Oct 11 2007
Overdraft SMS Alert
Lloyds TSB which continues to chase market share in Scotland is moving ahead with its plans for sending SMS alerts when one of it customers goes close to their overdraft limit.
Lloyds TSB plans to introduce text message warnings to help its 11 million current account customers avoid exceeding their overdraft limits. The bank will also cut “unauthorised overdraft” interest rates - in some cases from nearly 30 per cent to 10 per cent - mainly because of litigation to test the legality of penalty fees next year.
But, more significantly, Lloyds TSB is expected to charge £30 a year for the text service which is another example of a bank starting to soften up consumers for the end of free banking.
Lloyds TSB already offers a single free text per week showing the status of the customer’s bank account, but all the banks are desperate to week consumers off free banking and so are looking for value add services that can offer and charge for.
