Lloyds TSB Platinum Mastercard problem

nighthawk_3

Hi everyone, nighthawk the newbie here!

I registered because something happened earlier today which had me fuming...:mad:

I am about to begin a long overdue credit card shuffle, and am fortunate in that I have a five figure sum to help me juggle. The first step was to pay off my Lloyds TSB Platinum card in full, and then take advantage of their 7.9% life of balance rate. I paid a cheque drawn on my Barclays account in at a Lloyds TSB branch on June 6th, and waited patiently for the balance to show as cleared on my online account.

Finally today, it showed up as cleared! :T I rang the balance transfer line to get the ball rolling, only to be told that the balance still had not been cleared!

I was handed on to another person, who seemed to imply that the clearing process was only started on the 12th (I was too annoyed to press this point, as he seemed to be admitting a mistake on their part). He handed me on to his team leader, who was quite hard-faced, and kept referring me to a process known as "floating", which meant that the bank was within its rights not to clear a cheque for 10 working days - and that my balance would only be cleared next Thursday!

I made my feelings known about what a rip-off I thought this to be, and asked for someone else to speak to, at which point he said I could only write to their customer concerns department in Brighton. I mentioned that the delay would cost me money (extra interest, although the time inconvenience is more relevant) and he said I could ask for this to be refunded - yeah, cos that would be a fraction of the amount they would be earning from my money, which left my Barclays account days ago!

Anyone got any ideas on how to proceed, or further information about this subject...or should I just "float...float on..." until next Thursday?!;)

jonesMUFCforever

I know this won't help you now but next time just make out your Barclays cheque directly out to LTSB card services and pay direct over the counter. This means you would not have to wait for it to clear before using the money to pay off your credit card.

nighthawk_3

ejones999 wrote: »

I know this won't help you now but next time just make out your Barclays cheque directly out to LTSB card services and pay direct over the counter. This means you would not have to wait for it to clear before using the money to pay off your credit card.

Sorry, ejones, I may not have made this clear - that is EXACTLY what I did do!

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

Hello

Floating process' are used by many card institutions, not just lloyds. Basically, it prevents you from drawing on monies that take several days to clear. In some instances, it will depend on the value of the payment you have made.

Unfortunately, you will have to wait until the payment has cleared from the floating process before initiating a B/T - no way round it im afraid

nighthawk_3

ThankYouAndEnjoy! wrote: »

Hello

Floating process' are used by many card institutions, not just lloyds. Basically, it prevents you from drawing on monies that take several days to clear. In some instances, it will depend on the value of the payment you have made.

Unfortunately, you will have to wait until the payment has cleared from the floating process before initiating a B/T - no way round it im afraid

The reason I was given was that because of the sum involved, the floating process kicks in to prevent fraud. Fraud? I have been a Lloyds account holder for nearly 30 years, and the cheque was drawn on a UK bank account in my own name, and from which I have made countless payments to my Lloyds account!

It is clearly a way of hanging onto my money for the bank's own interests.

Update: if proof were needed, I contacted card services again today - I was told that the cheque would now take 7 working days to clear, backdated to 7th June, so now I can do my B/T on Monday. If I had not made a fuss, I doubt this would have happened, leaving another few days for the bank to make more undeserved cash. Multiply this by x amount of customers, and one can only guess at how much they are making by operating this scam. How long does one phone call to my other bank take?

One thing I can tell you - the advisers at card services all have an attitude problem!

apcorbett

Just a word of warning...

On many credit cards, in order to take account of a special balance transfer rate, the credit card must be at £0.00 at the end of a statement period for this to work.

Otherwise - any credit received in a statement period is put to the lowest of the interest rates first:

So:

Balance 1st June = £10,000
Payment 6th June = £10,000 - balance now £0
Balance Transfer 10th June = £10,000 @ 7.9%
Statement 20th June showing £10,000

Therefore, as the payment was received in this statement, it will automatically pay off the lowest rate at the point of producing the statement - i.e. the £10,000 @ 7.9%...

So, you will actually be no better off at all, but even worse, you may have paid a balance transfer fee of 2-3% to do absolutely nothing!

nighthawk_3

apcorbett wrote: »

Just a word of warning...

On many credit cards, in order to take account of a special balance transfer rate, the credit card must be at £0.00 at the end of a statement period for this to work.

Otherwise - any credit received in a statement period is put to the lowest of the interest rates first:

So:

Balance 1st June = £10,000
Payment 6th June = £10,000 - balance now £0
Balance Transfer 10th June = £10,000 @ 7.9%
Statement 20th June showing £10,000

Therefore, as the payment was received in this statement, it will automatically pay off the lowest rate at the point of producing the statement - i.e. the £10,000 @ 7.9%...

So, you will actually be no better off at all, but even worse, you may have paid a balance transfer fee of 2-3% to do absolutely nothing!

Hi Andy,

My first thought on reading your comment was: "Ouch!"

Then I thought: "This can't be right, as there would have to be a balance of £20,000 showing on the statement!"

Then...as I finally got my head around what you meant...I thought: "OUUUUCCCCHHHH!!!!!":eek: :eek: :eek:

Thanks very much for the warning Andy, it sounds just like the sort of thing some credit card companies would stoop to...actually, to be fair, I think it was exactly what a Halifax adviser was trying to warn me about, but I don't think he explained it as well as you (or maybe I'm just hard of understanding!!:D )

I guess I will have to be patient and carry out this shuffle over a period of months rather than weeks. The last thing I intend to do is pay LTSB a 3% fee for nothing...:mad:

Anyway, I'm so new I didnt even know how to add to your 'thank you' total - but I got off my backside and found out! And as I think you have probably saved me from making a mistake which would have sent my blood pressure level through the roof, I also owe you quite a few of these...:beer:

Cheers!

Nighthawk

nighthawk_3

Update:

Right, the payment to LTSB Platinum Mastercard finally floated into my account (can't be bothered to complain about the time it took now, life's too short) and I used the available credit to pay off a Halifax card and part of an MBNA card. I planned to use the newly available credit on the Halifax card to pay off the remainder of the MBNA card, and then pay off other cards in turn (yes, I am knee deep in expensive credit , but slowly digging my way out! )

Halifax had told me previously that there was a 6.95% LOB rate on the account - but when I rang up to do the BT, they told me it would have to be at the standard rate! :mad:

MBNA told me that no special BT rate is showing on my account at the moment (which I knew), but they say, as special offers are generated at random by their computers (yeah, right!), to keep trying.

Any suggestions please anyone?