Money Transfer: Lloyds Tsb: Exchange Rate.....

Another unhappy LloydsTSB customer here...i too have had bad experiences:

the exchange rates used for debit and credit card foreign transactions (+fees) is terrible. When i brought this up with my branch manager and compared other banks that were offering 'no fee for foreign atm withdrawls', he suggested that the competing UK banks that offered this (Nationwide, Citibank etc) made up for lack of fees by using a poor exchange rate. Having compared the exchange rates used on the same day with several different cards from several different banks / credit cards i found that lloyds was always the worst!

The few times i've done a foreign transfer (from lloyds to SCB) it has to be done manually either in branch or over the phone (not online). Also once this transaction is completed they keep no record so if you want to repeat the same transfer the next month you have to spend another 20 mins on the phone giving the details again!

Their new voice recognition feature on their customer service number is a joke....it drives me up the wall:

'Please say the third character of your memorable password'

'T'

'I heard 'P', is that correct?'

'No'

'I'm sorry that is incorrect'

'Please say the third character of your memorable password'

'T!!!'

'I heard 'T', is that correct?'

'Yes!'

'I'm sorry i'm having trouble understanding you'

'*?!#'

'Please wait while i transfer you to an operator. .....We are extremely busy at the moment and you may have to wait for than 5 mins ...'

I don't mind paying fees if the service is good but with LloydsTSB, having been a loyal customer for more than 15 years, i have to say its simply not worth it anymore. I agree the newer banks like Nationwide are the way to go. I also wish the regulator would get more aggresive in this area.

Excuse the rant ...but the concept of paying to get your hands on your own money still amazes me!