Halifax, Lloyds and BOS closing my accounts

whats

** Happy ending (see bottom) **

There are a few threads with people experiencing similar, but thought I would share my story.

Received 3 letters from Lloyds group operations / Andover. All dated the same day with exact wording, just different bank names.
Reference is: HR/ET
HR = High Risk?

“we’re unable to maintain a banking relationship with you”
“we will be closing your account in 65 calendar days”
"In the event that you open other accounts during the notice period, those accounts will also be closed. Please note that this also applies to any other accounts you may open with the bank at any future point in time, where the bank reserves the right to close these accounts without further notice."

My accounts (from the group):
3 x HBOS Vantage – opened Sep 2014. £5k in each with the usual tesco 2xDD, and SO to meet the requirements to receive the account benefits.
Lloyds Club – opened Aug 2014. £5k with the usual tesco 2xDD, and SO to meet the requirements to receive the account benefits.
Halifax reward – opened 2011. This is my main bank account and has my salary, pays bills and moves money between savings and other accounts.
Iweb ISA + Iweb non-isa. Shares only.

I can think of two possible reasons for the account closure.
1. Treating the accounts as savings.
2. My Halifax account has a lot of inbound/outbound payments. All legit. I joined various P2P sites last year, which hugely increase transfers in/out. Quite often Halifax sits in the middle on the transfer, so savings>hfx>p2p (or reverse). Last 3 statements have 60k, 140k, 50k total movements. But the money is all coming from/going to repeatable account numbers.

No CIFAS entries.
Not going to fight it. Bit of a pain having to move my main account though.

Update W/C 8th Jan
Went into Halifax. As per similar posts here there was no information. Just an entry "can use account till its closed".
Customer advisor relayed a message from the branch manager (he was on a phone call, I had the option to wait for him). In the past the manager had tried to find out information for another person in the same situation, to no avail.

Update W/C 15th Jan
Got round to posting a response. I broke down all money IN/OUT over 3 months showing they were financial institutions. For P2P I also included the FCA reference number.

Update W/C 22nd Jan
Complaints team called and said I had received bad info from branch. I should go back to branch and ask to go through the appeal process.
Spent around 30 minutes at Branch where they asked questions about how I used the accounts, employment and house owner status etc.

2nd Feb - Branch called me to say they received email from head office saying they overturned the decision and I can keep all my accounts. Should receive a letter to that affect.

So thanks to EachPenny and agrinnall for telling me not to give up!

EachPenny

whats wrote: »

I can think of two possible reasons for the account closure.
1. Treating the accounts as savings.
2. My Halifax account has a lot of inbound/outbound payments. All legit. I joined various P2P sites last year, which hugely increase transfers in/out. Quite often Halifax sits in the middle on the transfer, so savings>hfx>p2p (or reverse). Last 3 statements have 60k, 140k, 50k total movements. But the money is all coming from/going to repeatable account numbers.

Hopefully (for us) it is reason 2 - £250k over three months sounds a more plausible reason for closure than utilising the accounts for savings. But if you are doing this on an entirely legitimate basis then it is grossly unfair that they can close the accounts as there is nothing (at lest that I ever remember seeing) governing the value of transactions you can make on a personal account.

Even if it doesn't change the outcome, I would at least send them a firmly worded letter.

I hope changing your banking arrangements goes well and you have no further issues. Good luck!

agrinnall

It'll most likely be number 2, large amounts regularly going in and out probably looks suspicious to them. It's potentially a decision that you might be able to get reversed if you're prepared to explain what's happening, and it might be worth trying because you could easily have the same problem elsewhere if you continue to do p2p.

Ed-1

whats wrote: »

There are a few threads with people experiencing similar, but thought I would share my story.

Received 3 letters from Lloyds group operations / Andover. All dated the same day with exact wording, just different bank names.
Reference is: HR/ET
HR = High Risk?

“we’re unable to maintain a banking relationship with you”
“we will be closing your account in 65 calendar days”
"In the event that you open other accounts during the notice period, those accounts will also be closed. Please note that this also applies to any other accounts you may open with the bank at any future point in time, where the bank reserves the right to close these accounts without further notice."

My accounts (from the group):
3 x HBOS Vantage – opened Sep 2014. £5k in each with the usual tesco 2xDD, and SO to meet the requirements to receive the account benefits.
Lloyds Club – opened Aug 2014. £5k with the usual tesco 2xDD, and SO to meet the requirements to receive the account benefits.
Halifax reward – opened 2011. This is my main bank account and has my salary, pays bills and moves money between savings and other accounts.
Iweb ISA + Iweb non-isa. Shares only.

I can think of two possible reasons for the account closure.
1. Treating the accounts as savings.
2. My Halifax account has a lot of inbound/outbound payments. All legit. I joined various P2P sites last year, which hugely increase transfers in/out. Quite often Halifax sits in the middle on the transfer, so savings>hfx>p2p (or reverse). Last 3 statements have 60k, 140k, 50k total movements. But the money is all coming from/going to repeatable account numbers.

No CIFAS entries.
Not going to fight it. Bit of a pain having to move my main account though.

What date was on the letters? Interesting that it's 65 days rather than 60. Maybe because of the Christmas delayed post?

PeacefulWaters

Ed-1 wrote: »

What date was on the letters? Interesting that it's 65 days rather than 60. Maybe because of the Christmas delayed post?

I'm going for two calendar months plus three days for second class post as the reason for the magic 65 number.

Kim_13

As Halifax was your main account, it might be worth switching it to one of the accounts that will pay you cashback on your bills. There is a section on these in this MSE guide together with some other top picks: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts?_ga=2.72677587.1798824297.1513112874-1010848097.1513112873

If you just want a straight replacement for the Halifax Reward, the Co Op (with Everyday Rewards) account is probably the most similar. It comes with the added bonus of some debit card cashback, but needs more DD's than the Halifax (4 needed, and £50 higher minimum pay in.)

ValiantSon

agrinnall wrote: »

It'll most likely be number 2, large amounts regularly going in and out probably looks suspicious to them. It's potentially a decision that you might be able to get reversed if you're prepared to explain what's happening, and it might be worth trying because you could easily have the same problem elsewhere if you continue to do p2p.

Agreed. It may be this and if you can show them legitimate use then it may reverse the decision. If it is because you were operating the accounts for savings, according to the terms and conditions, then it really is rather poor, but not entirely unsurprising given the particular company involved.

Are you sure that your iWeb account is affected? I'd definitely double check this as it isn't a bank account. If it is then you've got some difficult work ahead finding a suitable alternative platform.

Good luck with sorting this out.

whats

Ok I'll write to them and see what happens. But from reading other peoples stories there seems once the closure department has decided there is no reversing it.

My iweb account is still open. I assumed they would close it as tg99 had all this group accounts closed - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5407611

BoGoF

Could the P2P transactions be considered business transactions and therefore a breach of the account t & c's.


Just a thought.

Shakin_Steve

I really cannot see, providing the bank don’t suspect fraud, why they simply can’t tell customers the reason for closure and give them a chance to explain. If they suspected business use or using your current accounts for savings, there’s nothing illegal about this. It’s against their T&C’s, but surely you would deserve an explanation?

msallen

I also have a fair amount of p2p transactions going through my Santander 123 Lite account. I got a(n apparently targeted rather than advertising) letter from them a month or 2 ago highlighting the deals they offer on business accounts, so I took this as an indication that they suspected these transactions were for "non-personal" reasons. I have the whole array of current accounts so I simply moved all my p2p activity to my Club Lloyds instead, but I'm now wondering if I should choose another account instead!.