Not upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Lloyds Bank PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs N and Mrs J complained that Lloyds gave them incorrect information when upgrading their joint Silver account to a Club Lloyds Silver account, resulting in the loss of Mrs N's 50% staff discount. A Lloyds staff member had explicitly assured them the change would not affect the monthly fee, but the discount was removed after the upgrade and could not be reapplied. Lloyds upheld the complaint and paid £150 compensation. The ombudsman found that while Lloyds had made an error in providing incorrect information, the £150 compensation was reasonable and no further remedy was warranted, as Mrs N was no longer eligible for the staff discount under Lloyds' policy following her departure from employment.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman accepted that Lloyds gave incorrect information but found that reinstatement of the discount would be counter to Lloyds' policy, as Mrs N was no longer eligible for the staff discount after leaving employment. The £150 compensation already paid was deemed reasonable as it equated to just over two years' worth of the additional monthly cost (£5.75 per month), and there was uncertainty about how long Mrs N would have retained the account. The ombudsman noted that Mrs N already had access to the benefits of both packages on separate accounts.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website