Bank of Scotland, Halifax and now TSB have closed my Accounts

MikeSmith61

I want to tell you a story (I am sure some famous Entertainer said that), anyway I have always taken a keen interest in this board (And Similar Boards) as I find they provide a great deal of good information, and with that in mind I would like to share a recent experience with you in case it helps anyone else.

As this is my first post please excuse any spelling mistakes !.

I have 3 Bank of Scotland Vantage Accounts, 1 Halifax Reward Account and 1 Lloyds Bank Club Account. I have read with great interest about the ongoing problems people are having with their accounts being closed, and I admit that although I always had it in the back of my mind I was of the opinion that it won’t happen to me as the other customers must be doing something with their accounts to make the banks close them.

Well last week I got first a letter from the Bank of Scotland to say I had 30 days to take my banking elsewhere and one from Halifax saying the same !. Now I suppose I should have seen it coming, and although yes it is a bit of a hassle for me it’s not the end of the world, what would be a big problem for me is if they closed my Lloyds account as my Salary and all my Direct Debits are paid from there, the Bank of Scotland and Halifax account was just to get the interest and the free £5 every month, and I suppose as they say it was good whilst it lasted.

So I spent hours thinking of what I should do with the Lloyds account, I don’t really want to close it as I have always had a good relationship with Lloyds, never been overdrawn or had any problems with them, but at the same time I did not want to be constantly worrying about getting a letter telling me I had 30 days to go elsewhere, and 30 days would mean a lot of work changing salary, Direct Debits and other credits into a different account, so I decided I would rather jump before I was pushed and though the best account would be TSB, after all they were part of Lloyds but they are no more, and I already have the account open with £2k in it so I will just move everything to the TSB. So I told my employer, phone up the companies that I could not change myself online for the Direct Debits etc a bit felt a bit relieved to be honest.

Then with Saturday mornings post came the bomb Shell a letter from TSB almost word perfect from the Bank of Scotland and Halifax letters (Except for the Logo) telling me I had 30 days to take my Banking Elsewhere as my account had been reviewed and due to abuse of the facilities a commercial decision had been taken to no longer offer me banking facilities. It is no underestimate to say I stood looking at the letter for a good ten minutes in complete disbelief, I read it over and over again as I thought there must be some mistake, apart from which I had just changed everything over to the TSB and now I would have to change it to something else, which was going to make me look stupid with my employer and all the companies with whom I just changed the Direct Debits !.

Then I thought I would phone them, but they would not tell me anything, then I got worried that they might be closing them to due to fraud, maybe someone had got hold of my details or something. So today I thought I would go into my local TSB branch, I had never been in it as the account was opened online, I certainly was not going to go in all guns blazing as it’s not the staffs fault, but I did want some answers especially if my account was being closed due to fraud or something nasty.

The first girl I seen was helpful but could only repeat what had been said on the phone, then I asked to speak with the manager as I was concerned it could be fraud, I am not sure if that did anything as she took me into a room at that point and told me to wait. I waited for what seemed like ages, and almost to the point of just walking out and forgetting the whole thing when the manager came into the room (At least I assume it was the manager), I explained exactly what had happened and told him about the Bank of Scotland Accounts, the Halifax my Concerned about Lloyds and now the TSB, and the fact that I was concerned that maybe my Identity had been stolen or fraud or something. He did his best on the computer and looked at the account, but again could not tell me anything, then he told me he would make a phone call, which he did but talk about security he had to tell them who he was, and some sort of ID number, then various bits that I could only grasp like Markers and Internal data. When he came off the phone he told me it was due to Internal Data within the Lloyds Banking Group that had been passed to TSB and based on this information they had decided to close my account, I pressed him on what information had they received, was it from my Credit Report ?, he said that I was not EXTERNAL DATA but INTERNAL to the Group, to which I said that Lloyds had nothing to do with TSB now, but he said that the demerger is not yet complete and as part of the demerger there was a reciprocal arrangement that data will still be shared for some time between Lloyds and TSB, I said that surely that happens between banks anyway as they can check your credit report, bit he said (And forgive me if this makes no sense) the internal data such as CPD markers are shared to prevent abuse of accounts, and in my case as I had abused the facilities in their eyes by simply circulating money around my accounts for financial gain this was shared and my accounts to be closed, when I asked him how much data to they get on customers he back peddled quickly and said they would only see limited data, but I got the feeling he had already said too much.

