No Contactless Card on Lloyds Bank Basic Account

paulduke15

I have a Lloyds Bank Basic Account and they don't issue contactless debit cards to basic account holders . But it seems every other bank does on their basic accounts, including Barclays and nationwide.

I wrote to Lloyds but no response, I sent them this. I encourage other people to copy and paste this message to them on their Facebook page:

Dear Sir,
I have noticed that with your Lloyds Basic Bank Account, you do not offer a contactless debit card.
Firstly I would like to point out that RBS, NatWest, Nationwide, and Barclays – all offer a
contactless card with their basic accounts, recognising the increasing use of contactless payments
in the UK.
I was told by a local branch manager at Lloyds that the reason why contactless cards are not
supported on the basic account is because the contactless technology can allow you to go
overdrawn. (But so can Pay at Pump petrol stations, even though you can use the debit card which
comes with a basic account at these pumps).
I'm unhappy with the answer from Lloyds that contactless payments can allow an account to go
overdrawn.
I have a lot of experience in banking, and in the manufacturing and operational facilities of these
Visa Debit cards.
As you may be aware, a Visa Debit card can be produced in two forms... an online only card, where
every single transaction has to first be approved with the bank, to make sure there are sufficient
funds in the customers account before the payment is approved, and then there is the offline cards
– where, up to a certain pre-set amount, transactions can be approved offline – without checking
the availability of funds in the customers account beforehand, if upon acceptance there were not
enough funds – this would place the customers account into an overdraft (authorised or
unauthorised). Similar to what the differences used to be between Visa Debit and Visa Electron.
Seen as Lloyds Bank currently don't offer contactless technology on the basic bank account, I am
presuming that whoever is responsible for personal accounts and debit cards may be unaware of
the technology which is available and being implemented by your competitors in order for them to
be able to offer contactless cards to basic account holders.
As I explained above about online only and offline debit cards – the exact same principle can be
applied to contactless technology, and it already is been doing by your competitors.
You would easily be able to issue your basic account customers a contactless debit card which
requires all contactless transactions to be approved only upon confirmation of available funds in
the customers account.
To describe how this works, if a customer produced and waved their contactless debit cards –
before the transaction was authorised – a check would be made to confirm that available funds
were in the account, with the transaction being approved if so, or declined if there is insufficient
funds. This makes it no more likely to go overdrawn than if the card was just a standard non-
contactless card.
If Barclays, Nationwide, RBS, and NatWest can use this technology – so can Lloyds.
I find it greatly unfair that basic bank account holders at Lloyds are having to make do with a far
inferior product than what they'd get with your banking rivals. I strongly believe that this could be
a massive loss for Lloyds should they continue to ban basic account holders from this facility.
This could potentially mean that many basic account customers may switch to another provider
which offers them a contactless card, as more and more retailers are now taking contactless
payments – and virtually every debit and credit card is now enabled with contactless technology.
I hope Lloyds Banking Group address this problem as a matter of urgency, and I await your
response to this matter.

roadrunnertwozero15

Ha, just what I was saying on another post. I'm considering leaving Lloyds because they only offer me a basic account and it doesn't even have a contactless card - whereas Nationwide have offered me a basic account WITH a contactless card! But it looks like I might go to NatWest, and yes Barclays definitely offer contactless cards on basic accounts - as my wife has one with her Barclays Basic Account.

jonesMUFCforever

Basic accounts in the main are for customers who struggle with their finances - Lloyds ' business strategy is not to issue contactless cards to all customers.
Main reason I believe is that contactless cards do not earmark funds so potentially customers can go overdrawn.

If OP does not qualify for an upgrade to at least a classic account then he has to accept this or move banks.

The poll was very skewed too there was no NO option!

System

Contactless cards can be online only.

However, it's a LBG business decision, so the OP can vote with his/her feet and move elsewhere. They are not forced to bank there.

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Lloyds ' business strategy is not to issue contactless cards to all customers.
Main reason I believe is that contactless cards do not earmark funds so potentially customers can go overdrawn.

Chino

paulduke15 wrote: »

I have a Lloyds Bank Basic Account and they don't issue contactless debit cards to basic account holders . But it seems every other bank does on their basic accounts, including Barclays and nationwide.

What prevents you from opening a basic current account with a bank that does offer its basic account holders a contactless debit card and moving on with your life?

pmduk

Not every other bank issues contactless debit cards on basic accounts. For example Santander, HSBC etc

MarkFromCornwall

The poll needs a 'no' option.

Chino

pmduk wrote: »

Not every other bank issues contactless debit cards on basic accounts. For example Santander, HSBC etc

OK, so two banks don't but, according to the OP, at least four banks do: RBS, NatWest, Nationwide and Barclays.

agrinnall

Chino wrote: »

OK, so two banks don't but, according to the OP, at least four banks do: RBS, NatWest, Nationwide and Barclays.

So what? Each bank has made it's own business decision on what to offer. Given that the OP knows other banks that offer what he wants the solution to his problem is blindingly obvious. [Disclaimer: I couldn't be bothered to read his letter so if there's something in there that explains why he must be with Lloyds then so be it]

PeacefulWaters

If you don't like it, go elsewhere.

It's called basic for a reason.

gunsandbanjos

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Basic accounts in the main are for customers who struggle with their finances - Lloyds ' business strategy is not to issue contactless cards to all customers.
Main reason I believe is that contactless cards do not earmark funds so potentially customers can go overdrawn.

If OP does not qualify for an upgrade to at least a classic account then he has to accept this or move banks.

The poll was very skewed too there was no NO option!

I was about to ask where the No option was!! My answer is no absolutely not.