My Dads Halifax and Bank of Scotland accounts closed for the free £5 ?

Zanderman

7sefton wrote: »

As this issue is obviously causing some concern (and also is a potential argument against the 'use current account as savings accounts/interest income boosters' argument advocated by MSE and elsewhere), is there any way for Martin Lewis to ask Lloyds Banking Group if they are auditing all accounts and closing those that are used mainly to benefit from interest/rewards?

I'd rather he didn't.

There may or may not be an issue - but there probably isn't.

We only have one instance reported, and that may be for different reasons - plus we are aware, collectively, that numerous people (hundreds?, thousands?) have not had any problem.

Raising this with the banks as a formal question could create a problem - as several have suggested.

So:

hardly any (possibly none) evidence for a problem

loads of evidence for there being no problem, plus

suggestion that asking about it could create the very problem we're discussing (which is probably, see points above, an imaginary problem).

So why would we want anyone to ask?

7sefton

Zanderman wrote: »

I'd rather he didn't.

There may or may not be an issue - but there probably isn't.

We only have one instance reported, and that may be for different reasons - plus we are aware, collectively, that numerous people (hundreds?, thousands?) have not had any problem.

Raising this with the banks as a formal question could create a problem - as several have suggested.

So:

hardly any (possibly none) evidence for a problem

loads of evidence for there being no problem, plus

suggestion that asking about it could create the very problem we're discussing (which is probably, see points above, an imaginary problem).

So why would we want anyone to ask?

I disagree.

We're kidding ourselves if Lloyds are unaware that customers are taking advantage of these loopholes on a big scale, thus costing the bank money. They are not naive and follow boards like this.

Thus, they either don't mind customers exploiting loopholes and are happy to confirm this (which would prove that the problem identified on this thread is imaginary), or have decided to crack down on it thus giving us some time to close down the loophole accounts and avoid damaging our reputation/record with the bank.

Either way, getting a clear and public answer must be the best thing?

MABLE

7sefton wrote: »

Either way, getting a clear and public answer must be the best thing?

What it says in their terms and conditions is the way we should be running our accounts. Lloyds group do not need to confirm or deny anything.

Steve_xx

7sefton wrote: »

Either way, getting a clear and public answer must be the best thing?

It's best left alone. Let the lion sleep.

eskbanker

MABLE wrote: »

What it says in their terms and conditions is the way we should be running our accounts.

Not really, they are a base set of rules but OP's issue, as I understood it, is that even accounts being run in accordance with the Ts & Cs are still subject to discretionary closure....

7sefton

eskbanker wrote: »

Not really, they are a base set of rules but OP's issue, as I understood it, is that even accounts being run in accordance with the Ts & Cs are still subject to discretionary closure....

Exactly. The T&Cs are not enough to protect customers who use the accounts just to gain rewards, because it seems like Lloyds might be closing accounts for not sticking to the spirit as well as the letter of the T&Cs.

Martin Lewis asks other companies to confirm loopholes where there are shades of grey about whether it is allowed/encouraged/legal, so this seems to be a timely point to do the same with this.

molerat

I used my Tesco card to pay the dentist this morning. That has now been removed from my wallet and replaced with one of my BOS cards for next time I need a debit card ........ and so on

ffacoffipawb

molerat wrote: »

I used my Tesco card to pay the dentist this morning. That has now been removed from my wallet and replaced with one of my BOS cards for next time I need a debit card ........ and so on

Coincidentally, reading this thread has been like having teeth pulled ....

AlisonGray

Well folks you can officially add me to the list of people who have now had their accounts closed by Bank of Scotland and the Halifax !.

I read this thread last week, and I admit I thought that the OP and others must have done something wrong, they would not just close accounts for no reason !, and of course also thinking that it hopefully won’t happen to me !, well tonight I came home to 2 letters and it has happened to me.

Now I have (Or had) 3 Bank of Scotland Vantage accounts opened since December 2013 and a Halifax Reward Account opened since October 2013, the Bank of Scotland accounts were opened by Telephone and the Halifax was opened online. They have had no problems, no card transactions, No cheque Transactions, no large or funny types of payments just a Transfer from my Barclays account to the First Vantage account, then the 2nd, then the 3rd and then back to Barclays, some months I leave the interest in and sometimes I transfer it out to Barclays.

The reward account gets a £800 payment from my NatWest account and then out again, I have NEVER transferred between my Bank of Scotland accounts and my Halifax account, they are not linked in any way other than both being shown on my online banking. So I can truthfully say I have done no other transactions with these accounts other than the transfers and of course I have my phone bill and Insurance Direct Debits set up on the Halifax. I can say hand on heart I have done nothing suspicious on any of these accounts.

The Bank of Scotland letter says the bank has made a ‘Commercial Decision’ to close my accounts as they are no longer economically viable., the Halifax one says they are closing it because of Account Misuse !, I phoned the Bank of Scotland but got nowhere as they did not seem interested, and to be fair neither did the Halifax but when I asked them how I have misused my account I was told it was classed as Misusing an account incentive.

I suppose I should have seen it coming, but I had hoped they might have warned me, but it seems no they just close them, thankfully I don’t have a Lloyds account or I think that would be gone as well !.

One thing that has never been mentioned here was if it will affect my credit report, when I asked I was told no I would simply show that the account was closed, but the reason for closure would be retained in the banks records, which I took to mean they would not want me as a customer in the future.

Ed-1

AlisonGray wrote: »

Well folks you can officially add me to the list of people who have now had their accounts closed by Bank of Scotland and the Halifax !.

I read this thread last week, and I admit I thought that the OP and others must have done something wrong, they would not just close accounts for no reason !, and of course also thinking that it hopefully won’t happen to me !, well tonight I came home to 2 letters and it has happened to me.

Now I have (Or had) 3 Bank of Scotland Vantage accounts opened since December 2013 and a Halifax Reward Account opened since October 2013, the Bank of Scotland accounts were opened by Telephone and the Halifax was opened online. They have had no problems, no card transactions, No cheque Transactions, no large or funny types of payments just a Transfer from my Barclays account to the First Vantage account, then the 2nd, then the 3rd and then back to Barclays, some months I leave the interest in and sometimes I transfer it out to Barclays.

The reward account gets a £800 payment from my NatWest account and then out again, I have NEVER transferred between my Bank of Scotland accounts and my Halifax account, they are not linked in any way other than both being shown on my online banking. So I can truthfully say I have done no other transactions with these accounts other than the transfers and of course I have my phone bill and Insurance Direct Debits set up on the Halifax. I can say hand on heart I have done nothing suspicious on any of these accounts.

The Bank of Scotland letter says the bank has made a ‘Commercial Decision’ to close my accounts as they are no longer economically viable., the Halifax one says they are closing it because of Account Misuse !, I phoned the Bank of Scotland but got nowhere as they did not seem interested, and to be fair neither did the Halifax but when I asked them how I have misused my account I was told it was classed as Misusing an account incentive.

I suppose I should have seen it coming, but I had hoped they might have warned me, but it seems no they just close them, thankfully I don’t have a Lloyds account or I think that would be gone as well !.

One thing that has never been mentioned here was if it will affect my credit report, when I asked I was told no I would simply show that the account was closed, but the reason for closure would be retained in the banks records, which I took to mean they would not want me as a customer in the future.

Any chance of uploading the letter(s)? Are they giving 2 months notice of closure? Is this from the Account Closure Unit?