Lloyds to close my account in 65 days - advice please!!!

jacobanth

Lloyds have sent me a letter in the post with the following below. I do a fair amount of gambling/trading, which results in a lot of fairly large transactions leaving my accounts regularly. I also set up 7 different current accounts to support my different ventures to keep it organised. 

Since getting the letter I’ve done some research, and a lot of these cases are linked to fraud. Others are linked to you costing the bank provider too much money (not being financially viable for them). If this is the case for me, then I guess I have to accept and learn from my mistakes when opening a new bank. However, I’m worried about reading all the fraud cases online. I haven’t done anything like this but the bank won’t actually offer a reason why they’ve closed my accounts. 

How do I check if I have a “CIFAS” marker on my name? My credit score is in the excellent band on Experian and I’m close to having enough for a deposit for my first home, so I’m sure you can imagine this is quite stressful for me. 

Ref: HR/KA

We often review accounts to ensure that we can continue to support our customers with their banking needs and following a review of your account, we are writing to let you know that unfortunately, we're unable to maintain a banking relationship with you. As such, we will be closing your account in 65 calendar days from the date of this letter.

After this date we will stop all regular payments from your account and you will need to contact the people you want to pay. When your account is closed, you are responsible for cancelling any direct payments into or out of your account. If someone sends a payment to your closed account, we will take reasonable steps to return the payment to the sender.

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 those accounts without further notice.
When the agreement ends and your account is closed, we will pay or transfer money we hold for you or owe you under this agreement to you, or to any other person you name in writing. Funds will be paid by cheque to the above address, unless you advise otherwise or use the account switching service when funds will be transferred electronically.

Please note that we may retain sufficient funds to cover any liabilities owed to us.

You need to make alternative banking arrangements. You may wish to use the Current Account Switch Service but please note you will not be able to transfer to other members of the Lloyds Banking Group such as Lloyds Bank plc, Bank of Scotland plc and Halifax. You should destroy any cards and unused cheques, cutting them up before disposing of them.

eskbanker

jacobanth said:

How do I check if I have a “CIFAS” marker on my name?

https://www.cifas.org.uk/dsar 

However, in terms of fraud as such, this normally warrants instant closure, so the fact that they've given you 65 days notice would suggest that they're not asserting fraudulent activity.

You might wish to reconsider the wisdom of gambling/trading with large amounts if you're about to buy your first property, presuming that you'll be relying on a mortgage provider?

jacobanth

eskbanker said:

jacobanth said:

How do I check if I have a “CIFAS” marker on my name?

However, in terms of fraud as such, this normally warrants instant closure, so the fact that they've given you 65 days notice would suggest that they're not asserting fraudulent activity.

You might wish to reconsider the wisdom of gambling/trading with large amounts if you're about to buy your first property, presuming that you'll be relying on a mortgage provider?

Thank you. 

100% agree. I will be relying on a mortgage. To be honest, I’ve been a bit naive, so perhaps this a good opportunity for a fresh start. 

jacobanth

Does anyone know how it would work to transfer my Help To Buy account elsewhere? I haven’t got a large amount in it, to be honest (£1000), but I know you get charged for removal? 

PRAISETHESUN

For whatever reason Lloyds don't like your baking habits and have decided to close your account in line with the T&Cs you agreed to when opening it. You won't change their mind so I'd just open an  account with another bank and use the CASS to switch your existing account to your new bank before Lloyds close it themselves. I'd also recommend that you look to separate your main banking from your gambling activities - preferably with a completely different bank. That way you avoid problems like this in future.

As for the CIFAS stuff, submit a DSAR as @eskbanker had suggested. I'd also consider getting copies of your National Hunter data (https://www.nhunter.co.uk/SAR.pdf). Personally I think it's unlikely any fraud/CIFAS has been reported based on what you have said and how Lloyds has acted, but it's probably a good idea to get copies of your data on a semi-regular basis anyway.

