LBG closing all my accounts on 18th May

Bridlington1

Frequentlyhere said:

pridehappy said:

I can’t really advise on what went wrong, although I can confirm Lloyds Banking Group fraud prevention is atrocious. They seem to allow actual fraud through and stop everyday customers just trying to use their products.

So far, I’ve found most reliable, trusting and supporting ones to be Virgin Money and Nationwide if it helps - both of which have a decent selection of good quality products.

Just want to second this. I've taken now to not setting or amending payees unless absolutely necessary with LBG, as I have fully come to expect the LBG interrogation. My wife was once left near tears a few years back as they harrassed her for nearly 30 minutes asking all sorts of arcane details like what brand our broadband router is and repeated questions as to whether I was forcing her into transactions.

Whilst of course checks are necessary sometimes, no other bank seems to find this level of intrusiveness necessary. In my experience at least, they have the balance wrong. 

I would however suggest doing any required activity on mobile app. I have yet (cross fingers) to trip their fraud wires when setting up payees on mobile. I think because they effectively trust it more than as your own device rather than via the web.

I've never actually had any payments held up on any of my LBG accounts in the entire time I've banked with them, despite the large volume of payments. The worst I've ever had is needing to enter a OTP every time I make a £500 debit card deposit into a savings account from Halifax but I imagine any bank would do this.

Then again I've been pretty fortunate in general in terms of fraud checks. HSBC held up a payment in January 2022, then froze my account for 23 days the following month (not a main account so I was lucky). VM froze my account for 5 days in March 2022. Since then the worst I've had is having to send 1 text to VM to confirm I was buying around £300 worth of supermarket gift cards and another to Natwest to confirm I was depositing £50.01 into CMC invest but no phone call or anything required for the last 2. The infamous Santander has never held a single one of my payments, including a faster payment of close to £20k into Al Rayan last year which surprised me.

I must have set up around 40-60 different payees, on Lloyds in the last year alone, many of which have since been deleted as accounts get closed/switched away etc. I have Principality BS set up on Lloyds that I regularly change the reference 2-3 times per month and have never had any issues until now. They've just let me get on with it for the last few years, which I think is what surprised me the most about their decision to close my accounts.

I do most of my LBG banking in online banking, only using the Lloyds app to deposit the occasional cheque. I've never even downloaded the Halifax/BOS apps.

Pre-LBG closure I had 3 main nominated accounts plus a couple of lesser used ones, Lloyds (~50%), Nationwide (~20%), Virgin (~20%), Santander (~5%) and Halifax (~5%). As I've recently added Metro to my collection of accounts and used them for some of my regular saver deposits the last couple of months I'm letting them take up half of the gap left by Lloyds. Ulster's can take some of the gap and I plan to add a few more to Santander, Nationwide and Virgin with Natwest/RBS becoming my main accounts for depositing cheques.

In a nutshell my nominated accounts collection will be a bit more spread out in future than they were before so aim to end up in the region of Nationwide (~30%), Virgin (~25%), Metro (~25%), Santander (~10%), Ulster (~10%) so that if another banking group sling me out I will have less accounts to move than I have now.

One of my BOS donor accounts will be switched to my spare Natwest account next month, my oldest Halifax account will go to Metro simultaneously and I shall decide where to switch Club Lloyds to next month. I plan to get that switched to somewhere as late as possible to maximise the £50 overdraft stooze, the CL regular saver and the free magazine so aim for a switch completion date of around 15th-17th May. Plus it means I've not got as mad of a rush to change all my nominated accounts. The other LBG accounts I held never received payments from outside my LBG banks so I shall let them be closed by LBG on 18/5/23.

I never managed to claim TSB's switching offers as they won't let me open a new current account at the moment, though if this changes in the next month or if they launch a switching offer that doesn't require a current account to be opened Lloyds will go to them. If not then it can go to VM or Nationwide, which I shall arrange on around 1/5/23 to give time for any potential delays.

pecunianonolet

pecunianonolet said:

Based on my rather long post a few pages back outlining OH and I had basically the same activity with Lloyds what concerns switches and account openings. I got the nasty letter from Halifax that they don't want me as customer, OH got the Halifax switch incentive this morning  OH switched a Lloyds account to Halifax.

I think the reason why Halifax doesn't want me must have other underlying reasons, and presume this has to do with the credit file. Let's see what digging in my reports with CIFAS uncovers. 

So, CIFAS results are here. Was searched by Al Ryan on 13th March. Exact same entry as @Bridlington1 posted previously. 

Band7

pecunianonolet said:

pecunianonolet said:

Based on my rather long post a few pages back outlining OH and I had basically the same activity with Lloyds what concerns switches and account openings. I got the nasty letter from Halifax that they don't want me as customer, OH got the Halifax switch incentive this morning  OH switched a Lloyds account to Halifax.

