Lloyds, Halifax and MBNA account closure

brianposter

Thrugelmir wrote: »

As far as personal banking goes the question shouldn't be neccessary. Everyday basic transactions have no complexity.

But modern banks seem to have great difficulty recognising anything in particular about transactions. I had to waste hours last week because my bank had rejected what appeared to me to be a perfectly straightforward transaction.

brianposter

mgdavid wrote: »

Neither is it illegal to look at the way accounts are used and conclude the customer is creating work but no income from the bank's perspective, therefore please take your custom elsewhere.

But currently it appears to be "please take your custom elsewhere" and, if you are awkward, we will throw several hundred pounds after you.

MABLE

If it happened to me I have 4 other bank accounts to use and countless credit cards with various institutions.

lopsyfa

xylophone wrote: »

I think that being annoyed is very understandable.

As they have given you notice of closure, it seems very unlikely that there is any question of suspected fraud.

Clearly they don't like something about the way the accounts are operated - but - they have shown good practice as far as the ombudsman is concerned by giving reasonable notice.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/48/banking-closing-accounts.htm

Like most other commercial organisations, banks and building societies are under no obligation to continue doing business with someone if they do not consider it appropriate to do so. But they should not decide to close an account for an improper reason – for instance, because of unfair bias or unlawful discrimination. And it is an implied term of the contract between the firm and its customer that the firm will not normally close the customer’s account without giving reasonable notice.

You've received some compensation - look to the future and open new accounts?

I agree with you but I have never complained about the account closure, my complaint is why send me around if there is no way to appeal. I didn't even ask to appeal, the customer service agent suggested it when I called to know why the account was closed.

I have learnt a lot from this forum and starting this thread is only to see if I can help others. So I started this thread to maybe get to know why it happens and if I can help someone else avoid their account being closed, then fine. I am providing further details about how I operate the account only as a guess on what I think may be wrong.

There are other things that I am thinking could cause it (not about any transaction or any fraud). Without at least trying to find out, what is to stop other banks doing the same? Also, I have stopped using the Lloyds account completely. I am sorry if my posts sound annoyed - I am not but maybe a little irritated.

Maybe it is not worth it providing these details and updates.

brianposter

lopsyfa wrote: »

Maybe it is not worth it providing these details and updates.

The general incompetence of modern large British businesses should be of concern to everybody.
Please continue to pursue the matter, and provide updates.

phillw

lopsyfa wrote: »

I agree with you but I have never complained about the account closure, my complaint is why send me around if there is no way to appeal.

Isn't appealing against the decision the same as complaining about the closure?

So just phone up and complain that they are closing your account, tell them that you were given the run around with misleading information that you could appeal. Although as you accepted compensation for misleading information already then you may not get anywhere.

lopsyfa

I will like to provide some updates on this.

About 4 days after my complaints and receiving the £70 and the apology, I still didn't receive any call back from the branch. Therefore, I called back the person handling the complaint and she was surprised and re-opened the complaint for me. She then called back the next day to say it is because the branch manager doesn't know the process and still think it can't be appealed. She needs to raise issue with the branch director. A week after that, she called back to book an appointment at the branch to go for the appeal and paid a further £30.

So I went to the branch to meet a manager and the process is mainly confirming my personal details, jobs, salary, and check whether I paid tax in any other country apart from the UK (I am not originally from the UK). I then told him about the different banks I have and the way I operate the account. I also told him about the multiple search by BMW Finance on my credit report. We then went through some transactions in my account and he asked me to explain each etc.

That was about 10 days ago. As I didn't hear anything after about three/four days, I proceeded to open the NatWest reward account and switch my Lloyds account to that (to earn some switch reward). That completed last week and I am in the process of switching my Halifax account to Natwest too (to be completed this Friday).

I have just received a call from Lloyds now that the cancellation of accounts have been cancelled and I can keep all my accounts. It is probably too late for me as I have paid off all the credit cards (3 of them are still 0%) and closed one account and the second will be closed soon.

I hope this helps someone that may be interested in keeping their account if it is closed by the Lloyds banking group. There is a process to appeal and it involves going to a local branch. The process is a little bit intrusive and you need to be ready to answer questions posed by the staff member. If you don't have anything to hide, I believe there is a good chance the decision will be reversed. The problem is most people get told nothing can be done.

I feel the initial decision may be made by a computer. And if they have called me to ask these questions, i probably would have not liked answering it but looking at all my accounts being closed, I really wanted to know what can be done.

lopsyfa

phillw wrote: »

Isn't appealing against the decision the same as complaining about the closure?

So just phone up and complain that they are closing your account, tell them that you were given the run around with misleading information that you could appeal. Although as you accepted compensation for misleading information already then you may not get anywhere.

Because they can close your account according to their terms and conditions. If I have raised a complaint about the account closure, they will have closed my complaint and just referred me to their T&C's.

But they were the one who advised me to appeal but the staffs in branch are telling me you cannot appeal. By making the complaint about this, they were forced to address this issue of misinformation and I was able to appeal the closure.

18cc

Thanks for letting us know - as you say it may help somebody else in the future in the same or similar position as you!