Every time I try to add someone to my COF I get an unavailable page so big apologies to those I'm tr...
Every time I try to add someone to my COF I get an unavailable page so big apologies to those I'm trying to add. Hope to sort it out!
Member since:28.07.2000
Reviews:53
Members who trust:25
Seeing Red ********** I was seeing red in more ways than one. The letter from LloydsTSB telling me that my personal account was overdrawn was sent from a Bank Customer Services Centre in Wales. I live in Dorset and I bank in London. This was a Saturday morning and I had a bad feeling about the next few hours. The agreed Overdraft Facility amount stated at the top of the letter was incorrect thus making me technically overdrawn, and I was certainly seeing ‘Red!’
The man who answered the phone in the Welsh call-centre was polite and efficient, but he spoke in a Welsh/Asian accent and I do Dorset/South London speak. We didn’t stand a chance. He enquired if I had a telephone password, to which I told him no, as I’d never had the need. Until this particular Saturday, I had been able to phone a local Customer Service Centre and queries about my accounts were always dealt with capably, simply and with no fuss.
We overcame the first few identification procedures, including Sort Code and Account number, and then he told me abruptly that we couldn’t continue this call as I had answered a question incorrectly. He advised me to visit my local LloydsTSB branch on the following Monday complete with identification such as a Passport.
Identification? I have used my local Lloyds bank for thirty years! I’ve got drunk with the Manager! He refused to tell me which question I had answered wrongly, thanked me for my call and hung up! I was incensed! This simple task should have been satisfactorily dealt with on the telephone, and not leaving me fuming all over the entire weekend until first thing Monday morning and then making an unnecessary drive into town.
It was time for a rethink on my methods of banking for both
personal and business accounts. I looked through the general promotions the banks always send with statements and read the previously ignored LloydsTSB bumph for their website http://www.success4business.com/ and made my first tentative excursion to the world of Internet Banking.
What Did I Find? **************** My first impressions were pleasing. LloydsTSB’s http://www.success4business.com/ was instantly recognisable and therefore reassuring with their green and blue trade mark colours. The welcoming page needed no scrolling as the information was succinct and fitted a full page view. I personally like this in an introductory page on any website. I was told:
“By registering, you get access to personalised information about the things that matter to your business, up-to-the-minute news and solutions to the key issues that affect businesses like yours. If you are a Lloyds TSB business banking customer you get even more, including the opportunity to promote your business in the directory, access to exclusive content and the opportunity to join the success4business.com community. By registering, you get access to personalised information about the things that matter to your business, up-to-the-minute news and solutions to the key issues that affect businesses like yours. If you are a LloydsTSB business banking customer you get even more, including the opportunity to promote your business in the directory, access to exclusive content and the opportunity to join the success4business.com community.”
I clicked on the relative icons and registered my selected bank accounts immediately, having made sure I had all my relevant information at hand while online and then went for a walkabout round the LloydsTSB http://www.success4business.com/ website.
What Happened Next? ******************* Confirmation emails and postal correspondence from Lloyds TSB Online Helpdesk arrived in rapid succession issuing me with my unique User ID, a printed User Guide booklet and recommendation that I change my password frequently, and within two weeks I had online access to Internet Banking, both Personal and Business Accounts. Would this give me what I wanted? The greater control and flexibility to move my money around to pay bills, check my account at any time between 4.00am and midnight seven days a week, check my balance and view and print off statements? It certainly does!
What Do LloydsTSB Offer the Business Customer and the Personal Account User? **************************************************************** ******* The range of services offered are excellent, even allowing nicknames to be used for holders of more than one account to make them distinguishable. I was considering ‘Booze’ ‘Perfume’ ‘Rimmel’ and ‘Tart’s Trotters’ as a good start. We all need instant account information, as I wish I’d had that fateful Saturday, so all that matters to me initially is my account balance, available balance and overdraft limit on any account I click on, and this at any time I wish. I find by checking every day I have a much tighter grip on my finances and expect no horrible surprises when my ‘earthly’ bank statements are sent to me. But there’s much more.
