Lloyds Bank speaks out at ‘incomprehensible’ customer accounts change | Personal Finance | Finance
Lloyds Bank has responded to strong criticism of its decision to axe an online account service. A customer reached out to the bank to demand answers, blasting the policy change as “completely incomprehensible”.
The customer contacted Lloyds over social media saying that they were “very tempted to follow Martin Lewis advice and switch bank” despite being a loyal member for decades. Financial expert Martin Lewis often encourages account holders to consider switching if they could get a better deal elsewhere.
Many banks are currently offering switch payments to try and entice new customers. For example, Barclays will pay you £200 while Nationwide Building Society is offering a £175 payment, among several other providers offering incentives.
‘Inexplicable’ change
The reason the customer was thinking of jumping ship was because Lloyds had “inexplicably removed the nicknames I’ve used on my various accounts and cards for the last 35+ years in online banking”. They asked the bank to explain the decision to remove the service.
Lloyds initially responded to apologise for the customer’s experience, and invited them to send a direct message about their gripe. But the unhappy customer said they had already contacted Lloyds about the issue.
They claimed they had been sent a letter from the complaints department “saying I just have to put up with it, there’s no longer an option to use nicknames in online banking”. Lloyds told the customer: “I am sorry to hear you are unhappy with this decision, this is a business decision which has been made.
“While renaming won’t be available online, you can still view and manage nicknames in the app.” The customer was not impressed with this explanation.
‘Completely incomprehensible’
They retorted: “It’s still completely incomprehensible. What possible reason is there for such a ‘business decision’? And – as you’re probably aware – if you deal with someone’s accounts with power of attorney you cannot use the app.”
The person said later that they are power of attorney for their mum and they couldn’t use the app to manage her accounts, so losing the nicknames would make it “even more difficult to differentiate between her accounts and mine”.
Replying again to the customer, Lloyds provided some further details about the change. The group said: “You can still rename accounts in the mobile app, but nicknames have been removed from online banking and credit card renaming is no longer available.
“We appreciate this won’t fully help if you rely on online banking due to power of attorney.” The customer went on to complain that losing the nickname function is “really unhelpful if you run a small business and have several accounts”.
The person asked how they could get the decision reversed. Lloyds told them: “We understand this matters. Changes like this are carefully considered, and while we’re not able to reverse it directly, we understand it may not meet everyone’s needs.”
Lloyds also said that if they wanted to provide more feedback or escalate the matter further, they could get in touch through the complaints section of the group’s website. Lloyds was previously criticised by a customer over the change.
