Packaged Account Fees

[leclerc]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...o-1183206.html

Article from 1998 which talks about accounts with extras and only mentions barclays accounts

[leclerc]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

Have a read of this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010...urrent-account
Third paragraph from the bottom refers to Lloyds starting to sell packaged accounts in 1997

That's a very good find so clearly it is 1997. I know other banks would have been similar because if one bank does it then they all follow suit .

[FlySi]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

That is interesting as I thought packaged account came out in April 2007.....time to dig up some more stuff

Have a read of this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010...urrent-account
Third paragraph from the bottom refers to Lloyds starting to sell packaged accounts in 1997

[leclerc]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

As I explained in my post a little earlier (see here) IF the account benefits included a) AA Breakdown Cover and b) Mobile Phone Insurance it is clearly a case of mis-selling. I did not have a driver's licence (ergo, no car, no need for breakdown cover) and I did not have a mobile phone. Certainly I was being charged £4 per month in September 2001 for an account that presumably included these 'benefits'.

Re. travel insurance - given I was as student at the time I know that I bought travel insurance through the student union at the time for relatively little.

That is interesting as I thought packaged account came out in April 2007.....time to dig up some more stuff

[FlySi]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

Basic benefits that Lloyds offered on their 'packaged' accounts were:

AA/Rac breakdown cover
mobile phone insurance
sentinel card protection
travel insurance

Their Platinum/Premier Accounts offer:-

Top grade AA breakdown cover
Full family travel insurance
Insuring family mobile phones (as long as they lived in the same house as you).

Yes, staff were paid commission to upgrade accounts however there was a lot of strict protocol too.

Hope this helps. I cannot see how this would fall under the 'mis selling umbrella' like PPI, but that is just my opinion.

As I explained in my post a little earlier (see here) IF the account benefits included a) AA Breakdown Cover and b) Mobile Phone Insurance it is clearly a case of mis-selling. I did not have a driver's licence (ergo, no car, no need for breakdown cover) and I did not have a mobile phone. Certainly I was being charged £4 per month in September 2001 for an account that presumably included these 'benefits'.

Re. travel insurance - given I was as student at the time I know that I bought travel insurance through the student union at the time for relatively little.

[leclerc]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

In my case its worth me having a packaged account with LTSB. Its like another insurance policy in parts. You hope you never need it, but just in case you do. As I said before it is a choice that customers are given and can always say no thank you. They are also sent a welcome pack which very clearly sets out the benefits. If people don't bother to read the welcome pack and are not aware of the benefits that they have ................ what can I say?

Ok, I need to state from the off that I am 100% anti packaged accounts and it's probably because I have seen SOOOOOO many missold accounts in my time. People who have had two packaged accounts on their joint account and sole accounts, people who have been asked to sing this for information and were upgraded. Stories of a manager who asked that accounts be upgraded and that the phone call be made the following day because at that time there was no, clawback. Ones in which people have been told that if they downgraded that the preferential loan rate that they had for their loan would have to be renogiated(that was a blatanat lie btw). Packaged accounts where clearly the benefits of the product were either poorly explained or never explained. I worked in a branch where we told overseas students that the only account we offered them was one where there was a monthly fee. We exploited them. Accounts upgraded when someone was away abroad for a period of time, dormant accounts upgraded(a lot of these were before clawback).
For me personally, I cannot afford to travel so travel insurance perks are worthless. I have a car but I pay £36.00 to the AA for basic roadside assistance because I make sure every year to make sure that they will price match their online price or I will take my business elsewhere. The mobile phone insurance is useless as I have a thickie phone and not a smart phone . As for the ID protection, well, you have to be a thickie to have to need it(purely my own opinion on that one). A packaged account for me makes no economic sense and these days banks market accounts that will benefit them and them alone. The only loss making account that the bank will offer is a student account but that is on the basis that in the long term, they will make money from them from mortgages, loans, packaged accounts and the use of the overdraft(another thing I do not use either since LTSB charge you £5 for using your agreed overdraft excluding the package account fee).

It may be horses for courses but the banks did not have a requirement to make sure that the account was suitable until just 3 days ago. For me packaged account misselling will be rife and the banks will attempt to get out of repaying what they owe on the basis that you might have benefitted from one single benefit. That's misselling an account.

[Ruby]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

In my case its worth me having a packaged account with LTSB. Its like another insurance policy in parts. You hope you never need it, but just in case you do. As I said before it is a choice that customers are given and can always say no thank you. They are also sent a welcome pack which very clearly sets out the benefits. If people don't bother to read the welcome pack and are not aware of the benefits that they have ................ what can I say?

[leclerc]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

I see that they now have to pay for the account. Well, staff that worked with me said "we would never have the account if we had to pay for it !!"

