Lloyds World Wide 'Service'

Anyone else get a letter from these fools today upping the bank charge from £4 to £6 a month?

When it went from free to £4 I didn't like it, as they have the shittest service of any bank, but since it was only £4 I let it be. £6 a month is taking the piss though!

I've opened a new current account with Alliance & Leicester tonight. 6.1% AER. Moneysupermarket reckons it's one of the best accounts out there. Be interesting to see how it goes.

Hmm, something NOT to look forward to in tomorrow's post.

I keep meaning to switch to a local account. I guess now's the time.

I changed my account to a savings account when they introduced that 4 pound fee, it meant I couldn't use my chequebook anymore. I'll probably close the account at some point but it was such a pain in the ass to open it in the first place I keep thinking I might need the account sometime later on down the track which is why I haven't closed it yet.

It _could_ come in handy for opening an Irish bank account, one of the Irish banks said if I get a letter of introduction from a UK bank it would make it easier. But I've emailed Lloyds twice now and they still haven't sent me a damn letter.

I do have to say that Lloyds TSB offshore are not a bad bank – they have always been quick and efficient in getting things sorted for me. I’ll have a shop around now but

At least you’re not with HSBC. Man they are really screwing their customers at the moment. I know three people who have had their accounts closed, for what seems to be no reason other than not enough money is going through the account.

They also now divert accounts from customers who earn less to call centres in India, but customers who earn more speak to a UK call centre.

And just today they’ve announced that one of their branches located in a wealthy area will only provide counter service to people who earn more than £50,000 a year.

LOL – banks. Bend over, now…