Lloyds TSB Offshore Banking Reviews

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They have ethics of a wheel clamping firm. These people are SCARY! The first time I applied to open an offshore account everything seemed to be going well, they requested the usual docs etc, then out of the blue, I got a letter stating my application was terminated, there was no reason why, instead they run a highlight marker over the small print, which read "...we do not have to give a reason as to why your application failed..." when I phoned up the call centre they said that because I signed the form with the small print therefor... wow I thought are these people for real, so you think that I would have washed my hands with them, oh no I was rejected, they must be able to pick and choose their customers to have that sort of arrogance, so I applied again 6 months later and was accepted.

The day came when I went to transfer nearly £20,000 from my Lloydes onshore sterling to my new Lloydes offshore US account. So I phoned up and was about to do the instant transfer (as you do with Lloydes) when the dull voice on the phone said because my account is a joint account (with my wife) I have to go to my local branch to get the instruction faxed with copy of my licence or passport and stamp of the bank branch, so after 45 minutes of phoning them to know what needed to be on the fax painfully frustrating learning curve for myself and the poor girl at the bank it was done.

So I rushed home and gave them a call to see if they recieved the fax. Yes we have it he replied, I said ok, you have over an hour before 12pm to do the transfer so I can lock in the current exchange rate, ok I will let them know, oh no (I thought) let who know?

The call centre is located in the Isle of Man but the transfer centre is on the Isle of Jersey, you see where this is heading? I phoned the call centre and he had the fax in his hand, he is in Isle of man, yes they gave the girl at the bank the wrong number, so eventually someone will get around to forwarding transfer instruction (fax) to Jersey, so the 1st question is when?

The 2nd question is when Jersey finally get the instruction, when will someone get around to actually executing the instruction? i.e. doing my transfer, which by the way is between two different accounts in the same banking system (i.e. after entering data and clicking ok - the duration of the transfer is probably probably 0.00001 milliseconds). A little slower than a google seach request I imagine.

So 25 hours later my money is still waiting there in ym sterling account, I phone up and I got another dull voice, painfully explained what happend and that we sent the instruction yeasterday morning, her reply was robotic voice mode set to extra dull/chalk on black board annoying - "you need to phone your onshore bank to check if they got the instruction"

Yes you read right, she didn't even bother lifting her finger to dial to see if Jersey had recieved my instruction and executed it, instead she wanted me to phone my onshore bank so she could get rid of me so she didn't have to risk chipping her new nail polish.

I rattled her pretty good, she used the standard call centre line when she had enough of me "sir if you keep shouting I will end this call" only I wasn't shouting I was still talking but slightly raised voice, but no where near a shout, then she hung up.

Finally I got through to another person and they said will go throught tomorrow morning. Thats when I started to smell something bad.

They had my instruction in front of them but they were waiting for something, and a simple deduction of logic will tell you what they are waiting for, they are waiting for the new rate for tomorrow, obviously they have powerful analyst software to tell them the pound was trending down, after 5pm I checked my account and bang the money had gone through, they picked the most optimum time when the pound was at it's utmost lowest level for 2 weeks (on a sharpe dip) and did the transfer locking in a nice profit for them selves as they would have stocked up on US dollar several days earlier whe the pound was at $1.66 when I was quoted the dollar was $1.64 when I got the rate they transfered me at $159 that was 200 pips below what they said I should have got.

Yes they took over 400 pips instead of 200, nice company eh? My trust in their organsation is a nerve racking zero, these people think we are stupid, and wouldn't notice hundreds of pips below normal when our money is tranfered, I'm surprised they are still in business, incredible arrogance to try and pull the wool over our eyes.

Right now I am terrified of keeping my money with these weirdos, I want to move my money out ASAP, I'm worried sick about having to transfer my money again out of my account, I will stock up on some hard liqour to calm my neerves, a truely terrifying experience dealing with Lloydes International Offshore.

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I have this Euro-USD offshore account for 2 years now and it has been a general disappointment. Lloyds TSB Offshore Banking fees are high, service is low, money gets lost, transfers are suddenly limited, internet functionality is limited, so you have to make expensive international phone calls for simple transactions, the staff gives the wrong information time and time again, etc. I thought I just had bad luck but reading the rest of the reviews this seems to be the norm. Your local bank will do ...

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I have had a similar experience to sparkysimes. A £2500 limit applied to transfers (even to other accounts held with Lloyds TSB offshore), however no reduction in fees charged so a £10,00 transaction now cost 4 times what it used to. Add to this rude, unhelpful and poorly trained staff and you end up with the mess that is Lloyds TSB offshore. Compare this to the service I have received from my on-shore Lloyds TSB branch which has been brilliant. Recently to transfer funds I had to mo ...

