Lloyds set to charge low usage credit card customers

March 1, 2007

Lloyds bank is set to make its customers extremely unhappy by charging those who do not use their credit cards as much as others. It is thought that a £35 charge is going to be given to those people who do not use the cards very often.

The move comes quickly after speculation that banks are going to charge their customers for all of their banking needs, meaning an end to free banking. However, whilst this new move from Lloyds is certainly not good news, they claim that it will only affect around 1% of their customers. There is still doubt to that claim though as they have so far refused to say how they work out whom that 1% of customers actually is. Also as small as 1% sounds, for the 51,000 it will affect in that 1% it suddenly becomes very real!

The reason that this move is causing so much controversy is because from the banks point of view they are saying that it is to encourage people to either use their card more or shut their account down. However, they do not state clearly who this will affect and that has led some experts to believe that they may just be picking on various customers who do not make them enough money.

Another reason customers will not be happy over the move is because they feel that they have a right to use the card whenever they want to. Unless you enter an agreement which clearly states that you should use the card every so often, you should be able to use it whenever you want and as infrequently as you want too.

Overall as Lloyds does make this change, many people who are signed up with other banks will be wondering when their bank will also make the same changes. Whether any more will follow suit is yet unknown but it does seem likely if it is to make Lloyds even more money.