Lloyds Bank Platinum / Gold Current Accounts

They do not cover you for anything and insist that their approved engineers get to look at the phone before Apple do. Apple condemned the damaged phone as beyond repair and state it needs replacing. Lloyds refuse to replace it. Left with a broken phone, with cracked front and back that I cannot make or receive calls on.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY USING THIS BANK ACCOUNT

On 3 occasions I have attempted to speak to someone with regards to making a claim.

1st lost baggage, I went without my baggage for 10 days in spain. 2nd Hospital treatment after an injury abroad. 3rd cancelling a flight. Each time I have been passed around different numbers all seemingly very helpful until I come to the claims department which is a different story all together, immediately aggressive, evasive and with no sense of empathy at all. Each time telling me I'm not able to claim before I've even finished speaking!

Please please never upgrade with this back. I have banked with them for 30 years and they are a disgrace!

I have recently contacted Lloyds call centre to 1) reduce my overdraft and 2) cancel my credit card (which I haven't used for years).

Despite cancelling my credit card it still appears my on line banking screen with the same credit limit appearing.

There appears to be a disconnect here, in that they either haven't cancelled my credit card account or they haven't updated the on line banking summary of services I have with the bank.

Why in todays world with technology do I find myself having to make several calls to a Plc organisation to resolve what should have been sorted weeks ago and when you call you get passed from department to department being asking DP and security questions time and time again!

This is so frustrating and I have to find time to call again for issues to be fixed that should have been done right the first time!

Rant over!

I have recently contacted Lloyds call centre to 1) reduce my overdraft and 2) cancel my credit card (which I haven't used for years).

Despite cancelling my credit card it still appears my on line banking screen with the same credit limit appearing.

There appears to be a disconnect here, in that they either haven't cancelled my credit card account or they haven't updated the on line banking summary of services I have with the bank.

Why in todays world with technology do I find myself having to make several calls to a Plc organisation to resolve what should have been sorted weeks ago and when you call you get passed from department to department being asking DP and security questions time and time again!

This is so frustrating and I have to find time to call again for issues to be fixed that should have been done right the first time!

Rant over!

Keep away from this bank. I went £30 overdrawn for a very very short time and they fined me £92 pounds.

I can afford this fine but I am outraged that this dispicable (so called bank) is hurting people with these un-called for and bloated fines.

Keep - Away. I cancelled my account and hope that you do as well.

I expected a better service from the insurance side. I have had problems with my mobile 'phone and after four returns I am still without a working handset.The last twice it has been returned to me the repair has not lasted a day. I asked to speak to a supervisor to complain and was fobbed off. They call it a service.

I would have liked to have known the level of service before I authorised a direct debit.

One repair yes, two repairs maybe, still no replacement after four. Unnaceptable.

I don't have any bank account in Lloyds but I have had really huge crass service there.I deposited 1516.67 pounds via Deposit point box at Hanover square branch on 18th Mar to other's account.Account holder called me that money hasn't been cleared to his account yet on 29th Mar.I'd claimed about it on 1st Apr and heard it would take 2 weeks to investigate.So I visited 3 days to check how it has carried out and haven't been told any about it.Just been told to wait for the call by a branch manager.It's been 3 weeks already and I haven't got any call from the bank.I think I was patient enough and waited with trust. I was convincing myself it just takes time but it will be cleared soon.But!! Manager told me that they can't give me money back because they couldn't find any envelope or any single money even though there is CCTV footage that I deposited money.I was in a panic and I couldn't talk carefully because of bursting tears from shock at that time. I remember very clearly the time when I made it because I withdrew money in Barclays which is located just 1minute walk from Lloyds. I've got the receipt of withdrawal and it said it had been made at 10:46. I was very worried depositing money via Deposit point box because there is no receipt given with that service. That's why I've checked with one of staff in the bank first and did it with trust because he said it would be safe and they will contact me when something is wrong.But I haven't got any response from bank even if an accident has happened and Bank should take the responsibility for this case because they don't offer any receipt. ( I am using Deposit box in Barclays but they have clear receipt from envelop with bar code and Deposit slip for customer)Lloyds bank customers have to use that Deposit box on their own risk??? Nothing is logical with that box, please offer receipt for it to prevent people from falling a victim to this case.(It should be digitalized for customer to check on the spot as soon as deposit has made )

I've banked with Lloyd's for around 25 years. They used to be very well run, with supportive branch managers and very efficient services. In the past few years, they've gone seriously downhill - partly due to some very crass centralisation.

*At one point, they offered me private banking but then never replied when I asked for a meeting and advice.

* When I asked them to check on a cheque book in case it had gone missing, they admitted that they had no idea where it had been sent to. They then, without telling me, cancelled the cheque book I was using. I still haven't had an apology after six months.

* They appear to have wiped off my signature from their branch records, making it impossible for me to cash a cheque larger than £200 without my passport - despite the fact that I have a bank card. Only one branch has come clean about what has happened - others have said that I have to bring a passport and register with the individual branch. They include the branch at the university where I work - who refuse to accept university ID with my picture on it!

