LBG closing all my accounts on 18th May

Bridlington1

WillPS said:

trient said:

I'm not sure that maps on to any of the LBG account closure situations which have been discussed here; nobody has had them welch or try to claw back any rewards or bonuses, correct?

Not the point I was making, but not sure what happens e.g. with interest accrued but not posted on savings accounts.  And you could argue that a pending bonus lost from a closed Halifax reward account would be similar - but obvs not something anyone would lose sleep over.

Are Halifax not paying rewards in the notice period of these accounts? I've not seen any reports of such.

When they closed the regular saver I opened on 16/3/23 the statement said they'd paid me 15p interest, though I'm still waiting for the funds to be returned to me, which I presume will be in the form of a cheque.

Needless to say all I can do now is de-link my LBG banks from the rest of my banking affairs, arrange for my main Club Lloyds and 3 Halifax reward accounts to be switched out around 15th-17th May and get as much money out of LBG as I can in the mean time.

I can still get another 2 months worth of interest on the 3 remaining regular savers, another £30 out of the Halifax reward accounts, the savings interest on stoozing the £50 0% OD for 2 months and a couple more installments of the free Club Lloyds magazine.

EDIT I can still get some money fro re-linking my LBG accounts to YouGov again next month so that should be another £30 for the ones that actually tracked.

WillPS

Bridlington1 said:

I went into my local Lloyds branch today and their response was as expected. They said that I am bared from opening a LBG account for life and that it was a decision taken by head office and cannot be overturned. They also said they had no contact details for the account closure team and had a bit of a moan about how these letters always tell you to go into branch when they can do nothing about it.

Ah that is wrenching news. I wonder how 'for life' these things really are? Surely there's a right to be forgotten at some point if this is a 'no fault' closure?

WillPS

Bridlington1 said:

WillPS said:

trient said:

I'm not sure that maps on to any of the LBG account closure situations which have been discussed here; nobody has had them welch or try to claw back any rewards or bonuses, correct?

Not the point I was making, but not sure what happens e.g. with interest accrued but not posted on savings accounts.  And you could argue that a pending bonus lost from a closed Halifax reward account would be similar - but obvs not something anyone would lose sleep over.

Are Halifax not paying rewards in the notice period of these accounts? I've not seen any reports of such.

When they closed the regular saver I opened on 16/3/23 the statement said they'd paid me 15p interest, though I'm still waiting for the funds to be returned to me, which I presume will be in the form of a cheque.

Needless to say all I can do now is de-link my LBG banks from the rest of my banking affairs, arrange for my main Club Lloyds and 3 Halifax reward accounts to be switched out around 15th-17th May and get as much money out of LBG as I can in the mean time.

I can still get another 2 months worth of interest on the 3 remaining regular savers, another £30 out of the Halifax reward accounts, the savings interest on stoozing the £50 0% OD for 2 months and a couple more installments of the free Club Lloyds magazine.

EDIT I can still get some money fro re-linking my LBG accounts to YouGov again next month so that should be another £30 for the ones that actually tracked.

Probably not the news you wanted to hear but Yougov seem to have implemented a 10 account limit now

gwapenut

I banned Lloyds from being my banking provider "for life" when I was 19, as the branch in my new town refused to accept my old account being transferred over (it was town-based in those days). I'd run it down, week by week, from a solid £500 for months as a school boy, to 72p in that final week while I was awaiting my first ever out-of-education pay packet later that same week. The manager of the new branch decided he didn't like this, although I think it showed excellent financial management.

However, when they introduced Club Lloyds, I relented and decided to give them a second chance. In my case, "for life" meant for about 25 years, which I believe is similar to what it means for those serving at His Majesty's pleasure.

Bridlington1

WillPS said:

Bridlington1 said:

WillPS said:

trient said:

I'm not sure that maps on to any of the LBG account closure situations which have been discussed here; nobody has had them welch or try to claw back any rewards or bonuses, correct?

Not the point I was making, but not sure what happens e.g. with interest accrued but not posted on savings accounts.  And you could argue that a pending bonus lost from a closed Halifax reward account would be similar - but obvs not something anyone would lose sleep over.

Are Halifax not paying rewards in the notice period of these accounts? I've not seen any reports of such.

When they closed the regular saver I opened on 16/3/23 the statement said they'd paid me 15p interest, though I'm still waiting for the funds to be returned to me, which I presume will be in the form of a cheque.

