are happy to accommodate us both.

This is not possible FOR THE MOMENT.
The bank realises that some customers will not want to switch and a system will be put in place for that to happen next year.
Write as much as you like to any branch but they will not be able to help you NOW.
Do not panic there will be more information next year.

innovate

Jaycee_Dove wrote: »

I have put a firm but polite letter in writing to 'my' manager at the Welsh branch..........

What keeps you with them, why don't you just move your business to elsewhere? Apart from possibly the Vantage accounts, Lloyds (incl TSB and Halifax) have got nothing to offer that can't be bettered elsewhere.

Particularly for your savings accounts, you are likely to get a rotten deal from them - regardless of which Branch they allocated you to.

pqrdef

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

This is not possible FOR THE MOMENT.
The bank realises that some customers will not want to switch and a system will be put in place for that to happen next year.

What about customers who do want to switch? Suppose my account isn't being sold, but my local branch is being sold. (This would include all customers in Scotland whose account is at a non-Verde branch in England).

These customers haven't had letters. Are they on the radar? Or will they just turn up at their usual branch one day and find the staff won't talk to them? Or a big sign on the door "Lloyds customers !!!!!! off"?

pqrdef

Jaycee_Dove wrote: »

2: That if they are unable to help in this regard over the next four weeks then I will very reluctantly - given my 35 years with Lloyds - have to close both mine and my mothers accounts and our respective savings accounts and switch all our money to another bank with a branch that is local to us and who are happy to accommodate us both.

It's a farce if Lloyds are allowed to hang on to customers. But it's also a farce if the customers just desert. But what else are the customers supposed to do, if their accounts are sold to a bank that hasn't got a local branch?

They should have required Lloyds to get their act together and allocate all customers to local branches before they started the sale process.

pqrdef

realaledrinker wrote: »

This should enable you to move to Lloyds with minimal pain if nothing specific is offered.

Apparently staff have been told to watch out for people doing this - implying that Lloyds will reject applications from ex-customers wanting to switch back, for a time.