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

AlisonGray

Ed-1 wrote: »

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

Yes 2 months notice, letters were from Account Closure Unit BX1 1LT, will try and upload them.

System

BOS don't actively market outside Scotland; just as Lloyds actively market in England and Wales.

Many non-local people will be using them as 3% savings accounts and nothing else.

Steve_xx wrote: »

How have you arrived at that conclusion?

Ed-1

AlisonGray wrote: »

Yes 2 months notice, letters were from Account Closure Unit BX1 1LT, will try and upload them.

How long have you had the accounts open?

EDIT: Just noticed you said in your post.

xylophone

How long have you had the accounts open?

The OP said

Now I have (Or had) 3 Bank of Scotland Vantage accounts opened since December 2013 and a Halifax Reward Account opened since October 2013

dr_adidas01

If you had read the post you would have seen since Halifax October 2013.

And the BOS ones since December 2013.

dr_adidas01

Ed-1 wrote: »

How long have you had the accounts open?

If you had read the post you would have seen since Halifax October 2013.

And the BOS ones since December 2013.

Ed-1

It makes complete sense to me why LBG Account Closure Unit are deciding to close accounts that are being (ab)used for their benefits.

For those that say "why not just reduce the rate or benefit etc." rather than close all accounts with notice, it's obvious that the bank wants to still attract "normal" current account users (note not ab-users) that may be profitable to them in the future and applying a blanket reduction in the incentive to open an account would make them much less competitive which is not what they want.

What they want is to get rid of the stoozers that are unprofitable to them and they can do just that by invoking their terms and conditions and giving notice of closure.

And note that the branch and other such staff that may recommend current account "stoozing" are not the same staff who for example work in a dedicated Account Closure Unit that are probably paid based on targets on getting rid of such accounts. The staff recommending this are essentially one of us and can just as easily have their account closed by the same decision-making department.

someone

Reading this thread I expect me to get one of these letters. They clearly have an issue with people taking advantage or more than one brand in the group. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up biting them. Creating an illusion of competition then acting in a monopolyistic way.

Tammy2

Other than the required sums going in (and out again) and the required number of DDs, were the accounts ever used for 'normal' transactions? Maybe a few everyday spends a month would help prevent this?

spottybutterfly

I was going to open a Halifax account for the £5 a month but the closures are putting me off. Eventually I will need a mortgage from somewhere and don't want to mess that up. I imaging them closing an account could mess up mortgage applications if I wanted one with them.