Lloyds Banking Group will discontinue its invoice factoring service for small businesses by the year’s end, as reported. Invoice factoring involves selling unpaid invoices to another entity at a discounted rate in exchange for immediate cash, with the purchasing company then responsible for collecting the full payment.
The decision to end this service was confirmed this week by Lloyds, which includes Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland. The Financial Times (FT) reported that NatWest and Barclays ceased their factoring operations a few years back, while HSBC has tightened its service criteria.
In other updates, Lloyds has implemented significant changes, such as requiring customers to use their debit card and PIN for cheque deposits instead of pay-in slips. Additionally, the option to deposit cheques at local Post Offices no longer exists, necessitating visits to Lloyds, Halifax, or Bank of Scotland branches or utilizing mobile banking for this purpose.
Moreover, Lloyds raised the monthly fee for its Club Lloyds packaged bank account from £3 to £5, although the fee is waived if a monthly deposit of £2,000 or more is made. The Club Lloyds account offers various benefits, including a yearly lifestyle benefit choice, access to the Club Lloyds Monthly Saver, and up to 15% cashback at select retailers. Additional fees apply to Club Lloyds Silver and Club Lloyds Platinum accounts.
On a positive note, Lloyds eliminated debit card foreign currency fees for transactions made in the local currency, while transactions in pound sterling may still incur charges.