I thought LloydsTSB treated me badly when I was a customer.

[TheAnimus]

Well its gotten a heck of a lot worse since I quit.

So just to be careful when closing my cash account I put savings in both my new and old enough to cover all my direct debits.

In closing of my LloydsTSB credit card they where meant to take the full amount.

They didn't use either direct debit. Or set up the new one. So my account has spiralled into arriers, did they tell me this, no. They sent me a text two weeks after this happened.

They also claim they have no record of my new bank details on their system for the direct debit. How pray then, did I get a letter confirming the change from them?

What utterly useless unhelpful people, after spending 45 minutes on the phone to them, they made it clear they are charging me some £60 in fees, and I can like it or lump it.

The problem is its going to cost me more than £60 to speak to those muppets again, post them copies of the DD confirmation letter... so I'm just going to end up paying it as the cheaper option.

13 Years I was a customer without any issues, I opened a business account and all of a sudden the customer service level dropped off a cliff.

Also NEVER open a credit card with them.

[bsodmike]

I don't keep any funds with them, just have a barebones account I use for receiving funds. Once funds are received, I always move it to a different bank. No DD, no overdraft, no CC - just a vanilla ATM card. So far, no issues...

[jim]

I don't keep any funds with them, just have a barebones account I use for receiving funds. Once funds are received, I always move it to a different bank. No DD, no overdraft, no CC - just a vanilla ATM card. So far, no issues...

To be fair Mike, cocking that up really would take some effort on their part

Note: This situation may still arise

[bsodmike]

To be fair Mike, cocking that up really would take some effort on their part

Note: This situation may still arise

lol

[TheAnimus]

The thing is, and what made me have this rant is that I've banked with them for 13 years, since I was 11!

I've had good service up until this, there have a been a few bumps but they where always resolved within 48 hours.

I open a business account and then suddenly everything has to go through them. They are so damned useless they left me without any health insurance. I'm an asthmatic working in a stressful environment and might not be able to always keep this up, and I need enough money to pay my mortgage, hence why I require insurance. They bungled the paper work for it.

[jim]

The thing is, and what made me have this rant is that I've banked with them for 13 years, since I was 11!

I've had good service up until this, there have a been a few bumps but they where always resolved within 48 hours.

I open a business account and then suddenly everything has to go through them. They are so damned useless they left me without any health insurance. I'm an asthmatic working in a stressful environment and might not be able to always keep this up, and I need enough money to pay my mortgage, hence why I require insurance. They bungled the paper work for it.

I think I've had an account since I was 8 or something at Lloyds, although I've not used it exclusively for a very large proportion of that time. As I said in the banking thread though, they've always been average for me... never done anything dreadful, never done anything helpful. Just middle of the road. Quite why their business account system is so bad I don't know... you would think (or know) that their business banking customers are going to be the most discerning, so you'd think they've mould to their every need.

For that matter, I can't fathom why they want to bundle the personal and business accounts together. If a customer goes to a company and says "I'd like to take out an additional contract with you", they don't say "Certainly sir, but only if you agree to tear up the first and amalgamate the two together - even if that's not what you want." Thing is though, if that's the way they see fit to run things, then that's exactly what they'll do. I'll bet it's some stupid decision from up top - either they think it cuts costs by having it all together, or improves the customer experience by keep everything consistent and producing a friendly recognisable face that will keep you banking there forever, out of fear of getting a worse account manager elsewhere. I suspect the latter, but in this case it certainly hasn't worked.

The problem is, when it's a bank, they really couldn't give a stuff about a single customer... they're just irrelevant compared to the billions upon billions they're dealing with every day.

[spanna5]

Lloyds have always been great for me, especially when I had a businees account with them.

Barclays however really screwed up my wifes account and her parents accounts.

Guess they can all be knobs when it comes down to it

[Saracen]

You guys still actually expect customer service from banks? Wow. I thought you were brighter than that.

In my opinion, customer service from banks, in general, has been appalling for years. In the days when you could go into your bank and the staff knew you, and you could talk to a manager that was actually a manager with responsibility for actually handling customer accounts, you got service. You could talk to people, and they'd listen and had some authority to resolve problems. These days, it seems to me that "managers" are just glorified salesmen and that "customer service" is about as you can expect to get from an anonymous voice in a service centre (which, if you're lucky, is in the UK) where you stand little chance of talking to the same person twice running, where they have no authority outside the mandates of the computer screen, and where they generally don't seem to give a flying fig anyway.

We're not "customers", we're merely walking wallets whose sole function is to provide money and buy stuff, and as soon as you start wanting any actual attention (unless it is to buy stuff) you become a nuisance.

There are ways to play the game, to use banks own rules against them, and I can only advise that we all do so, because they are surely playing us for all they're worth.


Oh, and all-in-all, I think they're much of a muchness. Sometimes, be it service centre or local branch, you get someone that cares, but it's as much about being lucky with the individual as it is about one institution being better than another.

[TheAnimus]

Which is why I've moved to HSBC.

I don't want to pay a monthly fee for my banking thanks. I want quick credit made available to me, thou I want them to accept that i'm never going to be living in it. More for when i repay directors loans and do div payments. Ie i'll need some money for 48 hours tops.

I also don't like the idea of having to pay £5 a month to get a good rate of interest... its as if we've lost a war.

I also want a contact who is responsible for ALL my banking (personal and business, with some insurance services too). This is where HSBC's premier service has been excellent, I've only been using them for 3 months but so far the honeymoon period has yet to end. I email a question I get a response back within a business hour on the whole, when my manager goes on holiday or is indisposed anyone can apply any settings to my account with their own discretion. So whilst I might not get a massive overdraft, they'd be able to say issue me a new savings account.

The fraud team are better too, if notifying me of a 'questionable transaction' on my debit card during business hours, they will try contact my manager first who knows basic things about me. That is excellent.

They also know that I'm not likely to be putting risky non-ISA savings with them, and aren't even trying to sell (because they can't match the deal I have).

So they respect the value of my time, answer all questions and queries quickly, give me good rate compared to my old bank and don't charge a monthly fee.

Excellent. I wonder how long before they stop doing this.

[Saracen]

....
Excellent. I wonder how long before they stop doing this.

My natural cynicism says ..... about when they think the laws of inertia have set in and they can take you for granted. I wouldn't even be surprised if they had a computer model telling them when that will be.

[TheAnimus]

Actually if they don't that is an excellent business idea.... Thanks

[Saracen]

Actually if they don't that is an excellent business idea.... Thanks

I want 10% of the revenue .....