Why all this hassle to axe bank’s insurance?

L.B. writes: For many years we have had a Lloyds Bank current account which came with free insurance for mobile phone, travel, AA breakdown and card loss. We have never used the insurance, so when Lloyds said it intended to charge £14.95 a month in future, we decided to cancel the cover. However, our branch says we need to close the account and open a new one, and that first we must make an appointment to discuss this with a consultant.

ACCORDING to Lloyds, the insurance can be cancelled via internet banking, which you do not have, or by telephone, though you found the number was permanently engaged. The third option was cancellation of the insurance by going to your branch, but when you did this the manager and staff said they could not simply delete the insurance. You would have to have a meeting with a ‘consultant’, who I imagine is a salesperson.

I asked the bank to explain, and a spokesman told me you could switch to a Classic Account with the same sort code and account number, so all your direct debits and similar arrangements would be unchanged. But you still had to make an appointment to see a consultant, even though the bank itself was shifting the goalposts and a meeting might involve time off work.

The bank’s complaints department has now credited your account with £30 by way of saying sorry for poor service, and if you wish to stay with Lloyds, staff say they will arrange to call you rather than expect you to call them.