Ed-1

jacobanth said:

Lloyds have sent me a letter in the post with the following below. I do a fair amount of gambling/trading, which results in a lot of fairly large transactions leaving my accounts regularly. I also set up 7 different current accounts to support my different ventures to keep it organised. 

Since getting the letter I’ve done some research, and a lot of these cases are linked to fraud. Others are linked to you costing the bank provider too much money (not being financially viable for them). If this is the case for me, then I guess I have to accept and learn from my mistakes when opening a new bank. However, I’m worried about reading all the fraud cases online. I haven’t done anything like this but the bank won’t actually offer a reason why they’ve closed my accounts. 

How do I check if I have a “CIFAS” marker on my name? My credit score is in the excellent band on Experian and I’m close to having enough for a deposit for my first home, so I’m sure you can imagine this is quite stressful for me. 

Ref: HR/KA

We often review accounts to ensure that we can continue to support our customers with their banking needs and following a review of your account, we are writing to let you know that unfortunately, we're unable to maintain a banking relationship with you. As such, we will be closing your account in 65 calendar days from the date of this letter.

After this date we will stop all regular payments from your account and you will need to contact the people you want to pay. When your account is closed, you are responsible for cancelling any direct payments into or out of your account. If someone sends a payment to your closed account, we will take reasonable steps to return the payment to the sender.

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 those accounts without further notice.
When the agreement ends and your account is closed, we will pay or transfer money we hold for you or owe you under this agreement to you, or to any other person you name in writing. Funds will be paid by cheque to the above address, unless you advise otherwise or use the account switching service when funds will be transferred electronically.

Please note that we may retain sufficient funds to cover any liabilities owed to us.

You need to make alternative banking arrangements. You may wish to use the Current Account Switch Service but please note you will not be able to transfer to other members of the Lloyds Banking Group such as Lloyds Bank plc, Bank of Scotland plc and Halifax. You should destroy any cards and unused cheques, cutting them up before disposing of them.

That's the "we don't want you as a customer" letter (for whatever reason, normally down to not liking how you use your account(s)). HR stands for "high risk".

Lloyds also have other letters that come from fraud related decisions that also close accounts in two months.

GTR_King

Account closed instantly=fraud
Account closed in 65 days= Broke banks T&C's E.G Used personal account for business etc. 

So check what you have used the account for and see if it broke the T&C's 
if you have broke the banks T&C's then check to see if any bank will allow you to do what you are doing, if not then that has to stop if you want mortgage.
 
So once account is closed with Lloyd's, you won't be able to open a Lloyd's banking group account for a while as will get closed again if you open another one,

You can complain about it but they most likely won't budge on account closure.

Also good to check your credit score/cifas marker 

eskbanker

jacobanth said:

Does anyone know how it would work to transfer my Help To Buy account elsewhere? I haven’t got a large amount in it, to be honest (£1000), but I know you get charged for removal? 

If you're referring to a Help to Buy ISA then you shouldn't be charged (there are sometimes withdrawal penalties for the replacement product, Lifetime ISA) - if you can open a new HTB ISA elsewhere then you can request an ISA transfer through the new provider:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/help-to-buy-isa/

eskbanker

PRAISETHESUN said:

For whatever reason Lloyds don't like your baking habits

Are they accusing OP of cooking the books?

jacobanth

eskbanker said:

jacobanth said:

Does anyone know how it would work to transfer my Help To Buy account elsewhere? I haven’t got a large amount in it, to be honest (£1000), but I know you get charged for removal? 

If you're referring to a Help to Buy ISA then you shouldn't be charged (there are sometimes withdrawal penalties for the replacement product, Lifetime ISA) - if you can open a new HTB ISA elsewhere then you can request an ISA transfer through the new provider:

Thanks so much for your help today eskbanker  

quirkydeptless

eskbanker said:

PRAISETHESUN said:

For whatever reason Lloyds don't like your baking habits

Are they accusing OP of cooking the books?

They want you to take your dough somewhere else