Lloyds Banking Group is set to discontinue its invoice factoring service for small businesses by the year’s end. Invoice factoring involves a business selling its outstanding invoices to another company at a discounted rate in exchange for immediate cash flow, with the purchasing company then responsible for collecting the full payment.
According to reports, Lloyds will cease purchasing unpaid invoices from small businesses this week. Other major banks like NatWest and Barclays have already closed their factoring services in previous years, and HSBC has recently tightened its service criteria.
In addition to this change, Lloyds has implemented other significant updates this year. Customers are now required to use their debit card and PIN instead of a pay-in slip to deposit cheques. Furthermore, the option to deposit cheques at local Post Offices has been eliminated, necessitating visits to Lloyds, Halifax, or Bank of Scotland branches or the use of mobile banking for cheque deposits.
Moreover, Lloyds has raised the monthly fee for its Club Lloyds packaged bank account from £3 to £5. However, this fee can be waived by depositing £2,000 or more each month. Club Lloyds accounts offer various benefits, such as a yearly lifestyle benefit choice and access to the Club Lloyds Monthly Saver and cashback at select retailers. Additional fees apply for Club Lloyds Silver and Club Lloyds Platinum accounts.
On a positive note, Lloyds has eliminated debit card foreign currency fees for transactions made in the local currency, though charges may still apply for transactions in pound sterling.