Lloyds 0% overdraft

PRAISETHESUN

I recently switched a dummy Chase account to Lloyds to try and capitalise on their switch offer. I didn't have any success there as I'm not eligible for the incentive (which I knew going in but thought I'd try anyway) but they have sent me a letter to say that my overdraft is now fee-free (ie. 0%) for the next 3 months.

Just wondering if anyone knows whether there's any reason why I couldn't just repeat this process every 2-3 months to perpetually keep my overdraft at 0%? Does anyone have experience trying this?

pecunianonolet

Some important info is missing e.g. amount offered and account type you have and if it really is only in relation to your switch.

Not sure how long this is in existence with Lloyds or if this is newly introduced as a follow up to Nationwide offering £50 interest free. Lloyds may have followed with a soft launch offering the same now.

PRAISETHESUN

It's a Club Lloyds current account and my arranged OD is approximately £1500. I've attached the relevant part of the letter. It doesn't to refer to the £50 buffer, but rather says the entirety of my OD is interest free. I might experiment with this and report back down the line with how things go 

pecunianonolet

PRAISETHESUN said:

It's a Club Lloyds current account and my arranged OD is approximately £1500. I've attached the relevant part of the letter. It doesn't to refer to the £50 buffer, but rather says the entirety of my OD is interest free. I might experiment with this and report back down the line with how things go 

Certainly interesting that they offer this to you. Might be a way of saying thank you. 

surreysaver

I switched into a Club Lloyds current account which had lain dormant for a few years. I got three months 0% overdraft. It seems to be a standard thing

PRAISETHESUN

For anyone interested. I completed another switch to my existing Lloyds account using a dummy Chase account, just to see what would happen. Got another 0% OD offer for 3 months, commencing the day my switch started.

PRAISETHESUN

An update on this as I've had another few extensions on this by doing further switches of dummy accounts into my existing Lloyds account. For my most recent switch last week, I timed it to complete a few days before my existing promotional offer ended and as usual the new 0% period was backdated to the date I started my switch, not when it completed. Apart from a brief period for a few days a few months ago, this will bring me to about a year at 0% now.

Also for info, I had an issue earlier in the year where the 0% lapsed early and I was charged OD interest for a few days before I noticed. I complained, and they refunded the OD interest and gave me some compensation (I only requested the OD fees be refunded) which was nice. When I inquired further I was told that it lapsed early because I changed the type of current account I held. I had upgraded from Club Lloyds to Lloyds Premier a few days prior, which triggered my existing 0% promotion to lapse. It's not account type specific apparently and in practise any account type change will trigger any 0% promotional offer to lapse. Quickly switched in a new account and was back to 0%.

I've been slowly increasing my OD limit over the course of this year and with a bit of diligence this is turning into a nice bit of extra cash 🙂

pecunianonolet

PRAISETHESUN said:

An update on this as I've had another few extensions on this by doing further switches of dummy accounts into my existing Lloyds account. For my most recent switch last week, I timed it to complete a few days before my existing promotional offer ended and as usual the new 0% period was backdated to the date I started my switch, not when it completed. Apart from a brief period for a few days a few months ago, this will bring me to about a year at 0% now.

Also for info, I had an issue earlier in the year where the 0% lapsed early and I was charged OD interest for a few days before I noticed. I complained, and they refunded the OD interest and gave me some compensation (I only requested the OD fees be refunded) which was nice. When I inquired further I was told that it lapsed early because I changed the type of current account I held. I had upgraded from Club Lloyds to Lloyds Premier a few days prior, which triggered my existing 0% promotion to lapse. It's not account type specific apparently and in practise any account type change will trigger any 0% promotional offer to lapse. Quickly switched in a new account and was back to 0%.

I've been slowly increasing my OD limit over the course of this year and with a bit of diligence this is turning into a nice bit of extra cash 🙂

I am still using only my standard £50 overdraft limit. So if I increase that to say £500 and switch a dummy Chase account in I will be able to use £500 interest free for 3 month and after that I just keep switching new Chase dummy accounts in? Is that the theory? Obviously more profitable with a higher limit.

PRAISETHESUN

pecunianonolet said:

PRAISETHESUN said:

An update on this as I've had another few extensions on this by doing further switches of dummy accounts into my existing Lloyds account. For my most recent switch last week, I timed it to complete a few days before my existing promotional offer ended and as usual the new 0% period was backdated to the date I started my switch, not when it completed. Apart from a brief period for a few days a few months ago, this will bring me to about a year at 0% now.

Also for info, I had an issue earlier in the year where the 0% lapsed early and I was charged OD interest for a few days before I noticed. I complained, and they refunded the OD interest and gave me some compensation (I only requested the OD fees be refunded) which was nice. When I inquired further I was told that it lapsed early because I changed the type of current account I held. I had upgraded from Club Lloyds to Lloyds Premier a few days prior, which triggered my existing 0% promotion to lapse. It's not account type specific apparently and in practise any account type change will trigger any 0% promotional offer to lapse. Quickly switched in a new account and was back to 0%.

I've been slowly increasing my OD limit over the course of this year and with a bit of diligence this is turning into a nice bit of extra cash 🙂

I am still using only my standard £50 overdraft limit. So if I increase that to say £500 and switch a dummy Chase account in I will be able to use £500 interest free for 3 month and after that I just keep switching new Chase dummy accounts in? Is that the theory? Obviously more profitable with a higher limit.

Pretty much that's the idea, getting a sufficient OD limit and then perpetually keeping it at 0% by switching in a new Chase account every 3 months. So far Lloyds have kept renewing the offer each time.

pecunianonolet

PRAISETHESUN said:

pecunianonolet said:

PRAISETHESUN said:

An update on this as I've had another few extensions on this by doing further switches of dummy accounts into my existing Lloyds account. For my most recent switch last week, I timed it to complete a few days before my existing promotional offer ended and as usual the new 0% period was backdated to the date I started my switch, not when it completed. Apart from a brief period for a few days a few months ago, this will bring me to about a year at 0% now.

Also for info, I had an issue earlier in the year where the 0% lapsed early and I was charged OD interest for a few days before I noticed. I complained, and they refunded the OD interest and gave me some compensation (I only requested the OD fees be refunded) which was nice. When I inquired further I was told that it lapsed early because I changed the type of current account I held. I had upgraded from Club Lloyds to Lloyds Premier a few days prior, which triggered my existing 0% promotion to lapse. It's not account type specific apparently and in practise any account type change will trigger any 0% promotional offer to lapse. Quickly switched in a new account and was back to 0%.

I've been slowly increasing my OD limit over the course of this year and with a bit of diligence this is turning into a nice bit of extra cash 🙂

I am still using only my standard £50 overdraft limit. So if I increase that to say £500 and switch a dummy Chase account in I will be able to use £500 interest free for 3 month and after that I just keep switching new Chase dummy accounts in? Is that the theory? Obviously more profitable with a higher limit.

Pretty much that's the idea, getting a sufficient OD limit and then perpetually keeping it at 0% by switching in a new Chase account every 3 months. So far Lloyds have kept renewing the offer each time.

That's great news. Just upped my limit and missed that they upped the interest free limit from £50 to £100 and initiated a switch from Chase.

I wonder if this also works with Halifax? Could make the Rewards Accounts quite useful after all the rewards are paid.

If you link your bank accout to Paypal you can make 1p as well because Paypal will send you 1p with a code to confirm the account and they usually not claw it back.