Updating your info. on Lloyds accounts

[Bouleversee]

After logging on to my Lloyds bank account today, I was surprised to be faced with a notice telling me they were legally required to ask for an update to current information as to name & address, residency etc. and also net income (the pre-filled box stated £0 but things haven't really got that bad) and how it was derived, i.e. "weekly, bi-weekly, none, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, annually", selecting only ONE option. It was impossible to continue to my account statement without filling it in, which was of course quite impossible.

I should be interested to know whether others with Lloyds accounts have had a similar experience and how they reacted.

[PinkDalek]

Sounds like one of those blasted Know Your Customer type things. Don't know if it is MiFID related or not.

On similar forms (not Lloyds) I've totted up my total income based on prior year's Tax return, knocked off tax deducted and paid in respect of that year and added ISA dividend income***. Then rounded it to the nearest £1,000/£10,000 depending on what I felt like at the time.

That would be the figure "derived" annually, to me at least.


*** I didn't include items such as Premium Bond prizes.

[scrumpyjack]

As far as I am aware they do not have a legal right to know your income. It is probably being asked in order to help sell financial 'products' to you.

Financial institutions often use the 'know your client' rules to go on a fishing expedition to get more data on their clients, way beyond what is a legal requirement. Selftrade tried this on a few years ago and eventually had to climb down.

I suggest either not answering, or if you can't log in without it, put down a figure that is out by at least a factor of 10 and see what happens - probably nothing.

If they call you, say it is none of their business (unless perhaps you have borrowed money from them). If they try to insist, say you are going to move your account to bank that isn't so stupid.

[Howard]

As far as I am aware they do not have a legal right to know your income. It is probably being asked in order to help sell financial 'products' to you.

Financial institutions often use the 'know your client' rules to go on a fishing expedition to get more data on their clients, way beyond what is a legal requirement. Selftrade tried this on a few years ago and eventually had to climb down.

I suggest either not answering, or if you can't log in without it, put down a figure that is out by at least a factor of 10 and see what happens - probably nothing.

If they call you, say it is none of their business (unless perhaps you have borrowed money from them). If they try to insist, say you are going to move your account to bank that isn't so stupid.

Isn't this just shooting yourself in both feet? Unless Bouleversee wants to move accounts with all the hassle that entails. Why not try to give an answer which is approximately right? As a customer of Lloyds I don't rate them very highly but I ticked the boxes to say don't try and sell me stuff and they have respected that choice.

They occasionally ask me to update my details but it isn't much of a hassle. Certainly not as much as having to change a bank account to an organisation which may prove to offer worse service!

regards

Howard

[Alaric]

As far as I am aware they do not have a legal right to know your income.

If it's your main personal bank account, they know anyway from the credits going into the account.

[scrumpyjack]

I have bank accounts with NatWest and Barclays and neither have ever asked for that sort of information, so I very much doubt it is a legal requirement for them to ask.

Obviously if you don't mind telling them, then fine, but clearly Boulversee was unhappy about it as she has posted here.

In my case neither bank would have any idea of my income simply from my bank transactions (apart from my state pension) as most income does not get credited there. Barclays might have a better idea of my general level of extravagance as I have a Barclaycard.

[supremetwo]

I should be interested to know whether others with Lloyds accounts have had a similar experience and how they reacted.

Nothing similar asked here yet.

Just pushing a new APP - useless here - lucky if we get any mobile signal indoors.

[Bouleversee]

Thanks to all for replies but none of you has addressed the point about having to select one option as to how the income is paid when for most people, other than perhaps those starting out in employment, income is derived in several different ways and paid at varying intervals so it is impossible to make such a choice. I actually have 3 bank accounts and would never restrict myself to one in case their system crashed just when I needed to move or withdraw money. However, I had been thinking of closing the Lloyds one as I no longer really need it (it was opened after we downsized and had a large amount of cash to spread around for safety till we decided what to do with it) and they now require 2 monthly direct debits in order to pay interest so just not worth the hassle, especially with this added nonsense.

For a start, it doesn't make clear whether net income includes non-taxable income but even if it doesn't, tbh I couldn't tell you what that is off the top of my head as it varies quite a lot from year to year and I haven't yet done my tax return for last year. Secondly, I don't believe they have a legal requirement to demand such information and it is so half-baked and stupid, although I have nothing to hide, since this sort of rubbish drives me potty, I decided to challenge it. Big mistake! I must have spent at least an hour on the phone talking to someone who kept disappearing to consult his manager and the upshot was that there is nothing they can do to change it and they could not uphold my complaint. However, they did tell me how I could bypass this questionnaire and access my account: pressing "continue" achieves nothing but if you click on the little house at the top of the page which for some reason they use instead of the word "home" you will go straight to your homepage, which makes the whole thing even more of a nonsense.

I could leave it there but I can't stand idiocy so I think I shall ask the FCA whether they do indeed require such questions to be asked. I feel sure they don't as my other two banks haven't done so. I might even drop a line to Horta Osorio (or whatever the name of the overpaid boss of Lloyds is) and ask him how he would manage to fill it in. As others have suggested, it is likely to be just a fishing expedition. In any event, I will close the account as soon as I have arranged for the annuity payments to be redirected, doubtless to our mutual relief.

[Alaric]

Thanks to all for replies but none of you has addressed the point about having to select one option as to how the income is paid when for most people, other than perhaps those starting out in employment, income is derived in several different ways and paid at varying intervals so it is impossible to make such a choice.

Perhaps a really poorly worded question, but unsurprising that no-one in the organisation is prepared to take responsibility for it.

What credit card companies seem to ask for and sometimes surveys as well, is an estimate of your annual income. It could be that's all they are after, but the designers in their IT department decided to be too clever by half. If potentially there's an overdraft facility on your account, your income, however measured is likely to be a relevant factor in what they might offer.

But by all means rattle the cage of the FCA and the CEO. If they wanted to know your income, they can ask for it when you open the account. If they are asking again, is this just a fishing expedition or are the FCA leaning on them?

[scrumpyjack]

On the question about how the income is paid, I think it is simply that they want to know what the figure you put in represents.
ie if you put 10,000 is that your monthly income or your annual income. It does not relate to the frequency of payment. Just very badly worded I suspect.

[richfool]

Thanks to all for replies but none of you has addressed the point about having to select one option as to how the income is paid when for most people, other than perhaps those starting out in employment, income is derived in several different ways and paid at varying intervals so it is impossible to make such a choice.

I understand the banks are updating records in readiness for additional security checks at point of sale when customers use chip 'n pin, touch payment methods (Switch cards, credit cards etc), which may involve them sending a code to your mobile phone, thus they are wanting to make sure mobile phone numbers etc are correct.

Re the question about at what interval your income is paid, I would suggest most retired people will have a mix of sources and frequencies. I would just take your pick, perhaps based on your main source or main pension, - e.g. monthly. It could be that they may ask security questions in given situations which may draw upon some of the information they are gathering. Some information may be to assist their marketing activities..