I think the reason why Halifax doesn't want me must have other underlying reasons, and presume this has to do with the credit file. Let's see what digging in my reports with CIFAS uncovers. 

So, CIFAS results are here. Was searched by Al Ryan on 13th March. Exact same entry as @Bridlington1 posted previously. 

Tin hats on.

pecunianonolet

Band7 said:

pecunianonolet said:

pecunianonolet said:

Based on my rather long post a few pages back outlining OH and I had basically the same activity with Lloyds what concerns switches and account openings. I got the nasty letter from Halifax that they don't want me as customer, OH got the Halifax switch incentive this morning  OH switched a Lloyds account to Halifax.

I think the reason why Halifax doesn't want me must have other underlying reasons, and presume this has to do with the credit file. Let's see what digging in my reports with CIFAS uncovers. 

So, CIFAS results are here. Was searched by Al Ryan on 13th March. Exact same entry as @Bridlington1 posted previously. 

Tin hats on.

Yes, on the 14th I applied for the Halifax account.... My account opening with Ulster went through with no issue and FirstDirect paid switching bonus yesterday....

Speculator

pecunianonolet said:

pecunianonolet said:

Based on my rather long post a few pages back outlining OH and I had basically the same activity with Lloyds what concerns switches and account openings. I got the nasty letter from Halifax that they don't want me as customer, OH got the Halifax switch incentive this morning  OH switched a Lloyds account to Halifax.

I think the reason why Halifax doesn't want me must have other underlying reasons, and presume this has to do with the credit file. Let's see what digging in my reports with CIFAS uncovers. 

So, CIFAS results are here. Was searched by Al Ryan on 13th March. Exact same entry as @Bridlington1 posted previously. 

So I was right?

Looks like Halifax/Lloyds are closing accounts of people who had a CIFAS search by Al Ryan or is it still a coincidence?

Like I said earlier, might be a good idea to close your Al Ryan account (especially if you have Halifax/Lloyds/BOS accounts) before Al Ryan do a random CIFAS search.

ForumUser7

Speculator said:

pecunianonolet said:

pecunianonolet said:

Based on my rather long post a few pages back outlining OH and I had basically the same activity with Lloyds what concerns switches and account openings. I got the nasty letter from Halifax that they don't want me as customer, OH got the Halifax switch incentive this morning  OH switched a Lloyds account to Halifax.

I think the reason why Halifax doesn't want me must have other underlying reasons, and presume this has to do with the credit file. Let's see what digging in my reports with CIFAS uncovers. 

So, CIFAS results are here. Was searched by Al Ryan on 13th March. Exact same entry as @Bridlington1 posted previously. 

So I was right?

Looks like Halifax/Lloyds are closing accounts of people who had a CIFAS search by Al Ryan or is it still a coincidence?

Like I said earlier, might be a good idea to close your Al Ryan account before they do a random CIFAS search.

It is more concerning given 2 people have had similar experiences, and I reiterate that if people wish to close their accounts, they of course can.

That said, there must be loads of people who have LBG and AR Accounts, and there are only 2 reports so far. Of course more may follow.

IIRC, both have mentioned high switching request volumes, which could also be cause. It could be CIFAS caused the review, and the high switching request volumes were spotted at this stage. I don’t know.

I would think that @bridlington1 and @pecunianonolet could put complaints into Al Rayan, and mention that their LBG accounts were closed after the CIFAS search, and ask them why they did these searches. That said, it seems LBG won’t change their mind though, and there is no possible appeal mechanism.

Bridlington1

pecunianonolet said:

pecunianonolet said:

Based on my rather long post a few pages back outlining OH and I had basically the same activity with Lloyds what concerns switches and account openings. I got the nasty letter from Halifax that they don't want me as customer, OH got the Halifax switch incentive this morning  OH switched a Lloyds account to Halifax.

I think the reason why Halifax doesn't want me must have other underlying reasons, and presume this has to do with the credit file. Let's see what digging in my reports with CIFAS uncovers. 

So, CIFAS results are here. Was searched by Al Ryan on 13th March. Exact same entry as @Bridlington1 posted previously. 

This is too much of a coincidence to ignore now.

So it looks like Al Rayan were talking nonsense when they said that the search would not be seen by other lenders.

Band7 said:

pecunianonolet said:

pecunianonolet said:

Based on my rather long post a few pages back outlining OH and I had basically the same activity with Lloyds what concerns switches and account openings. I got the nasty letter from Halifax that they don't want me as customer, OH got the Halifax switch incentive this morning  OH switched a Lloyds account to Halifax.

I think the reason why Halifax doesn't want me must have other underlying reasons, and presume this has to do with the credit file. Let's see what digging in my reports with CIFAS uncovers. 

So, CIFAS results are here. Was searched by Al Ryan on 13th March. Exact same entry as @Bridlington1 posted previously. 