He did tell me it was not fraud or identity theft, and if I opened an account at another bank I would be fine, but as it Happens I already have a NatWest account with £10 in that will now be getting my salary and Direct Debits !.

I am sorry for rambling on and for any of this that does not make sense as I tried to remember as much as I could but some stuff they were saying when he was on the phone made no sense to me at all.

joeblags

this could see a lot of people stuffed, those who use all 4 banks
lloyds
tsb
Halifax
BOS


this is happening far to often now.


this has made me glad I diverted my Loyds over to yorkshirebank, I use Halifax as a main account but ive also set up direct debits with tsb and started paying for petrol and shopping on my tsb card aswell, cant says im only with tsb for the interest now.


I was going to re open another Lloyds or a Bos to just get the interest but I think ill wait now till nationwide will accept me for there flex account

starM

When searching through TSB Terms and conditions I cannot see anywhere saying data will be shared across Lloyds Banking Group. It completely has no mention of Lloyds.

If they sharing data without customer consent obviously that is breach of data protection?

Yorkshire_Pud

Commiserations to OP there must be hundreds, thousands doing the same and its not clear why about four people have been singled out this year as reported here and I guess others no one hears about.

As this phenomenum seems to be gaining momentum I am surprised that someone at mse hasn't yet taken this up and tried to get answers from LBG and TSB especially as mse promotes to a degree the kind of fiscal shenanigans that many of us engage in just to get a meagre return that's not an insult from these bailed out banks.

Mind you that could be a mixed blessing as it could give LBG ideas IF this phenomenum doesn't really exist.

Bank accounts are being closed every day for all sorts of reasons and always have been.

I just don't know what to make of all this, at the moment I believe most of us 'abusing' account facilities will not be getting these letters of closure of every account under LBG and TSB, because we aren't actually abusing the accounts.

PeacefulWaters

starM wrote: »

When searching through TSB Terms and conditions I cannot see anywhere saying data will be shared across Lloyds Banking Group. It completely has no mention of Lloyds.

If they sharing data without customer consent obviously that is breach of data protection?

Which makes me think it's a trigger from a CRA feed.

boo_star

starM wrote: »

When searching through TSB Terms and conditions I cannot see anywhere saying data will be shared across Lloyds Banking Group. It completely has no mention of Lloyds.

If they sharing data without customer consent obviously that is breach of data protection?

In the personal account T&C's there is this

Your personal information may be shared within our group of companies so that we and other companies in our group can look after your relationship with us. By sharing this information it enables us to better understand your needs, run your accounts, and provide products in the efficient way that you expect.
Our group includes us, our holding company and any subsidiary of us or our holding company from time to time. More information on our group can be found at https://www.tsb.co.uk/privacy

I assume Lloyds is part of the group, at least for the time being.

OnlyMe_08

This sounds worrying.

Are you saying that if one has multiple (current?) accounts with TSB, Lloyds, Halifax and BOS, that this would potentially trigger a review and possibly termination of these accounts?

TomJ

Surely TSB is no longer part of Lloyds Banking Group?

boo_star

TomJ wrote: »

Surely TSB is no longer part of Lloyds Banking Group?

It mentions "holding group."

I assume Lloyds are still the holding group of TSB until the sale goes through.

xylophone

Surely TSB is no longer part of Lloyds Banking Group?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31980833

TravisAJK

I'm guessing you would have made the "eligible transfers in" from other LBG banks?
If you were, say, transferring 1,000 a month from Halifax to Lloyds and then return it back to Halifax again to get the interest, I suppose LBG can easily see both sides of the transaction and it is clear that you are doing this for prsonal gain...

However, if you used an external bank from LBG (ie Natwest in your case) to transfer the money into one of the banks in LBG, they wouldn't be able to see the details of the banking transactions from Natwest itself and therefore find it more difficult to prove you are abusing the accounts...

Definitely something worth thinking about.