Money to burn (Lloyds TSB)

Member Name: hanbag

Product:	Lloyds TSB
Date:	10/11/01 (796 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: the lose your money, they lie, generally awful

I may only be 18, but I can tell you that Lloyds TSB is the most awful bank I have ever come accross.

When I was 14, I opened a new bank account. I went with Lloyds, because I was given a cheque once a week, and I wanted the fastest clearing time- which Lloyds told me they had. 3 days they told me my money ould take to clear. Guess how many times this has been the case? Thats right, none! Last year, I had large cheque, for a competition that I had won. I asked then, how long will this take to clear, and I was told 3 days. So three working days later I went in to get my money for a shopping trip with my friends, and where was my money? So I ask where it is, and they tell me that cheques take 5 days to clear. I was livid! But when I complained, they told me that cheques have always taken 5 working days to clear. Why in that case had I been told on numerous occassions that they take 3 days to clear? I would never have oppened my account there if I had known. I was really annoyed that they had lied to me so I was tempted to close down my account. I didn't because I couldnt ever get enough time in town to open up a new one.

At the beginning of this year, I was invited to upgrade to an electron card. Stupidly, I took the upgrade. This was all going well, I got a job at NTL and my pay was going into the account so I started to use the electron facility. I knew that I had some money in my account, only a little, but none the less I had some. But when I went to get it out, I was overdrawn. I went to the counter and asked for a statement, which they gave me. I looked at the last transaction. It was an electron debit in a T & S Store in Bournemouth. I hadnt been to Bournemouth since I was about 6! So I said that I hadnt done that transaction and they said that they would investigate it, but it would cost me £5. Great I thought! Someone spends £5 of mine and I have to pay £5 to get it back. After three weeks, I got my £5 back, and they didnt charge me the
extra £5 because I moaned so much. I opened a new account with another bank, but I never closed down the Lloyds one and never changed my paying in details at work.

I stopped working at NTL when I went to Chile for a month. So then my next job, I had forgotten my new bank card so I had to use my Lloyds account, because I knew the details by memory. All was going well, my pay went in, and I could get it out! Hooray! I got a little bit out in the morning to buy some medicine for my cold ridden boyfriend and left the rest in there ready for the supermarket shop when I got home from work. So I got home from work at midnight, and went out to Asda. I did my shopping, which came to a nice £20 and handed over my card. But the till wouldnt accept it. Thats OK I said, I will go out to the cash machine because I got paid this morning. So off I go to the cash machine. But where is my money? MY account is empty. Now I had been at work all day so I was seriously peed off! AS you can imagine! I go home, and I phone the lost or stolen credit card line, because it is the only line that Lloyds has that is 24 hours. Obviously, they couldnt tell me where the money had gone, but they could cancel the card because someone clearly had a copy of it- this having happened twice. So the first thing next morning I phoned my branch. They told me that they didnt know where my money was (we are talking about £150) and that I would have to call back tomorrow. So I phoned back the next day to be told the same thing. And again the next day. I was getting seriously annoyed by now. The next day I phoned and was told that my money had reappeared, but they couldnt tell me where it had gone, or why. So I went to the local branch and said that I wanted to close my account. But I was told I couldnt, because there were unclear funds in there. I would like to know where these uncleared funds had come from! But after enough moaning, they decided that I could close down my account and handed over m
y money.

Hooray! My dealings with Lloyds were over! Until this morning, when I had a letter from Lloyds in the post. I thought it would be a nice grovelling letter. But it had a cheque on the back. Great I thought! Compensation! No such luck, it was a cheque for 3p for the money remaining in my account. What a bunch of wallys! They would bother to send a cheque for 3p when it costs them more than that to post it!

I am afraid I cant think of anything good to say about Lloyds. I know numerous people who have had problems with them: my mothers money has gone missing from them, my boyfriends parents had thousands go missing from theirs and never got any of it back, and my aunt was forced to sell her holiday house, because it wasnt making enough money. She could have just changed agents, but this wasnt good enough for Lloyds.

In my advice I would stay away from Lloyds, they are the most useless bank in the world!

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