Tin hats on.

I now declare that from this day forth a state of war exists between Bridlington1 and Al Rayan bank.

ForumUser7 said:

Speculator said:

pecunianonolet said:

pecunianonolet said:

Based on my rather long post a few pages back outlining OH and I had basically the same activity with Lloyds what concerns switches and account openings. I got the nasty letter from Halifax that they don't want me as customer, OH got the Halifax switch incentive this morning  OH switched a Lloyds account to Halifax.

I think the reason why Halifax doesn't want me must have other underlying reasons, and presume this has to do with the credit file. Let's see what digging in my reports with CIFAS uncovers. 

So, CIFAS results are here. Was searched by Al Ryan on 13th March. Exact same entry as @Bridlington1 posted previously. 

So I was right?

Looks like Halifax/Lloyds are closing accounts of people who had a CIFAS search by Al Ryan or is it still a coincidence?

Like I said earlier, might be a good idea to close your Al Ryan account before they do a random CIFAS search.

It is more concerning given 2 people have had similar experiences, and I reiterate that if people wish to close their accounts, they of course can.

That said, there must be loads of people who have LBG and AR Accounts, and there are only 2 reports so far. Of course more may follow.

IIRC, both have mentioned high switching request volumes, which could also be cause. It could be CIFAS caused the review, and the high switching request volumes were spotted at this stage. I don’t know.

I would think that @bridlington1 and @pecunianonolet could put complaints into Al Rayan, and mention that their LBG accounts were closed after the CIFAS search, and ask them why they did these searches. That said, it seems LBG won’t change their mind though, and there is no possible appeal mechanism.

Agreed. I suggest that anyone with an Al Rayan account do a DSAR on CIFAS to get an idea as to how widespread the issue is. The more info we have into the matter the better so far as I'm concerned.

Moreover if it was the CIFAS that sparked the LBG closures then other banks could easily follow suit.

The £million question now is how the devil does one go about getting a CIFAS search removed?

Bridlington1

This really has been one of those weeks hasn't it.

Band7

Speculator said:

pecunianonolet said:

pecunianonolet said:

Based on my rather long post a few pages back outlining OH and I had basically the same activity with Lloyds what concerns switches and account openings. I got the nasty letter from Halifax that they don't want me as customer, OH got the Halifax switch incentive this morning  OH switched a Lloyds account to Halifax.

I think the reason why Halifax doesn't want me must have other underlying reasons, and presume this has to do with the credit file. Let's see what digging in my reports with CIFAS uncovers. 

So, CIFAS results are here. Was searched by Al Ryan on 13th March. Exact same entry as @Bridlington1 posted previously. 

So I was right?

Looks like Halifax/Lloyds are closing accounts of people who had a CIFAS search by Al Ryan or is it still a coincidence?

Like I said earlier, might be a good idea to close your Al Ryan account (if you have Halifax/Lloyds accounts) before Al Ryan do a random CIFAS search.

What exactly would be the connection between Al Rayan and LBG?

pecunianonolet

ForumUser7 said:

Speculator said:

pecunianonolet said:

pecunianonolet said:

Based on my rather long post a few pages back outlining OH and I had basically the same activity with Lloyds what concerns switches and account openings. I got the nasty letter from Halifax that they don't want me as customer, OH got the Halifax switch incentive this morning  OH switched a Lloyds account to Halifax.

I think the reason why Halifax doesn't want me must have other underlying reasons, and presume this has to do with the credit file. Let's see what digging in my reports with CIFAS uncovers. 

So, CIFAS results are here. Was searched by Al Ryan on 13th March. Exact same entry as @Bridlington1 posted previously. 

So I was right?

Looks like Halifax/Lloyds are closing accounts of people who had a CIFAS search by Al Ryan or is it still a coincidence?

Like I said earlier, might be a good idea to close your Al Ryan account before they do a random CIFAS search.

It is more concerning given 2 people have had similar experiences, and I reiterate that if people wish to close their accounts, they of course can.

That said, there must be loads of people who have LBG and AR Accounts, and there are only 2 reports so far. Of course more may follow.

IIRC, both have mentioned high switching request volumes, which could also be cause. It could be CIFAS caused the review, and the high switching request volumes were spotted at this stage. I don’t know.

I would think that @bridlington1 and @pecunianonolet could put complaints into Al Rayan, and mention that their LBG accounts were closed after the CIFAS search, and ask them why they did these searches. That said, it seems LBG won’t change their mind though, and there is no possible appeal mechanism.

And to reiterate,

- Only my Halifax accounts got closed. The letter I received does not state I am banned.
- Lloyds accounts are working totally fine.
- I do not hold accounts with BOS.
- Indeed, high switching activity

I will follow up with CIFAS about the visibility of that entry and if LBG is even able to see that search. On the other side, if they would have searched the CIFAS file, should there not be a similar entry?