Letting Customers Walk Away (UK Banks)

[Scunner]

We were in Mrs Scunner's bank (LLoyds TSB) recently and she was informed that as her original branch was a TSB, and the one in Perth was originally a Lloyds, that her account would be closing and she would need to open a new bank account. She asked why, and it is all to do with the splitting of the two institutions as TSB will become a bank in it's own right again, and she is a TSB customer and a TSB this branch will not be.

Complete news to us but due to the fact there is no branch about to become a TSB here, it then appeared that there was no way round this. Could they simply change her account to a Lloyds one? No.

So we had a conversation between the two of us, right there in front of the Lloyds TSB lady where Mrs Scunner gave the idea to open a current account with Santander, where our mortgage is and where she has a savings account. And ultimately, this is what she did.

During the entire conversation at Lloyds, the lady never once said "well if you are going to have to open a new bank account, how about a Lloyds one?". We said we'd probably go to Santander, and she seemed quite happy with that.

[Hamlet]

There really seems to be a strange attitude in UK banks towards their customers nowadays.
Two years ago Mrs Hamlet & I went to draw £5k from each of our HSBC accounts, at the same UK branch that we had recently paid off our mortgage, held 4 accounts between us plus ISA's and where for the previous 15 years paid hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of client monies (we ran a letting agency) into one of our 5 business accounts on a daily basis.
Bear in mind that it was a small HSBC branch and most of the staff knew us.
Upon submitting our withdrawal requests we were questioned as to why we wanted cash, what we were going to use it for and why had we not given them notice? We than had to produce our passports and driving notices which they took into a back room to run some checks, after a wait of 40 minutes  (during which time i was half expecting Plod to turn up) we were allowed to withdraw our own money from our accounts.
Suffice to say that all links with that institution have now been severed, not that they seemed too upset or even to understand when that happened as they still keep sending us literature about thei products plus updates to their banking terms. 

[kevin3]

I've had a business account at Lloyds/TSB for 30 years and I called in last week to pay a cheque in
and said I'd heard talk about the two names splitting and was this correct.The cashier said yes and
looked on her screen and said I would have to find a new bank.I said can I open a new one at this branch
and she said no.I asked when is this happening as I've not received any notification.She said it should have
happened two months ago but they keep putting it back.
The first thing they should shut is their Customer Service Department.  I'ts BLEEDIN'  OBSOLETE.

[KKOB]

*ankers eh ?

[Scunner]

Yes, especially as it is nearly half owned by us!

[nichola]

Hamlet your treatment was because of the not so new any more anti terrorism laws.

I wanted to pay 3K into a Lloyds branch about 5 years ago and got cross examined by the teller about that too.

Incredible  :

[Hamlet]

Nichola, without raking through old legislation, if memory serves me well it was, certainly after 9/11 that money laundering regulations tightened up and if you were to make a single transaction of £10k or more through a bank then that bank was obliged to report it to the Inland Revenue. I have been told that this figure has now been reduced to £7k and mainly applies to withdrawals nowadays.

As an Estate/Letting Agency we already had guidance on how to deal with large sums of cash and to make further enquiries about the presenter of such sums especially if they wanted to pay 6 months or more advance rent so were aware of due diligence.

However, to go to a bank where you were on first name terms with not only the counter staff but also the branch manager, who incidentally, used to make appointments to come & see me rather than the other way round, then be treated in the way we were really stank.

Thinking about it I don't suppose that my reply to their question about what we were going to do with the money? helped!

I just said we were going to have a 3 day party on the bank holiday weekend, then we were flying off to Las Vegas for a gambling holiday and then just waste the rest! 

[stoop]

No wonder our banks are in trouble!

[nichola]

I agree Hamlet your treatment was definitely more than a bit off considering how well they knew you   

[SuzzPuss]

Mmm...  my Peter has had a bit of an experience with HSBC this last few weeks.  He has shares in HSBC and he wants to open a bank account there because it makes share dealing easier. 

In July he applied online for a new account.  They told him he would have to go into a branch with proof of ID and address which he did.  They took his proof, copied it and told him someone would be in touch. 

Three weeks went by and finally he called them to ask what was happening.  They said they'd get in touch with the branch and a few days later someone phoned to make an appointment for him to come in and open his account.  She had no record of his online application and no record of someone in her branch having copied his ID.  We were just about to go to Turkey so the appointment was made for him to go in this morning as soon as we returned and to bring his ID with him again. 

When he arrived this morning the first thing they told him was that his application had expired because he'd failed to bring his ID into the branch within the required time! 

Once that was 'cleared up' they then informed him that to have an account there he would have to close his accounts at Santander and NatWest!!  He refused.  He was in there for over an hour answering and refusing their ludicrous requests. 

He informed them that we had opened an account in HSBC Fethiye last week and in a foreign language we'd managed to open a lira account, a sterling account, set up internet banking and receive our PIN in less than 40 minutes during which time we'd been given a cup of tea!! 

He left with no account set up while they decided what to do.  Later today he received a phone call saying he'd be allowed his account but they needed to know various things first.  They proceeded to ask ludicrous questions like "How often will you be going to Turkey each year?" and "How many transactions will you be doing each time you go?" 

FFS!!  How are we supposed to know that?  He answered "1" to both questions because they had to have an answer.  Ridiculous to the point of being funny if you ask me.