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

joe134

TravisAJK wrote: »

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.

One of the earlier closures used an outside bank for sourcing, and they closed theirs. I took the step a few weeks ago, to try a pre-empt this by closing my 3 BOS, and got a lot of flak on here for doing so. No cajones, panicked, seems not now.;:) BOS snatched them off me, BUT, Lloyds asked me NOT to close, so I refunded it, and am still running it.?OP said he just moved everything to his Tsb A/cs, which I can understand why but,did he actually try to close his A/c as I did, or is his LloydsClub still open??
.I'm just now, trying to switch my N/Wide A/c to Halifax Reward,with hassle, at their request I may add, for £200, not £100. but as soon as that's done, I will probably either, use it as a proper a/c, or switch again, probably the latter.. I also have 2 Tsb A/cs and so has OH, they may now have to be reconsidered, if, LBG /Tsb are cross informing, as I use these just for the interest, and cross transfer funds and have no DC/s to use..Too much going on now, this spirit of the t/cs is getting beyond a joke ;
What's strange about all this LBG saga is that of all the closures, Lloyds are the only ones now that have not closed an account, Club.
Halifax, Bos, Tsb,yes, but not lloyds,themselves. unless I missed one.?
.Sorry for the OP, yet again.

saintalan

joe134 wrote: »

One of the earlier closures used an outside bank for sourcing, and they closed theirs. I took the step a few weeks ago, to try a pre-empt this by closing my 3 BOS, and got a lot of flak on here for doing so....

Hey Joe, what was the advantage to closing them before potentially being asked?

Cheers

Alan

MikeSmith61

Hi,
Just to clarify the accounts were all funded from Lloyds (Stupid I know), Balances were all at maximum and on the 1st of the month there was £1000 from Lloyds to BOFS 1, then from BOFS 1 to BOFS 2, then from BOFS 2 to BOFS 3, then from BOFS 3 to Halifax, from Halifax to TSB and from TSB back to Lloyds.

Writing this now shows me how stupid that probably was !. After the 2nd the interest and £5 reward was Transferred manually back into Lloyds.

I think if NatWest close the account I will just put it all under the mattress and give up !.

One other worrying development which I have not noticed being mention before is the Halifax and Bank of Scotland Credit cards, now I Opened these cards at the same time as the accounts, I rarely use them, the Bank of Scotland one was last used in March and the Halifax one for £38 in May. Both balances are NIL as I pay them in Full. I only got the Halifax one for the free £5 on it when you spend £300 a month.

Yesterday during the day when I logged into Internet Banking (As I can still use that) I was getting an error message to say the balances could not be displayed, today the Credit Cards are showing but with £0.00 Balance and £0.00 Credit Limit !. My guess is they have closed them as well, but I don't see the point of phoning them just to be told that, so I guess another letter or two is on the way.

I am not that concerned about those Credit Cards but I do use my Lloyds one as I get Avios points on it.

colsten

TravisAJK wrote: »

and therefore find it more difficult to prove you are abusing the accounts...

They don't need to prove anything, they can choose not to offer you an account any time they like. Just the same way that you can decide to close your accounts any time you like.

I don't think it is abuse if you use an account in line with the terms and conditions but this is immaterial as none of the banks has accused anyone of abuse.

I don't think we can ever know for certain why these accounts got closed, unless bank employees involved in the closures will spill the beans. IMO it would be a fair assumption that they just don't like unprofitable accounts.

saintalan

The problem is, if this a move against those doing this to take avantage of a bit of interest, how would we know the unwritten criteria.

Maybe because the only activity is moving money of the same amount in and out on the same day every month?

Also possibly with the addition where required of some DDs?

Maybe it's a lack of use of the Debit Cards for ad hoc purchases?

Do most people even activate their cards let alone use them?

Just a thought.

Cheers

Alan

Yorkshire_Pud

I can understand that LBG had to offer possibly loss making interest rates to get customers and funds after the banking crisis and that as their profitability improves they don't want customers who just use the accounts to make money, unlike the banks.

So BOS no longer let you open 3 current accounts paying 3% on £5,000 each account?

Halifax no longer offer the £5 reward?

TSB don't offer 5% on a balance of £2,000? And there is no new mse £100 offer to get even more custom?

Lloyds don't offer 4% on their ClubLloyds account between £4,000 and £5,000 credit balance? Interest rate tiered so the highest interest is for the highest balance. So they don't want your money but they pay more if you put more in?

I'm still of the view that I won't be getting one of these letters closing my accounts any time soon but also worried that I will.:eek:

joe134

saintalan wrote: »

Hey Joe, what was the advantage to closing them before potentially being asked?

Cheers

Alan

Too much in one place. £100k, with Hbos, so closed BOS £15k,to leave £85k,in Isas and to prevent this, BUT, may still get Tsb putting the spanner in the works, even though it's a different licence. Took ages to decide, don't like giving up higher paying A/c's, but, don't like a sword of Damocles hanging over my head either:-)I fund my Tsb's externally.but, never use them, and don't intend to. Too many to do that on a regular basis. .heads buzzing now.:-)

msallen

saintalan wrote: »

The problem is, if this a move against those doing this to take avantage of a bit of interest, how would we know the unwritten criteria.

Maybe because the only activity is moving money of the same amount in and out on the same day every month?

Also possibly with the addition where required of some DDs?

Maybe it's a lack of use of the Debit Cards for ad hoc purchases?

Do most people even activate their cards let alone use them?

Just a thought.

Cheers

Alan

As I said on another thread a week or two back, I have recently changed my usage to try to avoid a closure like this. I now have a DD on every account, even where none is required, and one extra on those where there is a requirement (e.g. 3 DDs if 2 required), and I also use the debit cards for each account on a semi regular basis (typically about once a month each for something cheap like my lunch). Also, although I changed this for a different reason, I now no longer use SOs to move cash around all the accounts, but do it manually instead, and no longer for exactly the same amounts every month.

Ed-1

msallen wrote: »

As I said on another thread a week or two back, I have recently changed my usage to try to avoid a closure like this. I now have a DD on every account, even where none is required, and one extra on those where there is a requirement (e.g. 3 DDs if 2 required), and I also use the debit cards for each account on a semi regular basis (typically about once a month each for something cheap like my lunch). Also, although I changed this for a different reason, I now no longer use SOs to move cash around all the accounts, but do it manually instead, and no longer for exactly the same amounts every month.

Hopefully they're not Tesco direct debits or you're asking for the Tesco savings accounts to be closed as well .

There really is no easy way of avoiding a bank's decision to close your accounts for commercial reasons as you haven't a clue what triggers a review.

saintalan

Ed-1 wrote: »

... decision to close your accounts for commercial reasons as you haven't a clue what triggers a review.

This is what I was trying to get at.

Do we have any idea how many MSEers bother do this and is it enough to warrant closing them?

Not sure what other sites/sources may suggest this as well.

Cheers

Alan