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Month ago I tried to open an offshore account at Lloyds. I followed the instructions given in the website and sent all documents needed via DHL. I am definitely not a poor person. All my private details I proved to Lloyds by means of certified documents. Since then I was called on a daily basis by the customer care service - asked to prove my yearly income (although they had the 3 month salary slips in original already), proof of address, asked again why I want to open the account, asked for add ...

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I have held a Euro account with Lloyds TSB Offshore the last 3 years and am currently in the process of canceling this service. In the last month I had the following experiences: online access to funds transfers cancelled, it took over 2 weeks to have this restored only to find a £2500 transfer limit had been applied. I was advised that larger transfers would require me to send an email to the transfers desk, who then told me that I need to send a letter in order to access my own funds. T ...

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I have had a similar experience to the previous poster - my local branch has no idea how to deal with payments to my offshore account... I've also tried three times to get a password for internet and phone banking -- which has involved going into the bank and faxing off my passport and each time zero happened - its been really frustrating and basically have had no way to get my money out of the account... HUGE waste of time and I intend to close the account - if I can actually find someone to do ...

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I had problem with on shore accounts (transfers; credit cards etc.) when I moved out of UK; bank itself recommended that I should open off shore account - everything came through mail in about 10 working days (forms etc) it was a joint account for me and my mother so they had to "connect" me (living in France ) and my mother living in another non EU country -very friendly and professional employee from their offshore team called me on my mobile phone (I was extremely busy in that period trying t ...

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Transfers-in taking up to 2 weeks. Transfers-out taking...well, how long is a piece of string. A regular payment took 2 weeks to set up (as the website crashed when trying to do it online). Unable to transfer to Lloyds onshore in under 1 week.
Account based in Gibraltar, managed in Isle of Man but payments based in Jersey - communication between them seems abysmal.
There appears to be no central system for logging calls or problems - you have to repeat details time and time again to different p ...

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I have several fixed term deposits with Lloyds TSB Offshore banking. I have been trying (unsuccessfully) since December 2007 to have these terminated and my money transferred out. Nine faxes and many phone calls later, I'm still waiting for this to be sorted (now August 2008). Advice for corresponding with Lloyds TSB Offshore varies between banking advisors, and in each event (fax, email, letter) action is yet to be taken.

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It took a while to get up and running. I needed a bank which offered free payments from the UK to USA to purchase a timeshare property on a monthly basis.
Many banks wanted to charge per money transfer which would have added to the cost of the timeshare. With Lloyds I can transfer sterling into the sterling off-shore account for free. I can transfer from my sterling off-shore account to my Dollar off-shore account for free, although the exchange rate seems a little unfair. I got $1.95 to £ ...

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Lloyds TSB Offshore Banking Review - Started opening the offshore account on December 6th - its now April 14th and its still not open as far as I am concerned - I got debit cards in mid February during the same week they disabled online banking for new customers in foreign currency account leaving me with great difficulty to move money. My phone banking application has taken four applications plus two copies of my passport and today they've asked me yet again for another copy.It looks like I wi ...

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I have had an account at Lloyds for 45 years -- the last 18 years in Jersey. In 1990 they went out of their way to be helpful. When a junior employee made an error, the manager took the trouble to phone me in Tokyo to apologise! Today it has become so off-hand and careless that if I didn't need a UK account, I would close it altogether. I get better service in the United States, where the banking system is Victorian, than I do in Britain. As for France -- my two French banks, BNP and Cr ...

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Lloyds TSB have been very frustrating!! It is difficult to do anything at all, and they charge you top dollar!I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone not to use LLoyds TSB offshore banking at all.

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There are some pros/cons in using the Lloyds TSB International Accounts, this depends on how you are actually going to use this. I suspect some people jumped in with both feet and not researched thoroughly for their banking style. Frankly I think it is one of the better UK banks for international offshore services, not the best overall but for me its the best for my particular needs at this time as a global worker.

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Generally bad service from the day I opened the account until the day I closed it 4 months later. With long delays answering emails, long delays answering letters.

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Lloyds TSB is one of worst Offshore bank in the Iceland.
It is very expensive, with very low interest rate, very high fee and poor service if they have any.
I applied for internet banking and after one year still had not any. If you think you will get any respond to your request or question by email, forget it. They rarely respond to email.
I terminated my account and advise others to do not open any account in this bank.

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Despite allegedly catering to expats, Lloyds seem to regard any foreign currency transaction as an opportunity to get more money from their customers, mainly through exchange rates which bear so little relation to anything reasonable, that I sometimes wonder if they are referring to the same currency.

I find other aspects of their service unacceptable. I recently asked them for a bank reference (by phone), and I was told this would be no problem. 4 or 5 days later I received a sullen phone ca ...