LBG closing all my accounts on 18th May

Bridlington1

As it says on the tin really. Today I've received 3 letters dated 15/3/23, from Lloyds, Halifax and BOS telling me that they will close my account 65 days from the date of the letter. I'm trying to work out why they have decided to do this. I suspect it may be related to one or a combination of the following:

1. I am probably not a very profitable customer. I have been using Halifax for an easy £180/yr for making 3x£500 debit card payments to myself for a while as well as enjoying the regular saver plus the stoozing.
2. Related to the above I've had about 6 donor accounts out of LBG over the last year which have been switched elsewhere in a short timeframe
3. I have used my Lloyds account for a number of transactions between my various savings accounts in persuit of higher interest rates (approximately £250k worth in 2022). 
4. Barclays closed my accounts in November and a default emerged on my credit report. This was despite the account being in credit or at a zero balance for the entire duration it was open. I have been in a loop for the last 4 months as Barclays are denying that they have put the default on the report and Equifax and Transunion are both saying that they are only going on the information supplied by Barclays.
5. I have been trying to open the TSB 5% monthly saver since January but they are saying that I applied for one in October (which I didn't). I recently made a complaint regarding this and am wondering if they may have put a CIFA on my report. I can't see anything on my reports yet but am aware that it can take a few weeks for information to filter down.

Which of these possibilities seems the most likely?
Also could this be only the thin edge of the wedge, what do you think the chances are of the rest of my banks following suit?

I am currently in the process of changing my nominated accounts from LBG to other banks but either way it looks like I'm going to be busy over the next couple of months.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Band7

Painful to lose access to LBG accounts

Impossible to say what triggered it. You are certainly not the only one who is playing the multiple Halifax Reward game, so unless an avalanche of account closures is about to happen, I would discard this as a reason. I would also discard your troubles with Barclays and TSB - unless either of them have landed you with a CIFAS fraud marker. This will not show in your credit reports - you have to apply for a SAR at CIFAS directly. Possibly the most likely reason are the 6 donor accounts, or using your Lloyds account as your hub account, but you are unlikely to ever find out their reasons. 

Unless you have a CIFAS fraud marker, or will get one from Lloyds, I would guess that it doesn't affect any of your other accounts.

alibean121

I’m sorry this has happened. I can’t really comment other than that 5 is almost certainly not relevant - this is a common issue with TSB and is just some stupid gremlin in their systems.

This is likely to be isolated to LBG and the fact that they’ve given notice suggests it’s a commercial decision rather than anything else.

masonic

You mentioned stoozing. Was this using overdraft facilities, and did you apply for multiple overdrafts on different current accounts? There have been one or two instances of others having accounts closed for behaviour like this.

I expect that there are plenty of others taking full advantage of 1, so it seems unlikely this is a significant factor given the lack of action against others. I could imagine that 2 might have contributed, especially as alongside 3 and 4 it creates a pattern of behaviour that could be perceived as risky to the banks.

As a fall-back position, I'd be picking up one of the challenger current accounts that doesn't use CRAs beyond identity checks.

Bridlington1

I've now submitted a DSAR with Cifas, Halifax, Lloyds and BOS so I shall see what comes of that.

I had a £600 OD with both Halifax and Lloyds which I stoozed for 3 months after I switched accounts to them last year and have kept the Club Lloyds at -£50 since then.

It's certainly a pain, I was getting £180/yr out of Halifax rewards alone and the letters I've received from them seem to suggest I'm barred for life. 

Needless to say it looks like I'll be using the CASS to switch out my LBG accounts over to prevent the potential issue of payments being bounced as I have 24 accounts linked to Lloyds alone.

dealyboy

Hi @Bridlington1 ...

Sorry to hear that ... you were doing no more than would be considered standard 'business practice' in many large business finance departments. It hurts not knowing ...

I would guess No. 4, that's a mystery.

Ed-1

Bridlington1 said:
Barclays closed my accounts in November and a default emerged on my credit report. This was despite the account being in credit or at a zero balance for the entire duration it was open. I have been in a loop for the last 4 months as Barclays are denying that they have put the default on the report and Equifax and Transunion are both saying that they are only going on the information supplied by Barclays.

Have LBG actually looked at your credit file? Any unrecorded enquiries in the search history would demonstrate they have. They've carried out a review of your accounts and decided the game's up...

born_again

If it was a CIFAS fraud marker I would expect 30 day max to move. Possible even faster in some cases, along with a frozen account.
65 days is usually a internal business decision. 
Simply you are no longer fitting their perceived customers. Or to put it another way, they are weeding out people who are gaming the system, stoozing as much as they can. (no offense)

If it's there to be had & they have not coved it in their T/C. It's fair game. 👍

Bridlington1

Ed-1 said:

Bridlington1 said:
Barclays closed my accounts in November and a default emerged on my credit report. This was despite the account being in credit or at a zero balance for the entire duration it was open. I have been in a loop for the last 4 months as Barclays are denying that they have put the default on the report and Equifax and Transunion are both saying that they are only going on the information supplied by Barclays.

Have LBG actually looked at your credit file? Any unrecorded enquiries in the search history would demonstrate they have. They've carried out a review of your accounts and decided the game's up...

I've just checked TransUnion and Equifax and no soft searches are showing so it seems like it's an internal decision. 

born_again said:

If it was a CIFAS fraud marker I would expect 30 day max to move. Possible even faster in some cases, along with a frozen account.
65 days is usually a internal business decision. 
Simply you are no longer fitting their perceived customers. Or to put it another way, they are weeding out people who are gaming the system, stoozing as much as they can. (no offense)

If it's there to be had & they have not coved it in their T/C. It's fair game. 👍

No offence taken.

Ed-1

Bridlington1 said:

Ed-1 said:

Bridlington1 said:
Barclays closed my accounts in November and a default emerged on my credit report. This was despite the account being in credit or at a zero balance for the entire duration it was open. I have been in a loop for the last 4 months as Barclays are denying that they have put the default on the report and Equifax and Transunion are both saying that they are only going on the information supplied by Barclays.

Have LBG actually looked at your credit file? Any unrecorded enquiries in the search history would demonstrate they have. They've carried out a review of your accounts and decided the game's up...

I've just checked TransUnion and Equifax and no soft searches are showing so it seems like it's an internal decision. 

They usually do it on Experian. I've got one.

Bridlington1

Ed-1 said:

Bridlington1 said:

Ed-1 said:

Bridlington1 said:
Barclays closed my accounts in November and a default emerged on my credit report. This was despite the account being in credit or at a zero balance for the entire duration it was open. I have been in a loop for the last 4 months as Barclays are denying that they have put the default on the report and Equifax and Transunion are both saying that they are only going on the information supplied by Barclays.

Have LBG actually looked at your credit file? Any unrecorded enquiries in the search history would demonstrate they have. They've carried out a review of your accounts and decided the game's up...

I've just checked TransUnion and Equifax and no soft searches are showing so it seems like it's an internal decision. 

They usually do it on Experian. I've got one.

Nothing's showing up on Experian either and the report was created today.