Not impressed at all (Lloyds TSB)

Member Name: poet831

Product:	Lloyds TSB
Date:	08/04/09 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Most towns have a Lloyds/TSB

Disadvantages: A rip off

With regard to Lloyds TSB, I was most dis-heartened by the way they conduct their business. Although most of the customer service associates were helpful, it seemed there was always a long line for them. Trying just to get general help from the courtesy counter was even worse.
I wanted a savings account but was told they cannot have a pay cheque deposited directly into that, you have to have a cheque book account. So, I got a cheque book account.

My husband was working overseas, and sending me money each month. they were going to chage me seventy five quid a month JUST to accept a foreign cheque and change it into pounds. And they'd hold it for athree to four weeks. What a crock!
Then, temporarily, I needed an overdraft, two hundred pounds, for about a month. Would pay it back immediately. No can do, they said. so I opened a building society account and got an immediate five hundred quid overdraft, upped to eight hundred after a few months.

I had arranged a standing order before I got the building society account though - and somehow they paid it too early, putting my account into overdraft. Nobody bothered contacting me. It was a couple of weeks later that I went to the cash machine to pull money out and was almost aghast that I was nearly three hundred quid in the hole. Apparently, they charge five quid a day for an overdraft. Well, I told them - just close it out, and that NO WAY was I paying that. I had to wait three days before someone could fit me in with an appointment to discuss this, and then the guy shows me a statement from about two months before and tries to explain how their charges are made. He said they would have sent me a letter ahead of time to advise that it was being done, and I told him in no uncertain terms - do you think I'd have let it get like this if I had known about it?
My daughter, a single parent, ended up getting a Lloyds TSB about a year later, up in the Lake District, when she was working for Lilliput Lane. Figuring it would be easier to keep track of her bills, she sorted them all out to be paid by standing order. Lo and behold! Same thing. She also had to argue for them to put it right, AND to have them write letters for her to give to creditors when other cheques she had written , had bounced.

Basically, I thnk they need to re-evaluate their attitude to their customers. They have the benefit of using OUR money, they are not doing us a favour! Years ago, TSB used to be a nice friendly little bank - it seems to have grown up almost too big for it's boots. They can try to blame it on Lloyds, I can't say if they are to blame or not. I do say that the banks need to realise they NEED the customers, and that they would do well to return to a slightly more caring attitude. I went to Norwich and Peterborough, who gave me old-fashioned service, good interest on my savings and EVEN on my current account, and who always make me feel that I am valued! Lloyds /TSB would do well to learn from them!

Summary: not a great bank