Halifax and BOS closing my accounts

YorkshireBoy

tg99 wrote: »

In the meantime I would say that if anyone is considering switching for a second time out of a Halifax/BOS account but wishes to maintain others then it might be worth using a different donor account

That's something I've been suggesting for a good while on here. I've 4 Halifax Rewards, 3 BoS Vantage, and a Club Lloyds (also had 3 Lloyds Vantage prior to Club being launched)...plus a Club Lloyds regular saver. I simply have too much to lose by abusing them for donor accounts.

There are enough providers to go round. I managed 11 switches into YB this time last year...without having to resort to abusing the account providers listed above!

mapk

I'd be inclined to exploit the hospitality of RBS or Natwest for donorship.

What is disconcerting here is the LBG blanket closure of accounts for an individual. If the HSBC group do the same, account management will be simpler at least. Monopoly money anyone?

joe134

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

That's something I've been suggesting for a good while on here. I've 4 Halifax Rewards, 3 BoS Vantage, and a Club Lloyds (also had 3 Lloyds Vantage prior to Club being launched)...plus a Club Lloyds regular saver. I simply have too much to lose by abusing them for donor accounts.

There are enough providers to go round. I managed 11 switches into YB this time last year...without having to resort to abusing the account providers listed above!

Hi YB, you recall my little Saga when I closed my 3 BOS A/cs, and took the flak on here.£75k rule.;I used the money to open 65+ bonds, which are just maturing, that's 12 months ago.Perhaps I should re-open BOS A/cs .:-)with the funds?
Now it's the same story, LBG,"not in the Spirit of the Rules".
I'm now switching all my Hfax A/cs to other banks, so only 1 Lloyds club will be left, they won't send the letter to the OP, as I wrote and asked them to close mine at the same time as BOS, and they asked why??
So it's still open.( so far)
I also ran all my A/cs as proper A/cs, just not as often, same as yourself.
Probably a good time to consolidate.as I am doing.:beer:

tg99

Update: received the letter today (also dated 2 Feb) from Halifax switching team confirming my switch of one of my current accounts to M&S. Phoned Halifax again and I said there must have been a mistake at their end as I only wanted to close and switch that account rather than have all my accounts closed. Got transferred to switch team who said they had only received instruction to close the one account and that as other two letters were from HBOS account closure unit then I would need to call them to get it investigated. Have a number for them now but only 9-5 so will call tomorrow. Probably won't find out anything from them so am guessing I will need to raise a complaint with them to get it investigated further.

The person I spoke to was only able to see my BOS and Halifax accounts, not my Lloyds ones. I have not received a letter yet from Lloyds re closure of my accounts with them. Anyone who has been in similar situation know if there is generally a bit of a time lag before Lloyds write to you about closing your accounts with them too or is it pretty much straight away after HBOS account closure unit have written to you? And not sure if anyone having had their accounts closed by LBG or indeed other banks knows whether their line on not being able to continue to offer you banking facilities/relationship also rules out all other products associated with that bank such as mortgages, insurance, cash / shares ISA etc?

norm_

Those BOS Vantage accounts are bad news. Nearly all the cases on here of account closures involve them.

System

BOS is aimed at the Scottish market so I wouldn't be surprised if LBG assumes people from elsewhere are using Vantage solely for 3% savings. The classic account hasn't got much else going for it.

norm_ wrote: »

Those BOS Vantage accounts are bad news. Nearly all the cases on here of account closures involve them.

joe134

Heng_Leng wrote: »

BOS is aimed at the Scottish market so I wouldn't be surprised if LBG assumes people from elsewhere are using Vantage solely for 3% savings. The classic account hasn't got much else going for it.

what did they expect, another scottish only rule.
my Oh is scottish.:o
they cannot be that naive that if a person opens 3 a/cs, he isn.t going to use them all the same as his/her main a/c.
I know friends who work for BOS and they do the same, and know what's going on, or not, as the case is.
that's the only benefit the a/c has as you say.
lbg just spring cleaning, muscle flexing:)

Ed-1

norm_ wrote: »

Those BOS Vantage accounts are bad news. Nearly all the cases on here of account closures involve them.

It's why I suspect Bank of Scotland are the ones that are more likely to trigger LBG-wide account closures.


Maybe people should start to hedge their bets and not have accounts with all 3 brands of LBG. In that way you are less likely to have one of the 3 trigger the closure of accounts with all 3.

tg99

Spoke to the HBOS account closure unit today (initially my call was answered by someone who said she was on the Lloyds side so couldn't see Halifax and BOS accounts hence had to transfer me). They insisted that it was just coincidence that my account closure letters were dated the same day as my switching letter - stated they would not be closing all my accounts just because I was switching one away - and that they were separate things. In addition, they confirmed closure letters applied to all my BOS and Halifax accounts (incl my BOS monthly saver) but no mention of Lloyds accounts albeit I would not have expected this to be on their list given the different department for Lloyds account closures (no letter from them yet but expecting one soon!).

Unsurprisingly they could not (would not) give me any information as to why my accounts were being closed as "we can't see why in our notes as we only process the closures we don't make the decisions". Were also unable to answer my 'technical questions' in terms of whether it is a lifetime ban and what is included in the scope of products captured by 'banking facilities' (E.g. mortgages, savings, ISA, insurance etc?). Therefore said only way to find out more was to go into branch and they would be able to get in contact with the relevant department; or write in. Said going into branch would likely be quicker so I will probably do this as nearest Halifax not too far away. I will then raise an official complaint when I am in branch unless they resolve this to my satisfaction (highly unlikely).

As an aside, checked my newly updated monthly Noddle report today, all fine and no CIFAS markers although I wouldnt expect one to have shown up yet given time lag. That said, in the search history the most recent ones are HBOS anti money laundering dated 8 Feb which are by far the most frequent entry on my history as seem to do multiple searches every month ever since accounts were opened.

Will report back after branch visit but let me know if any other questions it is worth me posing in branch, thanks.

YorkshireBoy

tg99 wrote: »

That said, in the search history the most recent ones are HBOS anti money laundering dated 8 Feb which are by far the most frequent entry on my history as seem to do multiple searches every month ever since accounts were opened.

That's very interesting. I don't think anyone else reporting your kind of issue on here has said this.

Could you give a summary of searches made? Is it really 2-3 ID searches per account, per month...every month? For how long have you had the accounts?

Looks like they've had their eyes on you for a while! If that's the standard pre-cursor to account closure then a lot of people on here could benefit from that knowledge, and close their accounts before they're closed for them!