Holding on to UK Lloyds C.Cards/Debit Cards/Current accounts

Hi ya'll.
Its been some time since i've been on this forum..but i'm thrilled to see its still going strong.

I was wondering if anyone had any heads up with a dilemma hubby and i are facing with regards to our UK banking. We have recently moved back to the States....and not sure at this time if we will move back to the UK but would like to maintain our Lloyds current account and hopefully our Lloyds platinum c.cards and debit cards which are set to expire in a couple of months. We thought of using a forwarding address of a friend who lives in the UK...but if i am not mistaken, Lloyds will be sending all sorts of forms asking for utility bills from new addres with our name on it and other forms asking to confirm the " change of address ".
Initially we thought it would be as simple as logging online and filling out the " change of address " option ( like here in the States )..but remembered nothing is that simple in the UK when it comes to finances LOL!!!

Basically we have 2.5 months left before our Lloyds c.card/debit card is set to expire...and remembering the nightmare-ish experience it took to acquire them in the first place, we would really like to hold on to them for a while longer until we sort out the other parts of our lives.
We do have the regular current account....which we hope will stay open....i hope they dont have any " dormant " or " in-active account " rules...well i suppose i could always deposit a few quids from our UK Paypal account to our current account to stop it from being classified as " dormant ".

Any constructive advice especially if its to do with Lloyds specifically is cheerfully accepted.

Zu

You could inform them of your change of address - they can send new cards etc. abroad.

As for a dormant Lloyds account - mine was empty and had had no transactions at all for three years while I was in the US but was still good to go when I got back to the UK.

When we moved house (to a different address in the UK) we quite literally printed off a form from the Lloyd's TSB website, filled it out and sent it to them, and they made the change - no proof required.  I'm hoping it's going to be as simple as that when and if we move back to the US...

Thanks both for the prompt response...

Tam: I thought one had to reside in card providers country in order to keep a credit card ? I will look into this....in the meantime, can anyone else shed light on this ?

Juliloew: I will check the website for the change of address form...how long ago did you do the change of address ?

Cheers

I did the address change just over a year ago.

As far as residing in the card provider's country, it doesn't work that way for US cards, or at least didn't when I moved to the UK - I kept my US card for a year or so before paying it off and cancelling it.  I would presume the same would work in reverse, but don't know for sure.  Guess I'd better start checking for myself, just in case, because if we make the move, we definitely will want to keep a bank account (and credit card) in the UK....

we moved to the US and kept our citi cards, we just sent them an address change notification.  they did send  a confirmation of address change to our address in the UK, but that was fine since we had our mail forwarded.  our next set of cards came to our US address as normal.  people move all over the world, and i am sure they want to keep your business.....

Saycheese, I don't think you are going to find out for sure unless you ask Lloyds.

Liz- Hi I did not want to do that and run the risk of Lloyds "red-flagging" my account in any way...that is why i am  posting inquires here for first-hand experience to help me sort out how i will approach Lloyds. UK banks (well atleast Lloyds) have extremley itchy fingers and will be more than happy to cancel one's account at a drop of a hat....that much i know.

I think they'd be more likely to give you one of their international accounts but don't quote me on that.   

Liz- Hi I did not want to do that and run the risk of Lloyds "red-flagging" my account in any way...that is why i am  posting inquires here for first-hand experience to help me sort out how i will approach Lloyds. UK banks (well atleast Lloyds) have extremley itchy fingers and will be more than happy to cancel one's account at a drop of a hat....that much i know.

As far as Lloyds bank accounts are concerned, simply print off the change of address form from their website after you've moved back to the US. I don't recall having to provide any proof of the new address. Lloyds is quite happy sending debit cards etc to a non-UK address.

Giantaxe- So how exactly did you approach Lloyds..did you tell them you are temporarily in the U.S. and you would like for them to send your new cards to your U.S. address ? Or you just simply filled out the change of address form without any additional consultations over the phone ?

Did Lloyds also forward your credit cards to your U.S. address or was it only Debit cards ? I was also wondering how this will affect my regular Lloyds current account ?

Will a change of address to the credit/debit cards also mean a change of address to the regular current account ?

Sorry to pile on the Q.'s but im sure you understand my concerns.

Giantaxe- So how exactly did you approach Lloyds..did you tell them you are temporarily in the U.S. and you would like for them to send your new cards to your U.S. address ? Or you just simply filled out the change of address form without any additional consultations over the phone ?

The latter, for a current account that had a debit card associated with it. As someone said earlier, people move abroad all the time so I don't think this should be an issue as regards one's bank account. 

Heyhey. Just a quick update to our situation..

I have been calling Lloyds from California trying to get a straight answer from them about mailing our Platinum Credit Cards to California...everytime i call to confirm the previous rep's story, i get a completley opposite reply.

So my question still goes...has anyone actually managed to get Lloyds bank in UK to ship your new Lloyds Platinum credit cards to an address in the U.S. ?

Yes i have told them that i was just temporarily away in the States and that i would not be back in time to recieve/activate the new cards when they ship them to our London address on file.
Our cards are getting ready to expire in about one month and i am beginning to freak out...about losing them altogether.

help you guys!

I used to work for LTSB and it's ridiculous that you're getting the run around. You should be able to merely change your address for your new address. As an existing customer they should require nothing more than

1. Your signature if you hold a signature on file on a Change of Address form.
2. You should be able to do it over the phone if you hold a phone bank security number.

Don't talk to them about it, just say "I want to change my address" and give them your US address.

If you're having issues, request that they add a correspondence address to your account whilst keeping your UK address (don't worry no post will ever go there) as your home address. That will ensure all post goes to your US account.

I think you may have trouble with your cards though, LTSB  have recently switched to using a secure courier system for a lot of their deliveries, which doesn't cover the US.
They may elect to send it to a branch in the UK for you to pick up, they SHOULDN'T do this, but that doesn't mean they wont.

But seriously, LTSB is one of the easiest banks for changing addresses, they have no problem with overseas addresses at all, and even have a US/UK dollar account.

Cheesebiscuit- thanks heaps for the fast reply...

What hubby and i are most concerned with was wether they would cancel our credit cards if we indeed called in to request the cards be dispatched to our California P.O.Box. Basically we want to hold on to our UK bank accounts/credit cards..we are still weighing our options about moving back to London.

Yes we are signed on with phone banking...and will call again and see if i can speak with someone of authority...most of the time they leave me hanging so long i have to hang up and call again since it is an international call.

Ofcourse the alternative option as you suggested would be that we have a friend go down to our branch in London and pick up the credit cards....and have our friend  activated them ASAP within the specified time( 7 or 10 days i forget..) so this means we would need to give our friend all the sensitive details to activate the card..which should be fine since we trust her.

On my first inquiry the rep did say that they can only dispatch the cards to our address on file...if we call in to request that they dispatch the cards to our U.S. address, will they not ask why, or inquire if we have moved ? Furthermore i believe you are right about Lloyds dispatching the cards via secure carrier...How could we get around this if we are asking them to ship to California.

thanks again
Saycheese