To think that Lloyds Bank were being unreasonable?

ABU ? Definitely not, ridiculous !!

Write yourself a cheque out for £4.40 and leave them to it!

You are not being unreasonable merlotgran.

If you had walked in with a cheque for £50,000 to deposit they would have found someone quick as a flash to 'help' you invest it.

Not the right way to treat someone who has just been bereaved.

I just ran this by my DD who deals with things like this in the bank she works in. 'Would you insist an appointment be made?' 'Heck no' she said. 'I might be busy in my office whilst the cashiers are at a loose end, but if someone didn't at least take the bereaved customer in a side office and make them a cup of tea whilst it was decided if an appointment was needed or not, my manager would be furious. She might have had to wait a few minutes for a customer service officer or manager to be free, as cashiers aren't always allowed to deal with closures after a death.' If you feel up to it, a complaint sounds warranted.

I think it must depend on the branch. Lloyd's Bank couldn't have been more helpful when my mother died this year, and when my father died some years ago. But it took me two phone calls and two visits, by appointment, to deal with my mother's account at the Halifax (could only be done by the member of staff who was trained to deal with bereavement accounts) and the staff at HSBC were just rude when my father died. You can see some wally saying, 'We must specially train staff to deal with this to give a better service to our customers' without realising this would mean no-one else would be able to do anything or asking themselves what customers actually want.

Indeed - just write yourself a cheque for the balance and leave it at that. They will be on to you soon enough and you can just tell them to send you anything to sign to close the account.

I have had bad experiences of Lloyds in relation to aged parents. We only stay with them because it is too much hassle to change and have to mess about with new standing orders etc.

I don't know if it's just one branch. merlot but a friend who lives in bungay - maybe her branch is over your way? Has just had big problems with Lloyds following the death of her OH. It sounds as if they were about to get the thumbscrews out, it's very unsympathetic. They wanted to know some very odd things.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'll definitely cancel the appointment on Friday as I'm blowed if I'm going to do another twelve mile round trip into town this week. I can transfer the balance to my own account online so I'll just let it stew.

I won't be using the account to launder any money so it will be interesting to see how long it is before they contact me about a dormant account.

It will be very interesting to see if you can draw the money out.

I just have

That's the way, Merlot. Perhaps now they'll realise who they're dealing with!

I hope they don't send the fraud squad round!!

Just make sure you divide the £4.40 equally between all the beneficiaries and ask them to sign for it

You should copy the link to this thread, merlot, and send them that. Do you want me to complain to them on Twitter?

A couple of years before my mother died we made her principal current account a joint one. This not only enabled me to settle her bills for her but greatly simplified things after she died, as I was able to close it when it suited me.

Just a thought for Gransnetters with APs (Wemmick's term of affection for his old father in Great Expectations - chosen to be as inoffensive as possible).

Twitter's a good idea. It's amazing how companies jump, they don't like bad publicity.

When DH died I didn't close our joint bank account - is was the last thing with his name on it after transferring everything else into my name. When I wanted to transfer the account to another bank I wrote to the existing bank explaining DH had died and enclosing a copy of his death certificate. I got a letter back saying they couldn't close the account without his signature!

I transferred all the money to the new bank and the old bank now send me monthly statements showing a nil balance, although they have changed the name of the account into my sole name!

That's just illogical and weird and bureaucracy gone mad. Although, if in future years a cheque were made payable to him from an unknown account somewhere, it would be useful to be able to pay it in I suppose.

Typical of Lloyds. We banked with them, DH refused to change, for about 25 years, for most of which they either infuriated me or drove me to despair. When I worked for Age Concern, as it was at the time, I dealt with more complaints about Lloyds than any other bank.

I will keep my appointment on Friday and close the account as it'll the last task concerning Mum's affairs so the sooner it's all behind me the better.

When I told DH he said, 'What a bunch of t***s. Do you want me to come with you?'

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I found the same when I was a CAB adviser, FlicketyB. Lloyds were a thorn in our flesh. They were reluctant to admit they were at fault even when confronted with incontrovertible proof.

Barclays are no better, believe me !!

I think your husband summed it up melotgran. You had obviously made it clear to the person you were dealing with that you were closing your late mother's account so the least they could do is deal with you with sympathy.

I would find the CEOs address and write to him/her. They need to retrain their staff!