[leclerc]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

Staff are pressured by management to sell these accounts and are given a target to reach on a daily and monthly basis. It is up to the intelligent public to say yes or no when we are offered these 'upgrades'. For some these accounts will be cost effective and for others not.

And when I worked for the bank, it was cost effective because I paid £0.00 as a result of it being part of the benefits package.

Have a look at the benefits of staff banking(this one is RBS Group ).

http://www.rbsyourbank.com/home.ashx

[Ruby]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

Staff are pressured by management to sell these accounts and are given a target to reach on a daily and monthly basis. It is up to the intelligent public to say yes or no when we are offered these 'upgrades'. For some these accounts will be cost effective and for others not.

[dogtired]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

When we changed to Nat West they tried to sell us a packaged account, and in fact for three months it was, I went into branch twice to discuss it and went through the so called benifits. Travel insurance, cannot afford holidays!
Mobile Phone insurance only have a small "dumb" phone! Breakdown insurance, already included on a basic level with our car insurance think the other was something to do with films. They eventually refunded the fees but its not stopped them trying to sell us a packaged account on a regular basis

[leclerc]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

To remind you what link 3 pointed to you way back when I started this thread:

"Packaged accounts may offer value for money for some consumers, but they may not benefit all;
consumers could be better off purchasing products individually or not at all. And some may find
that where the add-ons are insurance products, they do not provide the expected level of cover.
The potential for consumer detriment, although not likely to impact any individual consumer
significantly, could occur across a large population; around 15% of UK adults have some form of
packaged account."

[leclerc]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

Basic benefits that Lloyds offered on their 'packaged' accounts were:

AA/Rac breakdown cover
mobile phone insurance
sentinel card protection
travel insurance

Their Platinum/Premier Accounts offer:-

Top grade AA breakdown cover
Full family travel insurance
Insuring family mobile phones (as long as they lived in the same house as you).

The above list is the most popular reason why customers were encouraged to upgrade their accounts but is not the complete list of benefits.

The range of benefits has altered in times gone eg. previously you were offered circa 5% discount on your holidays and airport lounge access which is now not available with these accounts.

When you decided to upgrade you were given a cooling off period of 30 days (in which you didn't pay for the benefits (unless you had used them already) and went through a detailed 'talk' as to why you had chosen to upgrade and why.

Yes, staff were paid commission to upgrade accounts however there was a lot of strict protocol too.

Hope this helps. I cannot see how this would fall under the 'mis selling umbrella' like PPI, but that is just my opinion.

Ruby, I can, if the total "benefit" to you is simply sold under the one single benefit then it is missold and not fit for purpose. Basic roadside coverage can cost from as little as £30 so the overall cost sold to me was that it benefitted me by over £70 yet I am short £40.00 and I might have paid for holiday insurance despite already being covered because no one told me about the benefit.

I would not get me started on the paperwork side of things either. "please sign here sir"(and then fill in the savings after the customer has left.

Currently, yes, they have controls in place such as something called Clawback which means the benefit of the sale is taken back if the account is changed before the 3 month period but then you have the retention team over the phone that may well offer "free" packaged accounts for 2 months if you keep them. Before you ask yep i definitely do know about the above things happening.

[Ruby]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

Basic benefits that Lloyds offered on their 'packaged' accounts were:

AA/Rac breakdown cover
mobile phone insurance
sentinel card protection
travel insurance

Their Platinum/Premier Accounts offer:-

Top grade AA breakdown cover
Full family travel insurance
Insuring family mobile phones (as long as they lived in the same house as you).

The above list is the most popular reason why customers were encouraged to upgrade their accounts but is not the complete list of benefits.

The range of benefits has altered in times gone eg. previously you were offered circa 5% discount on your holidays and airport lounge access which is now not available with these accounts.

When you decided to upgrade you were given a cooling off period of 30 days (in which you didn't pay for the benefits (unless you had used them already) and went through a detailed 'talk' as to why you had chosen to upgrade and why.

Yes, staff were paid commission to upgrade accounts however there was a lot of strict protocol too.

Hope this helps. I cannot see how this would fall under the 'mis selling umbrella' like PPI, but that is just my opinion.

[leclerc]

Re: Packaged Account Fees

Hi all


I'm hoping that some of the people around here may be able to help on this. I'm after details of the packaged bank accounts that Lloyds (and Lloyds TSB) has sold. I know that in the past these have included Select, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Premier but I would like more information
Silver account was April 2007.

Does anybody know when Lloyds introduced packaged bank accounts?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...mmigrants.html

I would add that they would have had a version of Premier account without a doubt before then but that would take a bit of searching for me to find that info out.

Does anybody have any details (such as what they offered, etc.) of these packaged accounts from when they were first introduced, etc. or after?
Is there anywhere to obtain this information that anybody knows of (other than from Lloyds!)


Any help appreciated!
Thanks.

See above . Who need Moneysavingexpert when you can ask someone who digs around for stuff