Lloyds TSB warning

Jake_the_Spike

I'm new to this board so forgive me if this has been covered previously.

A word of warning about closing a Lloyds TSB mortgage …

I paid interest only on a borrowing of almost £16,000 and safeguarded the repayment of the capital sum with a Legal & General with-profits endowment policy.
It matured a few months before the end of the mortgage period and showed a healthy surplus on the amount I needed to pay off the bank.

Lloyds TSB sent me a letter saying they had “received a cheque today for £51,484.80” from the proceeds of the policy.
They added:
“We will credit this cheque to your servicing account in 3 working days.
If you would like to apply the cheque to your mortgage account instead, please contact us within the next 3 working days.”

The letter had been sent on a Thursday but by the following Thursday the money had not turned up in the servicing account – my current account with the Clydesdale Bank. I phoned Lloyds TSB to see if there was a problem and I was told that I had not let them know which account to send the cheque to!

When I pointed out that their letter had clearly stated:
“We will credit this cheque to your servicing account in 3 working days.”, the call centre person just kept saying: “Ah but you still have to let us know which account you prefer.”
When I said I wanted it in the servicing account, I was told everything was fine now – and the cheque should clear in FIVE working days!
This indeed did happen but I can’t help wonder why the wording of the letter could be allowed to be so misleading. One hates to think that Lloyds TSB want to hold up payments so that they can have the benefit of interest-free capital.

[Deleted User]

Loads of banks hold up money to make money.

Just look at how long internet bacs transfers can take. Must make the banks a mint, so to speak.