Needless to say all I can do now is de-link my LBG banks from the rest of my banking affairs, arrange for my main Club Lloyds and 3 Halifax reward accounts to be switched out around 15th-17th May and get as much money out of LBG as I can in the mean time.

I can still get another 2 months worth of interest on the 3 remaining regular savers, another £30 out of the Halifax reward accounts, the savings interest on stoozing the £50 0% OD for 2 months and a couple more installments of the free Club Lloyds magazine.

EDIT I can still get some money fro re-linking my LBG accounts to YouGov again next month so that should be another £30 for the ones that actually tracked.

Probably not the news you wanted to hear but Yougov seem to have implemented a 10 account limit now

I think it's fair to say I've had better weeks.

Bridlington1

WillPS said:

Bridlington1 said:

I went into my local Lloyds branch today and their response was as expected. They said that I am bared from opening a LBG account for life and that it was a decision taken by head office and cannot be overturned. They also said they had no contact details for the account closure team and had a bit of a moan about how these letters always tell you to go into branch when they can do nothing about it.

Ah that is wrenching news. I wonder how 'for life' these things really are? Surely there's a right to be forgotten at some point if this is a 'no fault' closure?

I don't know but my only hope of opening a Lloyds account in the future seems to be if the bank collapses, gets taken over or splits up.

As a consolation prize I've just booked myself in for an initial telephone consultation with Schroders personal wealth management (part of LBG). Lloyds have been pestering me about personal wealth managers etc for ages despite my not meeting the eligibility criteria so I might as well see what the fuss is about.

Bridlington1

Well I've managed to open another Halifax monthly saver at 5.5%. I shall leave it with £1 in it and see how long it takes for them to close it. If it takes the same length of time to close as the last one then I think I will keep opening new monthly savers, depositing £250 then renewing and closing them 1 day before they are due to be shut down by Halifax in order to eek a little bit more interest out of them whilst I can.

gt94sss2

Bridlington1 said:

Well I've managed to open another Halifax monthly saver at 5.5%. I shall leave it with £1 in it and see how long it takes for them to close it. If it takes the same length of time to close as the last one then I think I will keep opening new monthly savers, depositing £250 then renewing and closing them 1 day before they are due to be shut down by Halifax in order to eek a little bit more interest out of them whilst I can.

With respect, that sounds a bit childish and you risk Halifax suspending your online access/closing your accounts immediately..

Bridlington1

gt94sss2 said:

Bridlington1 said:

Well I've managed to open another Halifax monthly saver at 5.5%. I shall leave it with £1 in it and see how long it takes for them to close it. If it takes the same length of time to close as the last one then I think I will keep opening new monthly savers, depositing £250 then renewing and closing them 1 day before they are due to be shut down by Halifax in order to eek a little bit more interest out of them whilst I can.

With respect, that sounds a bit childish and you risk Halifax suspending your online access/closing your accounts immediately..

Fair point, I think I may have momentarily taken leave of my senses on this one. Upon doing the maths it would work out to under £1 in interest gained so I will leave it. It isn't worth the risk of losing out on the £30 I can still get out of the reward accounts over the next 2 months. 

datz

It's been a couple of days since I checked back here. To elaborate on one of my earlier points, the following is a screenshot from HSBC.

So if savings account applications are, in fact, triggering problems for people, then banks have some very differing policies on the matter... from open encouragement of an "all you can eat" buffet to just throwing you under the bus with no questions asked. And what makes it harder for people to distinguish, is that the latter do not expressly prohibit it in their literature. Or where they do stipulate an account limit, they then (apparently?) aggressively act to enforce before people even exceed any stated limits. In LBG's case, they allow you to have 5 of each (savings) account type, or at least that is what the respective product terms say.

pecunianonolet said:

That we all try to milk the system, use loopholes and bribes is normal, we wouldn't be here otherwise. That many people are desperate for extra cash, especially if it can be obtained fairly easy with next to now effort, in times when many people suffer is just natural too. 

At the end not every fight is worth fighting and I have to choose my battles wisely.

Those that like to push the boundaries just hope their actions disappear into the background noise. You will always get looked at more closely when you trip (the ever more restrictive) algorithms that run these platforms. It's always going to be a gamble when behaviour is far outside that of normal customers.

For example, since we are talking specifically about LBG here, you still have people that are abusing the multi-profile loophole to create and run multiple sets of halifax reward accounts... each profile paying out £15 per month, and each able to take advantage of switching incentives. That alone is more "abusive" than anything I have read in this thread, but they get away with it because I can only guess that no one has gone looking for it.