LBG closing all my accounts on 18th May

Band7

MisterMotivated said:

I could be mistaken but, I seem to recall several years ago reading on here about people having similar issues when holding accounts with all 3 banks.  Halifax and Lloyds seemed to be okay (touch wood, I've had accounts with both for many years), but adding a BOS account for some reason seemed to result in these closure notices for some, hence why I've always steered clear of them...

That’s a bit of a conspiracy theory. I have held multiple accounts at all 3 for over a decade.

datz

k_man said:

I opened a few saving accounts with LBG (9 across the group), all on the same day.

The following day all were closed with immediate effect (fortunately only the new savings accounts).

These required visits to branches to withdraw the balances, which in total were less than £10.

This is quite surprising. What reason were you given for the closures?

AmityNeon

It would be immensely helpful and I'm sure greatly appreciated by us all if those who have experienced mass closure of accounts (whether current or savings) were also willing to share any explanation behind those closures if given by providers, especially if no specific terms or conditions were breached.

trient

Won't probably help much, but you could try a SAR against each of the LBG members and see if it uncovers something.  You'd have to be careful on wording, try poking around internal notes containing personal information relevant to you.

I had an incident with Barclays (there's a thread around here from a few years ago) where they closed my account just a few days after I opened it.  No reason given and of course people here advised I should move on - but I pressed on it, did a SAR which uncovered some obviously incorrect fraud assumptions on internal notes, I challenged that to the CEO's executive support team and had my complaint upheld - then I was able to reopen the account and have been happily using it ever since.  Not saying it will work, but it's worth trying on the off chance you might learn something useful.

k_man

datz said:

k_man said:

I opened a few saving accounts with LBG (9 across the group), all on the same day.

The following day all were closed with immediate effect (fortunately only the new savings accounts).

These required visits to branches to withdraw the balances, which in total were less than £10.

This is quite surprising. What reason were you given for the closures?

AmityNeon said:

It would be immensely helpful and I'm sure greatly appreciated by us all if those who have experienced mass closure of accounts (whether current or savings) were also willing to share any explanation behind those closures if given by providers, especially if no specific terms or conditions were breached.

The messages they sent were:

Initial texts sent the day after the accounts were opened:

We've now completed some further checks on your Savings Account application and have decided to close this new account. You may still get a message from us saying we've accepted your application. You can disregard this and destroy any card or PIN you received for this account. We're sending you a letter to confirm the closure and explain the reasons for it in more detail. You'll receive this in the next few days. Thank you.

From the letter(s) sent:

Thank you for applying to open a Savings Account. After we received your application we did some further checks. As a result of these we will be closing your new account with immediate effect and you won't be able to use it. Please destroy any correspondence including any card and PIN you receive.

How we reviewed your application
In our review of your application we checked the accuracy of the details that you gave us. We also looked at data held by credit reference and fraud prevention agencies. Having done this we can see that you don't meet our requirements for opening an account.

I decided this could still be considered part of the account opening process, so could be terminated with immediate effect.
I suspect that a couple of new current accounts, and new purchase and BT credit cards in the last month or two make me look like the wrong sort of customer!

After receiving the SMS messages, the new savings accounts were unable to be used to transfer out the opening balances, online or via telephone, but we're still visible.
The other existing LBG current and savings accounts are still working as normal (so far!)

So a slightly different scenario to the OP, but maybe part of a similar LBG review process.

And we know LBG have been favourites for extra donor accounts (with no hard check), and multiple savings.

datz

k_man said:

The messages they sent were:

Initial texts sent the day after the accounts were opened:

We've now completed some further checks on your Savings Account application and have decided to close this new account. You may still get a message from us saying we've accepted your application. You can disregard this and destroy any card or PIN you received for this account. We're sending you a letter to confirm the closure and explain the reasons for it in more detail. You'll receive this in the next few days. Thank you.

From the letter(s) sent:

Thank you for applying to open a Savings Account. After we received your application we did some further checks. As a result of these we will be closing your new account with immediate effect and you won't be able to use it. Please destroy any correspondence including any card and PIN you receive.

How we reviewed your application
In our review of your application we checked the accuracy of the details that you gave us. We also looked at data held by credit reference and fraud prevention agencies. Having done this we can see that you don't meet our requirements for opening an account.

I decided this could still be considered part of the account opening process, so could be terminated with immediate effect.
I suspect that a couple of new current accounts, and new purchase and BT credit cards in the last month or two make me look like the wrong sort of customer!

After receiving the SMS messages, the new savings accounts were unable to be used to transfer out the opening balances, online or via telephone, but we're still visible.
The other existing LBG current and savings accounts are still working as normal (so far!)

So a slightly different scenario to the OP, but maybe part of a similar LBG review process.

And we know LBG have been favourites for extra donor accounts (with no hard check), and multiple savings.

That's just odd. Those are generic decline messages. Apart from one mention of 'Savings Account', that phrasing seems more applicable to current (or credit) accounts. Especially given that they don't credit (/fraud) check for savings products for existing customers (iirc they don't even run checks on additional current accounts for existing customers). And savings accounts are generally much easier to open and are subjected to less stringent checks.

I guess application frequency seems to be playing a part here, but that doesn't seem at all excessive.

masonic

datz said:

I guess application frequency seems to be playing a part here, but that doesn't seem at all excessive.

It must be a tiny percentage of LBG customers who would open 9 savings accounts in a single day. 'Excessive' is a rather emotive term, but I'd describe it as highly unusual.

k_man

masonic said:

datz said:

I guess application frequency seems to be playing a part here, but that doesn't seem at all excessive.

It must be a tiny percentage of LBG customers who would open 9 savings accounts in a single day. 'Excessive' is a rather emotive term, but I'd describe it as highly unusual.

Indeed.
When I visited the branch to withdraw the balances, the member of staff even commented (about the 5 with Lloyds):
"That is a lot of saving accounts"

Albeit I then replied, that when I opened the first new Easy Access, at the end of the application process, the highlighted option is

Open another Easy Access Saver....

I think this was made worse by the way LBG seem to share data/processes and systems across the group.
(But not branches).

datz

masonic said:

datz said:

I guess application frequency seems to be playing a part here, but that doesn't seem at all excessive.

It must be a tiny percentage of LBG customers who would open 9 savings accounts in a single day. 'Excessive' is a rather emotive term, but I'd describe it as highly unusual.

Certainly, but with fintech apps popularizing the idea of savings pots for anything and everything, it is not as rare as some might think. Someone I know took up the Santander switch offer - the one in late-Jan (I believe) - and had that particular mindset, opening a bunch of Everyday Savers at the same time (and giving them custom names). Tried to talk some sense into them about the terrible interest rates, but some people just seem to like it that way.

bristolleedsfan

I wonder if these instances of account closures has anything to do with You Gov Finance sharing data.

I have 17 spend and save accounts, have opened 2 within 24 hours periodically over a period of time, the last 2 opened last month both got closed following further checks., was the first time I opened 2 accounts 2 months running, info I gave on application form was the same as previously, only those 2 most recently opened accounts have been closed.