I have had a personal account with Lloyds for over 30 years and our business has banked with them for over 20 years. My rating and experience relates to the business account. Once we had a personal relationship manager who visited us yearly to discuss our account and support us. A few years ago the manager was moved to central London and couldn’t practically visit us but we could phone directly and email each other. Then a couple of years ago Lloyds reorganised its business support services I think twice. This did not matter until something out of the ordinary was required and then the weakness of the new system was exposed.
My issue related to the removal of a charge over our business premises (we are selling, it needs to be removed for the sale). The charge is related to our large overdraft facility. We wished to retain a smaller facility of an unsecured amount for cash flow purposes. Simple you would have thought but no.
The only means of communicating with our Business Management Team (who appear to be located in Edinburgh and Birmingham now) seems to be by phone and by that, I mean us phoning them and waiting up to 20 minutes to be answered.
I never seem to speak to the same person twice and have never managed to speak to the team leader. Different advisors give conflicting information which is confusing
Whatever you believe that you discussed and arranged during the lengthy and sometimes confusing phone calls, is never confirmed or backed up in writing. It is difficult to retain all information given and comments made during these lengthy (maybe 40-50 minute ) calls.
Upshot for us? The charge is being removed, slowly and our entire overdraft facility has been removed without prior warning. Apparently you can’t ask them to reduce the amount. Instead you have to cancel the one and apply for another, which involves supplying the accounts (which they already have) and detailed personal financial information (which they already have) for all partners in the business before you can be considered. To late for us as we’re on the point of selling and so will put in personal funds to cover any cash flow issues.
I have gone through their formal complaints procedure. It will be interesting to see if they get back to me in the five working days that they promise…
Reviewed on: 30th November 2019
