Debanked by Lloyds

pecunianonolet

Hi, 

OH been with Lloyds for the last 1.5 years and a Club Lloyds account and a standard and Club Lloyds regular saver, both matured end of March and interest was credited and withdrawn.

Now, yesterday two new regular savers were opened in the app to be funded this month as the other ones came to an end. This morning a text message that the saver will be closed, to destroy all cards and pin and further comms to come by post. The text states that they have reviewed the credit file, which is in order with nothing unusual of someone banking just normally.

OH has also a Halifax account but that one is not really used.

A phone call was, as expected, answered with stiff upper lip just citing "not met our criteria", the question of what the criteria is and if it has changed was responded with "it is fluid". No further info was provided. 

I guess, just another "commercial decision", which they are totally entitled to.

No word of the current account being closed, it may or may not materialise in the next days.

I was debanked last year from Halifax for opening a regular saver and a complaint didn't go anywhere, a DSAR revealed that they were holding totally wrong data. Went to a local BOS branch and we corrected all that the system allowed. Current account and regular saver were closed but an Instant Saver wasn't closed and remains open and unused.

I had no issues with Lloyds and just opened the two new regular savers after they matured in March with no issues. 

Having accounts with HSBC, Natwest, RBS, Santander, Coop and many savings accounts OH never had any problem and neither did I. The only culprit is LBG. 

Will hand in a complaint and DSAR to see what it reveals but I guess we will close all accounts and anything to do with those bandits after. 

Long story short, just a warning that if all and everything with banking with them has been smooth and without issue a simple reopening of a regular saver can suddenly get you debanked. 

born_again

Can you have more than one regular saver at same bank?

WillPS

Forgive me if I'm wrong, @pecunianonolet didn't you both set up a load of accounts last year which were rapidly switched away? Could it be that the review, although clearly caused by something else, shone a light on those which was viewed unfavourably?

Sorry to see anyway. I'm always gutted to see people losing access to LBG since they're so lucrative.

Hoenir

pecunianonolet said:

Having accounts with HSBC, Natwest, RBS, Santander, Coop and many savings accounts OH never had any problem and neither did I. The only culprit is LBG. 

Do you flip your money between your many accounts to gain the account benefits? 

Ed-1

WillPS said:

Forgive me if I'm wrong, @pecunianonolet didn't you both set up a load of accounts last year which were rapidly switched away? Could it be that the review, although clearly caused by something else, shone a light on those which was viewed unfavourably?

Sorry to see anyway. I'm always gutted to see people losing access to LBG since they're so lucrative.

The OP doesn't say that the OH has lost access, merely had an application for a further savings account declined at stage 2 checks. So they haven't really been "debanked" (yet anyway).

pecunianonolet

born_again said:

Can you have more than one regular saver at same bank?

Club Lloyds Regular Saver and Standard Regular Saver

Hoenir said:

pecunianonolet said:

Having accounts with HSBC, Natwest, RBS, Santander, Coop and many savings accounts OH never had any problem and neither did I. The only culprit is LBG. 

Do you flip your money between your many accounts to gain the account benefits? 

Yes, that is the case for most but some are actually used in a normal way, grocery shopping, etc. Llyods is used by OH but mainly to pay in 1500, move 650 into both reg savers and the rest was moved back out. Yougov payments also went into the Club Lloyds account.

Ed-1 said:

WillPS said:

Forgive me if I'm wrong, @pecunianonolet didn't you both set up a load of accounts last year which were rapidly switched away? Could it be that the review, although clearly caused by something else, shone a light on those which was viewed unfavourably?

Sorry to see anyway. I'm always gutted to see people losing access to LBG since they're so lucrative.

The OP doesn't say that the OH has lost access, merely had an application for a further savings account declined at stage 2 checks. So they haven't really been "debanked" (yet anyway).

So far only two identical text messages talking about savers, but that was my experience with Halifax a year ago as well and they still closed them all, except of the standard saver.

OH just got 6 new cinema vouchers again 2 weeks ago so if they close it all, at least that benefit remains. Let's see what the letters will tell and take it from there.

Ed-1

pecunianonolet said:

born_again said:

Can you have more than one regular saver at same bank?

Club Lloyds Regular Saver and Standard Regular Saver

Hoenir said:

pecunianonolet said:

Having accounts with HSBC, Natwest, RBS, Santander, Coop and many savings accounts OH never had any problem and neither did I. The only culprit is LBG. 

Do you flip your money between your many accounts to gain the account benefits? 