It is when you try to take up any of these issues with their customer services that you come to realise how detached from reality Lloyds has become. I've had two confused and badly written letters from their customer services department, both of them showing that the writer hadn't bothered to study my complaint and couldn't be bothered to phone me about it to clarify things.

On 6th Sept 2007, their main customer services line had a message on it saying that nobody was available to take a call (I kid you not!). Of three other numbers I had, one put you in a loop and kept offering to ring you back later, one had been turned into a fax and one was a switchboard that could only try (and failed) to put me through to a branch.

This is a very badly run bank which clearly has become so bureaucratic and centralised that it has lost all concern for its customers. Alternatively, I suppose it may have become so hopelessly complacent that it never checks up to see if its customer services are operating properly.

I'd advise anybody looking for a bank to avoid Lloyd's. I should add that I currently have a lot of money on deposit with them. That shouldn't make a difference. But If they treat a long-serving customer with assets in this way - imagine how callously they are likely to treat a new customer with limited funds.

After 25 years, I'm looking seriously at alternatives.

Dr John Field

I went into my branch about 12 months ago. They took me to a side room and said they could save me money. Before I knew it I had upgraded my account. It wasn't until a month later, that upgrading meant I paid a monthly fee, as I wasn't leaving enough money in the account (well it was a current account! Who keeps spare money in them?)!! I cancelled the upgrade immediately, and I happily went back to a normal current account.

More recently I was looking to have a short term overdraft limit. I was looking for £4k, and it came to light that having £4k on overdraft was cheaper than paying for a car on credit card, and cheaper than having a car loan... Excellent I thought. Yet again I was being persuaded to upgrade my account, and was being told how the overdraft interest rate would be lower etc. I asked the girl at Lloyds to explain, and she told me on a current account the interest rate would be 1.44% per month, and if I upgraded it would be just over 1%. What was the downside I thought? And when pushed, the girl explained that for the first three months to have an upgraded account would cost me £10 a month, and thereafter £15 a month ... so how is that cheaper again?? Well, I'd get free AA cover (I already have it on my new car), free travel insurance (which I get with the holiday company I use)...

So to cut a long story short, it will cost me £69 for a year to be £4k overdrawn on my good old current account, yet if I upgraded my account it will cost me £169 for the year?! The girl on the other end of the phone eventually said "do you want the overdraft or not"!! Yep I wanted it, but I think I'll keep my current account thanks.

Ask lots of questions when you are opening any of the Lloyds Bank Platinum Gold and Current Accounts.

We never thought we'd have to change banks. We wanted to be loyal customers to Lloyds TSB. Probably for the rest of our lives. But now we can't because they're taking us for a ride.

I have been a very happy Lloyds TSB customer since 1991, when Barclays shafted me as a student, asking for their measly £300 overdraft back during my first summer holiday as a student. Lloyds immediately offered me a £1000 overdraft so I moved to them and have been very happy with them ever since. When I graduated and got a job in 1994 they were keen to sweeten me as a customer and continued to make me ever-more attractive offers. This culminated in my partner and I having a joint Premier Account (paying £15 a month for some useful, and dud, 'perks') a few years ago. About a week ago they announced that they were going to try to charge us an extra £10 a month, that's a total of £25 a month (£300 a year!) just for the privilege of having an account with them. Crazy. Having had no joy from their very helpful, but ultimately impotent, call centre staff, we did a bit of research. These added-value accounts are nothing of the sort! We now feel like we've been fleeced for the past few years, even though that we were happy because their customer service always seemed pretty good.

Anyway, we've now discovered that by:

a) 'downgrading' our Premier account (at £300 per year and 0.1% interest on our average balance of about £4K) to a Lloyds TSB Classic Plus with £0 charges and 4% interest; and

b) moving our savings to the Coventry BS 'first' account, which pays 5.1% on balances upto £250,000;

that we are going to save about £1,500 extra a year!

Lloyds TSB have shot themselves in the foot with us. If they hadn't put up their charges by 70% on our account we'd have been none the wiser, and would have remained happy customers - probably for the rest of our lives. Even when I've explained our dissatisfaction there was nothing the poor Premier manager could do for us. They have to charge us the new rate. I don't want half the services they offer with the account, and the other half we have anyway (Breakdown cover comes with our car for 2 years, home emergency and mobile phone cover comes with our home insurance). I'm sure I can help to prevent my identity being stolen by being careful, and most cards have some built in protection, so Sentinel is redundant. As for the other stuff, travel insurance you can buy for about £40pa to cover most family travel, and Lloyds offer of commission-free currency is offset by their rubbish exchange rates.

If you've been duped into one of these added-value accounts, I suggest you look at what's included, what you actually need and how much 'value' they really offer you. We were amazed.

Incidentally we used our disappointment at Lloyds to get quotes to compare other services they've sold us, and our home insurance will be £200 a year cheaper with Halifax!

So Lloyds TSB, thanks for the offer of the £300 a year Premier account, but no thanks.