Lloyds - TSB split restrictions & false advertising

milovisk

Two of my family have worked for this banking group for many years, my brother started off working for TSB when it was a small "friendly" bank if that is the right description , he worked there for 40 years before recently retiring, when Lloyds took over the bank his life changed from operating as a "banker" helping people with their finances to the high pressure high sell environment which the staff still work under today. I know that because my wife works there.

Basically Lloyds are not allowing people to choose which branch they want to hold their accounts at, even though at the moment they are the same company they are saying if your branch is going to be TSB you need to stay with TSB and if it is going to be Lloyds you need to stay with LLoyds. My mum who is a 78 years old wanted to stay with Lloyds as it easier because my wife works there she can do things for her without the need for her to travel to the branch but the only way she could stay there is to close the account completely and reopen as a new customer but she has been told she will lose any loyalty / priveleges built up over the years. I think this is totally wrong and is restrictive practice.

Also today she received a letter from the TSB arm basically saying that that "Your local bank is back, we were founded 200 years ago and this was our mission when we first founded the bank. It is good to be back"

This is totally misleading as this new TSB bank has zero connection with the old one apart from the name, at the moment it is existing Lloyds people using existing Lloyds practices, there is zero difference. The bank is going to be floated and will be run by someone or some organization completely unknown to any customer. Shouldnt they be told the truth and given an option. Is there anyone that this misleading literature can be reported too? I tried the ombudsman but they said that they can't help in general matters.

anoncol

I dont see where the lies are. You seem to be taking the whole thing very personal, when banking isn't personal.

dr_adidas01

Lloyds are allowing people to choose which branch they want to hold their account at. You ring a dedicated number which your mother would have been sent to ring to arrange for her account to be set up as a new account.

They are not allowed to encourage people to move to them as the EU directive that has now forced Lloyds to sell the 631 branches and accounts that belong to them states there not allowed to actively encourage people to stay with them. People have to call them and tell them they want to move / stay with Lloyds. This means they have to set up a new account which includes sortcode and account number to a branch that is staying within the Lloyds group. It does also mean you will lose all benefits you had as an existing customer that's true but there is nothing Lloyds can do about it.

If your unhappy about this then you need to direct your anger at the EU for forcing Lloyds to do this as part of the government bail out they got.

Also your wife is not allowed to service family / own accounts as it is a breach of her employment contract and also should any problems arise such as money going missing especially if your mum is asked does anyone else have access to your account "Oh yes my sons wife who works for Lloyds does all things for me" She will instantly be dismissed and investigated. Also at worse your mother could have her account closed for breaching its terms and conditions.

I've also had the letters and leaflets you describe and no where does it say "Your Local Bank Is Back". What it does say is "Welcome Back to Local Banking". I don't see how you can say the literature is misleading it seems your interpretation of it is misleading.

I've attached pictures of the leaflets and letters so you can read them and digest them, and see that it doesn't say any of the things you say it does.

Scale_Rule

The wife and i have had these documents through now. We currently have 2 joint accounts, 1 CC and 1 loan with LloydsTSB. All bar 1 joint account will end up with TSB. Should I be bothered about it? Move the lot, one way or another or indeed somewhere else? Don't see that it will make a great deal of difference apart from being further away from a TSB branch should I need one. Sorry if a bit of a highjack!

Archi_Bald

milovisk wrote: »

My mum who is a 78 years old wanted to stay with Lloyds as it easier because my wife works there she can do things for her

As has already been pointed out, this could get both your wife and your mum into deep trouble - unless your wife has a POA, or is a joint account holder with your mum.

milovisk wrote: »

she will lose any loyalty / priveleges built up over the years.

