Seven-Day Switch Issue

gwmh

Hi,

My other half recently did a seven-day switch from Lloyds to Santander, but left some money in his Lloyds savings account. However, when he now logs into Lloyds, there is no option to transfer that savings account money anywhere so he has no easy way of accessing it.

We went in to Lloyds today to see if they could help, but they told us that the only options were:

1) Give them the bank details of somebody else's Lloyds current account for them to transfer the money to, and for that person to then transfer the money back to my other half
2) Do a banker's cheque, for which we'd have to pay £20
3) Give us the money (quite a large sum) in cash.

Nobody close to us has a Lloyds account and we'd feel quite uncomfortable being handed a large wad of cash to carry away. We could just pay the £20 for the banker's cheque, but is there no other way round this that doesn't involve us paying out?

As I understand it, money paid into a closed current account is autoforwarded to the new current account for a while after the seven-day switch so could the money not just be transferred to the old current account and be autoforwarded on?

We realise the seven-day switch relates to the current account and not savings account, but this still seems like a slightly odd situation to be left in with a savings account.

Thanks for any and all help!

bigadaj

Sounds slightly odd, have you checked the terms and conditions of the account, with hindsight would have been easier to transfer out previously.

Having said that it doesn't appear fair to make it that awkward to be able to transfer your money out, if they honestly can't provide any other options then I'd raise it as a complaint, probably get an easy £20 credited to address it and use that to pay their fee for a bankers cheque.

surreysaver

Can you not just open another Lloyds account just for the purpose of transferring the money?

gwmh

Thanks both for your thoughts.

Can you not just open another Lloyds account just for the purpose of transferring the money?

The lady at Lloyds said we couldn't do that, though I'm not sure what would actually be stopping us.

YorkshireBoy

gwmh wrote: »

The lady at Lloyds said we couldn't do that, though I'm not sure what would actually be stopping us.

Which savings account does he have?

gwmh

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Which savings account does he have?

Lloyds Online Saver.

Shakin_Steve

I'd have just paid the 20 quid and got on with my life...but that's just me.

gwmh

Right, we have just managed to open a new current account online and transferred the money that way, despite Lloyds saying we couldn't. So all's well that ends well.

Thanks again for all your help.

YorkshireBoy

Looks like he'll be paying the £20 then.

You could raise a complaint, but they'll probably just refer you to the account T&Cs which say "payment must be to a Lloyds Bank current or savings account in your name".

The balance can't be all that large though, to warrant not taking it in cash, because he wouldn't keep much in an account paying only 0.05% AER...would he?

YorkshireBoy

gwmh wrote: »

Right, we have just managed to open a new current account online and transferred the money that way, despite Lloyds saying we couldn't. So all's well that ends well.

I'd just typed (but decided not to post) that suggestion...if you wanted to be stubborn.


BTW, if he has a large savings balance which is earning 0.05% AER, presumably you've opened a Club Lloyds account so he can at least make 2% AER (that's 40 times as much!) interest on £5K of it? If the large balance is £10K then get one each! And if he has £15K, then get a joint as well.

System

I'd have suggested closing the account via a written letter.
You'd have probably got a free counter cheque with the confirmation.