Yes, that is the case for most but some are actually used in a normal way, grocery shopping, etc. Llyods is used by OH but mainly to pay in 1500, move 650 into both reg savers and the rest was moved back out. Yougov payments also went into the Club Lloyds account.

Ed-1 said:

WillPS said:

Forgive me if I'm wrong, @pecunianonolet didn't you both set up a load of accounts last year which were rapidly switched away? Could it be that the review, although clearly caused by something else, shone a light on those which was viewed unfavourably?

Sorry to see anyway. I'm always gutted to see people losing access to LBG since they're so lucrative.

The OP doesn't say that the OH has lost access, merely had an application for a further savings account declined at stage 2 checks. So they haven't really been "debanked" (yet anyway).

So far only two identical text messages talking about savers, but that was my experience with Halifax a year ago as well and they still closed them all, except of the standard saver.

OH just got 6 new cinema vouchers again 2 weeks ago so if they close it all, at least that benefit remains. Let's see what the letters will tell and take it from there.

Decline of an application at stage 2 often leads to a full account review but failing the first doesn't automatically lead to failing the second.

They cancel the cinema vouchers on account closure so if that is the eventuality then try and use them before the accounts close.

Hoenir

pecunianonolet said:

Hoenir said:

pecunianonolet said:

Having accounts with HSBC, Natwest, RBS, Santander, Coop and many savings accounts OH never had any problem and neither did I. The only culprit is LBG. 

Do you flip your money between your many accounts to gain the account benefits? 

Yes, that is the case for most but some are actually used in a normal way, grocery shopping, etc. Llyods is used by OH but mainly to pay in 1500, move 650 into both reg savers and the rest was moved back out. Yougov payments also went into the Club Lloyds account.

Then it's most likely a commercial decision to close. Spurious complaints aren't going to have any effect. Did you operate the Halifax account in a similar manner?  As the dots easily get joined up. 

pecunianonolet

Hoenir said:

pecunianonolet said:

Hoenir said:

pecunianonolet said:

Having accounts with HSBC, Natwest, RBS, Santander, Coop and many savings accounts OH never had any problem and neither did I. The only culprit is LBG. 

Do you flip your money between your many accounts to gain the account benefits? 

Yes, that is the case for most but some are actually used in a normal way, grocery shopping, etc. Llyods is used by OH but mainly to pay in 1500, move 650 into both reg savers and the rest was moved back out. Yougov payments also went into the Club Lloyds account.

Then it's most likely a commercial decision to close. Spurious complaints aren't going to have any effect. Did you operate the Halifax account in a similar manner?  As the dots easily get joined up. 

Yes, the Halifax account was used to pay in funds, direct debit out to Skipton and funds moved from there into Skipton regular saver. A Halifax regular saver is active and was paid into for the first 2 months but OH moved funds after into higher paying reg savers and left the reg saver, which is about to mature later this week.

Guess I should look for something decent to watch in the cinema tonight.

EDIT: Cinema vouchers do not work anymore and show as invalid. 

WillPS

pecunianonolet said:

EDIT: Cinema vouchers do not work anymore and show as invalid. 

Ooof, that's not good. Sorry to hear this Do you have any joint accounts together? Could it be a case of 'black marked by association'?

pecunianonolet

Ed-1 said:

WillPS said:

Forgive me if I'm wrong, @pecunianonolet didn't you both set up a load of accounts last year which were rapidly switched away? Could it be that the review, although clearly caused by something else, shone a light on those which was viewed unfavourably?

Sorry to see anyway. I'm always gutted to see people losing access to LBG since they're so lucrative.

The OP doesn't say that the OH has lost access, merely had an application for a further savings account declined at stage 2 checks. So they haven't really been "debanked" (yet anyway).

@WillPs that is correct but OH only switched one duplicate Lloyds Classic account away which is normal behaviour and not really abuse I would say.

I in contrary switched out a few more Lloyds accounts and made use of the opportunity of free current accounts and they only closed my Halifax current account and regular saver but not the standard saver. My Lloyds account has not been affected in any way and my regular savers opened just fine after the previous ones matured. So if it is about commercial decisions, I would be the one who would be costing them much more.

As annoying as it is, I am no longer losing my sleep over it, just sad about the loss of cinema tickets when they just got allocated and the opportunity of a fixed interest regular saver. Their Disney+ offer isn't of interest as we haven't paid for Disney since 2021 and the rest of their perks are not of interest either. The local VUE cinema is rather run down anyway so it was a nice addon but nothing I am hugely disappointed about. We struggled to use up 12 cinema vouchers last year anyhow. 

None of us is banned or anything, they are just more picky than others I guess. 

We'll see what the letters say but a DSAR is for sure going in.