What are these?

milovisk

First of all there is nothing that would be against the rules to get my wife or previously my brother dismissed, basically all that they have done is to take money that my mum has left over from her pension periodically along with a paying in slip filled in by my mum and get a colleague to deposit it into my mums account. My mum is of the old school and insists of taking all of her pension out at the local post office across the road from her and then letting it mount up in the house, so periodically we like her to put it back to the bank as we dont like her keeping money in the house. Several managers (including my brother who was a manager) have been aware of this so I do not see any malpractice, they are not directly accessing and servicing the account themselves. Now that is not really the issue.

dr addison are you an employee of Lloyds , from your answer I can read between the lines and I would like to guess that you may have a vested interest in the verde branches that are becoming TSB. I think it would be a disciplinary offence for any employee to offer advice & opinion on this type of forum, then again nobody would know as everyone here operates under an alias. you do seem very au fait with Lloyds procedures though.

Now to come back to your points

Lloyds are allowing people to choose which branch they want to hold their account at. You ring a dedicated number which your mother would have been sent to ring to arrange for her account to be set up as a new account.

Nice answer but not as simple as it sounds, my mother rang the number and was given a big discouraging talk about needing new sort code account number etc, losing her gold account which she doesnt pay for because gold account no longer exists. Even so she wanted to change so what happened is they sent her out a pack that is very complicated
to fill in. My wife also told me that lots of old people who want to stay are struggling to fill out the forms so not so easy as you are trying to say. So with this complication I interpret it as the same as not giving someone the choice.

the letters and leaflets you describe and no where does it say "Your Local Bank Is Back". What it does say is "Welcome Back to Local Banking". I don't see how you can say the literature is misleading it seems your interpretation of it is misleading.


Once more I think you are being a bit pedantic here and splitting hairs, whatever the wording it is trying to portray the fact that the new bank is the old TSB back in the same old format which is an out and out lie. The only commonality between the old TSB bank and the new one are those three letter "TSB" and to portray otherwise is dishonest and misleading.

Archi_Bald

milovisk wrote: »

The only commonality between the old TSB bank and the new one are those three letter "TSB" and to portray otherwise is dishonest and misleading.

This is your opinion, to which you are entitled. But it is not backed by the information that TSB have published.

jonesMUFCforever

Your mum could get her pension paid into her bank account and still go to the post office of her choice with the bank debit card to make a cash withdrawal.
I'm very surprised family members haven't advised her of this.

EarthBoy

milovisk wrote: »

Once more I think you are being a bit pedantic here and splitting hairs, whatever the wording it is trying to portray the fact that the new bank is the old TSB back in the same old format which is an out and out lie. The only commonality between the old TSB bank and the new one are those three letter "TSB" and to portray otherwise is dishonest and misleading.

That's just your interpretation and you are prejudiced because your mum is finding it difficult to stay with Lloyds. I don't believe that any reasonable person reading the letter and the leaflet will find them misleading. The second paragraph of the letter says " I am the Chief Executive Officer of the new TSB Bank" so they are perfectly honest that it's a new bank.

Page 2 of the letter refers to "the founder of the original TSB, the Reverend Henry Duncan" so again they are clear that there's a difference between the new TSB and the old one.

If you're still unhappy you can try complaining to the Advertising Standards Agency, but it won't get you anywhere. A quick check online at Companies House shows that legally they are the same company as the old TSB. Company no. SC095237 was known as Trustee Savings Bank plc from 27/11/85 until 17/7/86, then it became TSB Scotland plc until 1/11/89. Then for ten years it was known as TSB Bank Scotland plc until 28/6/99 when it became Lloyds TSB Scotland plc. On Monday, it will become TSB Bank plc. So, company records are against you.

And before you ask, I don't work for any bank.

milovisk

We have advised , we are not that stupid but she is old and of the mind set that she needs to draw it all out every week like she used to when she had a pension book, old people don't always think the same as we do you know.
It gets paid into her account but she draws out the whole lot weekls as she has always done, she doesnt spend it all so it eventually finds it's way back. I know it does not make sense but that is how her mind works God bless her.

dr_adidas01

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Your mum could get her pension paid into her bank account and still go to the post office of her choice with the bank debit card to make a cash withdrawal.
I'm very surprised family members haven't advised her of this.

Yes i'm surprised with family members working for Lloyds they have not advised her of this method either.

Oh and I don't work for any bank or financial institution!!!