The list of services allows the customer to view and print statements, standing orders, and payments due, transfer money, set up new arrangements, view direct debits, make payments and change passwords easily. The online Help button is linked with additional information to any screen the user is on and is very practical. All this in the warmth of my home, no hanging on the ‘phone and getting caught in a security tangle by answering a question wrong! LloydsTSB issued me with a smart card that gives me Help at my fingertips with a phone number, email address plus a contact number for those with a hearing or speech impairment.
A brief word about http://www.success4business.com/ This would be a very useful resource for any business, no matter how small. Whether you are just starting a new business, require advice and need to talk to others in the same situation then the business community feature is there to support anyone. There are forums and a regular news letter delivered to your mailbox with relevant information.
The Security Issues ****************** Compare these two scenarios if you will. Following my ‘Seeing Red’ experience I was in my local LloydsTSB Branch at 9.30am on Monday morning to sort out my abortive telephone call on the previous Saturday. The bank was busy, so I sat on a settee with several other people waiting my turn to talk to a Customer Service member of staff. Once seated and having explained the situation, I sat with disbelieving ears as she phoned my London bank and in a loud clear voice gave them my name, sort code and bank account number and explained my overdraft details. Everyone could hear, including the queue for the banking transactions. She gave enough information in a public, crowded bank for anyone with one ounce of guile to probably have more success accessing my bank account by telephone than I had previously managed!
It’s hardly surprising is it that I felt infinitely safer giving these same details on a secure online situation in order to register and eventually access Internet banking services for all my accounts, both personal and business than sit through that again? Lloyds Online Banking Guarantee protects the customer against fraud. While online and logged on to my Internet Bank Account, if the mouse or a button isn’t touched for a few minutes the service will close and I will be asked to log on again. The security advice does recommend running frequent virus checks and installing a firewall.
I always judge a website by certain criteria. One of them is imagining I was new to the web and how would I find navigation and ease of use. Even though I am an experienced web shopper I visited the LloydsTSB demonstration site and I thoroughly recommend this to any of you. If you are at all cautious then copy and paste the following URL into a new browser window and experience an excellent virtual tour of online Internet banking: www.ibdemo.lloydstsb.com I guarantee this will set your mind at rest as you browse through the demonstration online account and use the available functions as if it were the real thing.
Is It Thumbs Up For LloydsTSB Internet Banking? ******************************************** A resounding yes. In fact, I have been waiting for a whole month for a telephone Password from Lloyds TSB, to ensure I don’t experience the hassle I had in accessing my account details by telephone, and getting anything done. If I had been online banking on that same Saturday, I could have moved some money across from one account to another in seconds and rested easy, knowing I was in control.
Lloyds TSB online is offering more and more online services. There is a new Online Saver Account and at the time of writing, House and Contents Insurance with a 15% discount for online customers. I applied for this, answering the usual questions that seem to take so long by telephone. They conducted a quick search through a vast database of Insurers while I waited and within seconds gave me a very competitive Building and Contents Insurance Quote which I accepted instantly, selecting either a monthly direct debit or a one off payment from my account!
No one could have been more wary than I was at banking this way, but I am now a total convert. Again, I urge you to visit www.ibdemo.lloydstsb.com and observe for yourselves the virtual banking experience with LloydsTSB.
I'm glad you like the internet to do your banking! I work in a bank and it annoys me when people people still choose to queue and moan about it when there are so many other ways to bank now!! Excellent op!! SARAHxx
Schmutzie 31.12.2002 14:36
I've been with them even longer, and touch wood I've only had one problem, their failure to make an online payment. I still do like the Internet banking. Great op.
nicanddarrell 25.12.2002 00:13
I too have found the internet banking much more effcient than the telephone service
Advantages: Offers services you'd expect from a bank, high free overdraft limit for students Disadvantages: Confusion applying, no interest, little contact, constant changes, poor internet banking
a-true-ben 04.09.2001 (28.05.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of LloydsTSB Accounts
Advantages: Pay bills without visiting the bank, online statements, transfer money between your accounts Disadvantages: Statements sometimes a few days behind
Nov 29th, 2002
(Dec 21st, 2002)
very helpful by (97%):
helpful by (3%):
