Lloyds TSB Online Banking

This is probably an opinion I am going to have to update a couple of times over the next few days and hopefully at the end of it I will be able to go along with the majority of people on here who seem to think this is an excellent service.

First of all, I do have a telephone banking service which if truth be known is more than adequate for my needs, however, a situation arose last week where they could not give me the level of information I needed. The girl suggested I either go into the branch or use the internet service. OK, I thought, I'll give the on-line system a go.

I asked her to send me out some details which they did and I followed the instructions to the letter, i.e, went to the site, registered with my details, got my reference number and then rang the 0845 number quoted.

After 5 minutes on hold I finally got through, I was then asked several questions to confirm my identity which is fair enough because I would hate to think that anyone could just ring up and pretend to be me.

So, once he had confirmed my identity he said "I will send you out your user ID in the post" .... "hang on, the letter said I could start using the service straight away" says I.

"No, definitely not sir, it has to go in the post" ... so I start quoting what it says in the brochure and letter I've just received 2 days ago where it definitely states "When you call we'll check your identity by asking a few questions about you and the accounts you hold with us" fair enough, I've done that, then it says ... "Then we'll give you your User ID so you can start using Lloyds TSB internet banking straight away".

Anyway, even after telling him this he refuses to budge and ends the phone call.

At this point I'm livid because it looks like the info they've sent me out is out of date so I go on to the site again to check what the current process is and lo and behold there it is in black and white ...

"If your registered for PhoneBank our telephone banking service you will not need to call us. When you complete your online application form we'll check your identity using your PhoneBank password. Then we'll give you your User ID online and you can start using the service straight away"

Ah right thinks I, I didnt have to call them in the first place because I am a phone bank user already. So I try to log in but hang on, they havent given me a user ID yet ???

Another phone call was then made and I went through the story with the guy who answered the phone, he couldnt help me, simply reiterating what was already said so I got put through to the "Helpdesk" but guess what ? They couldnt help because the User ID should have come up "somewhere" on the screen when I registered, "BUT IT DIDNT" explained I.

Well to cut a long story short I couldnt get any further with them over the phone and even went through the whole on-line registration again while I was on the call and sure enough no User ID came up so I'm left waiting for it to come via snail mail !!

I only hope that this carry on is not indicative of the way this service works because if it is I can see me telling them to stuff it !!