Lloyds now moving charities to fee-paying Charity Accounts

K0nstant1n

I'm the treasurer for a very small registered charity looking after a village's recreation site. I received a letter this week informing us that our Lloyds Treasurers' Account will change to a new fee-paying Charity Account in November 2025. This appears to follow on from Lloyd's decision to change the Treasurers' Accounts of small societies and clubs to fee-paying Community Accounts earlier this year.

Lloyd's decision is obviously 'disappointing' to say the least. Our only income is from fund-raising events and so every penny counts. It's also galling that last month the Lloyds Banking Group announced the launch of a £4m Financial Resilience Fund to empower the charity sector to help those most in need to achieve financial stability. "Charities can, and do, change people's lives for the better" is a headline phrase in their official statement. And yet, here they are, trying to get as much money out of charities as they can.

We are now intending to move our meagre finances to a bank that doesn't charge registered charities for a day-to-day banking service, preferably one that also has an Instant Access savings account offering a reasonable interest rate. We'd be very grateful for any recommendations,

etienneg

Well, I wish you the best of luck in finding one.

If you do so, be prepared for a lengthy process to get the account open. You may even manage this before the new bank decides to start charging!

Even CAF Bank (that started from the Charities Aid Foundation - itself a charity - and is just for charities) charges £5 per month plus fees for specific services (including using cheques for withdrawals).

I don't know what Lloyds intend to charge, but you may well find it is similar to the few remaining banks that still offer accounts for charities.

x44

With CAF, their linked gold savings account to their current account pays 1.85% at the moment.

I think both have a min £1000 initial deposit.

£5 standard monthly charge as mentioned above is correct.

Having been through the CAF application process a few years ago I'd echo the above and say that's it unlikely you'd get the account open before Lloyds start charging!

In general you will find banks etc now very wary of Charities and how they get their money and what they spend it on due to AML rules.  So you are going to find some very detailed application forms wanting to know everything about anything including stuff you don't even know!

I've looked at the CAF application we did and the actual form ran to 16 pages and if I include all the extra supplementary required info such as trust deed, copy charity board meeting minutes, required as evidence then our full application ran to 31 pages.  And that does not include any subsequent ID checks they may or may not require of each of the authorised signatories.

Best of luck - you'll need it.

wmb194

K0nstant1n said:

I'm the treasurer for a very small registered charity looking after a village's recreation site. I received a letter this week informing us that our Lloyds Treasurers' Account will change to a new fee-paying Charity Account in November 2025. This appears to follow on from Lloyd's decision to change the Treasurers' Accounts of small societies and clubs to fee-paying Community Accounts earlier this year.

Lloyd's decision is obviously 'disappointing' to say the least. Our only income is from fund-raising events and so every penny counts. It's also galling that last month the Lloyds Banking Group announced the launch of a £4m Financial Resilience Fund to empower the charity sector to help those most in need to achieve financial stability. "Charities can, and do, change people's lives for the better" is a headline phrase in their official statement. And yet, here they are, trying to get as much money out of charities as they can.

We are now intending to move our meagre finances to a bank that doesn't charge registered charities for a day-to-day banking service, preferably one that also has an Instant Access savings account offering a reasonable interest rate. We'd be very grateful for any recommendations,

What do you estimate the charges will be?

retiredbanker1

Have a look at Metro Bank if you do not have many monthly transactions.

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/business/current-accounts/products/community-current-account/#:~:text=Our Community Current Account can,phone or on our App.

K0nstant1n

wmb194 said:

K0nstant1n said:

I'm the treasurer for a very small registered charity looking after a village's recreation site. I received a letter this week informing us that our Lloyds Treasurers' Account will change to a new fee-paying Charity Account in November 2025. This appears to follow on from Lloyd's decision to change the Treasurers' Accounts of small societies and clubs to fee-paying Community Accounts earlier this year.

Lloyd's decision is obviously 'disappointing' to say the least. Our only income is from fund-raising events and so every penny counts. It's also galling that last month the Lloyds Banking Group announced the launch of a £4m Financial Resilience Fund to empower the charity sector to help those most in need to achieve financial stability. "Charities can, and do, change people's lives for the better" is a headline phrase in their official statement. And yet, here they are, trying to get as much money out of charities as they can.

We are now intending to move our meagre finances to a bank that doesn't charge registered charities for a day-to-day banking service, preferably one that also has an Instant Access savings account offering a reasonable interest rate. We'd be very grateful for any recommendations,

What do you estimate the charges will be?

I can't post a link yet, but a search for "Lloyds Charity Account Terms and Conditions" would provide a download link for the fees and other info. 

wmb194

K0nstant1n said:

wmb194 said:

K0nstant1n said:

I'm the treasurer for a very small registered charity looking after a village's recreation site. I received a letter this week informing us that our Lloyds Treasurers' Account will change to a new fee-paying Charity Account in November 2025. This appears to follow on from Lloyd's decision to change the Treasurers' Accounts of small societies and clubs to fee-paying Community Accounts earlier this year.

Lloyd's decision is obviously 'disappointing' to say the least. Our only income is from fund-raising events and so every penny counts. It's also galling that last month the Lloyds Banking Group announced the launch of a £4m Financial Resilience Fund to empower the charity sector to help those most in need to achieve financial stability. "Charities can, and do, change people's lives for the better" is a headline phrase in their official statement. And yet, here they are, trying to get as much money out of charities as they can.

We are now intending to move our meagre finances to a bank that doesn't charge registered charities for a day-to-day banking service, preferably one that also has an Instant Access savings account offering a reasonable interest rate. We'd be very grateful for any recommendations,

What do you estimate the charges will be?

I can't post a link yet, but a search for "Lloyds Charity Account Terms and Conditions" would provide a download link for the fees and other info. 

Yes, I saw it and it doesn't look very expensive - no monthly fee - but it'll depend on your activity.

Is opening an account elsewhere worth the aggravation?

https://www.lloydsbank.com/assets/assets-business-banking/pdfs/account-terms-and-conditions/charity-account/lb-charity-account-product-specific-conditions-july25.pdf

https://www.lloydsbank.com/business/business-accounts/charity-account-terms.html

K0nstant1n

For wmb194: I can't quote your last reply as I'm not not allowed to post your links yet! Regardless, we've yet to decide about the aggravation. However, at this stage, there's probably an emotive element as well. Specifically, why has Lloyds Banking Group with a net worth of £48bn decided to claw back 'a few quid' from registered charities while broadcasting word salad about how valuable we are to our communities? At best it's mean spirited and it's most certainly not ethical. 

Confused_Dog

Sorry I cannot post links yet but if you or one of your committee is a NatWest personal account or mortgage customer they have a fee free Community bank account.Virgin Money offers a Charities Choice account but you can only make less than 10 transactions a month.

K0nstant1n

Many thanks for all the comments so far. Does anyone have experiences of the Co-operative Charity and Community Bank Account that they'd wish to share?

Nasqueron

Confused_Dog said:

Sorry I cannot post links yet but if you or one of your committee is a NatWest personal account or mortgage customer they have a fee free Community bank account.Virgin Money offers a Charities Choice account but you can only make less than 10 transactions a month.

Just post the link as ht tp : / / then the rest and it'll probably work and someone can convert it for you