Club Lloyds: Is it worth switching to this Lloyds bank account?

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What is the Club Lloyds account? 

Lloyds Bank has a frankly confusing number of core current accounts ranging from the fee-free Classic account to the expensive fee-paying Platinum account.

Sitting in parallel to that are the Club Lloyds accounts.

The structure looks like this:

Normal accounts

• Classic (free)
• Silver (£11.50 a month)
• Platinum (£22.50 a month)

Club Lloyds account

• Club Lloyds (£3 a month waivable fee)
• Club Lloyds Silver (£11.50 a month plus £3 a month waivable fee)
• Club Lloyds Platinum (£22.50 a month plus £3 a month waivable fee)

So essentially Club Lloyds accounts are just normal Lloyds bank accounts with Club Lloyds benefits.

How much does Club Lloyds cost?

Unlike the Lloyds Silver and Platinum accounts, which are packaged accounts that include things like travel insurance and breakdown cover, Club Lloyds is a package of lifestyle benefits (more below).

While Club Lloyds normally costs £3 a month, the fee is waived if you’re able to deposit at least £2,000 a month into your account.

That deposit can be a lump sum, or it can be split into multiple small payments.

For it to count as a deposit though, it needs to be money paid into your account as cash or cheque, or via BACs, Faster Payments or instant transfers from another bank account.

Once the money is in your Club Lloyds account, you can transfer it out straight away – although you do get in-credit interest on the money you keep in the account (more below).

The great thing about these rules is that even if your income is only £1,000, you could still qualify for free Club Lloyds benefits by transferring your money out into another account and then transferring it back again.

One thing to note: you’ll need to submit your salary details when you apply, and Lloyds Bank will run a hard check on your credit file (so it goes on your record), which suggests that it doesn’t offer the account to just anyone.

You also need to be over 18 to apply.

What are the benefits of having a Club Lloyds account? 

There are a few benefits to having a Club Lloyds account, some of which kick in as soon as you open an account and some of which you need to enrol in separately.

Naturally, once you close your account you’ll lose access to these benefits.

The lifestyle benefits

It was the lifestyle benefits offered through Club Lloyds that first caught my eye – a bargain when you consider it’s possible to get them for free.

Once your account is open and all set up, you should receive an email letting you know that you can pick a lifestyle benefit from one of the below:

• 12 months of Disney+ subscription
• Six cinema tickets with Odeon or Vue
• An annual digital Coffee Club and Gourmet Society membership
• An annual magazine subscription

You then need to follow the instructions given to activate your benefit.

The benefit you choose will last for 12 months, at which point you can switch to another one or stay with the same one.

I chose the Disney+ subscription as in my opinion it offers the best value.

The subscription package offered now is the cheapest one with ads, which normally costs £4.99 a month, or £59.88 a year.

As I signed up more than a year ago, when this benefit first launched, I’ve been grandfathered into the Disney+ Premium account, which is worth £10.99 a month or £109.90 a year.

For comparison, cinema tickets start from around £5 a ticket, so that would only be worth £30.

The Coffee Club subscription*, which gives you 25% off at places like Caffe Nero, costs £2.99 a month, or £24.99 a year.

A Gourmet Society membership* starts from £34.99 and gives you discounts at mostly chain restaurants.

As for the magazine subscription, it depends on which title you choose – the options are from those published by Hearst or Bauer, which includes Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan.

You can see the full list of lifestyle benefits here.

The in-credit interest

If you have money in your Club Lloyds account, you will earn interest on it – but only if you have two active, monthly direct debits in place.

This direct debit requirement is only for this particular benefit, rather than for the account itself.

While the rates are not the best out there, they are pretty competitive, especially for a current account.

Right now, the interest rate is:

• 1.50% AER for balances between £1 – £3,999.99
• 3% AER for balances between £4,000 – £5,000
• Nothing over £5,000

It’s competitive in the sense that it’s better than many savings accounts out there but it’s certainly not the best.

The Chip Easy Access Saver* currently offers 5% AER for example – although this rate drops if you make more than three withdrawals in a 12-month period.

The linked savings account

Like other current account providers, Lloyds Bank offers a set of special savings accounts for Club Lloyds customers, which carry a better interest rate.

The best of these is the Club Lloyds Monthly Saver.

Over a 12-month period, you must save between £25 to £400 a month. On that money you’ll get an interest payment of 6.25% AER, which is fixed for the full term.

After the first one ends, you should just be able to open another one, assuming the product still exists.

You can also withdraw your money when you need it without penalties.

The cashback

Like several other current accounts, a Club Lloyds account will give you up to 15% cashback at selected retailers when you use your debit card for payment.

The list of retailers changes regularly, and the amount of cashback varies too.

I personally prefer to use a reward credit card for everything so I can get Section 75 protection as well as cashback, but if you’re a debit card user this is definitely a perk worth adding to your account.

You have to enrol to get the benefit but it doesn’t cost anything.

The other perks

Club Lloyds also offers a bunch of other perks, which are essentially discounts or cashback on other Lloyds Bank products, such as its mortgage or travel money service.

I personally don’t think these offer great value – you might not save anything compared to a cheaper competitor for example – so I would disregard them.

Is the Club Lloyds account better than the Classic account?

If you satisfy the requirements for a fee-free Club Lloyds account – that is, if you can deposit at least £2,000 into your account each month – then it’s well worth it.

And certainly the benefits are more than what you’d get with a Classic account, which is essentially a standard current account.

If you’re already paying for the packaged Silver or Platinum account then there’s no reason not to switch to the Club Lloyds version as you’re most likely already satisfying the £2,000 deposit requirement.

I wouldn’t personally upgrade from a standard Club Lloyds account to a Silver or Platinum account as the products they provide as part of the package aren’t really things I need.

I get specialised travel insurance that allows me to be out of the country for up to 45 days for example, which most normal travel insurance policies just don’t offer.

And as I don’t have a car, there’s no need for breakdown cover.

If you are thinking of going premium, it’s worth tallying up the cost benefits and check the small print before you take the plunge.

Why Club Lloyds account might not be for you

As I mentioned earlier, Lloyds Bank carries out a hard check on your credit file when you open an account – at least that’s what happened to me, and I had declined the offer of an overdraft.

A hard check leaves a record on your credit file for six months which other lenders will be able to see when they do checks on you.

Too many of these in a short period of time and it could suggest that you’re in financial trouble, which could in turn impact whether or not they will approve your application for a loan, mortgage, credit card or even mobile phone contract.

While the terms and conditions for the account doesn’t mention a minimum income requirement, this hard check, plus questions on your salary, also suggests that you do need to satisfy some kind of income requirement to open an account.

For me personally, the one key feature the Club Lloyds account is missing is fee-free travel money. 

If you want to buy something with your debit card abroad, you have to pay a set 50p foreign currency purchase fee, plus a 2.99% foreign currency transaction fee on each transaction.

 If you want to take out cash from an ATM abroad, you have to pay £1.50 each time.

All of these fees are waived for Silver and Platinum account holders, but then of course you have to pay for those accounts.

Other banks, such as Virgin Money, Starling and Monzo, will let you withdraw cash for free and they don’t charge for their accounts.

The verdict on the Club Lloyds account

The Club Lloyds account is far from perfect but it offers a lot of perks so is definitely worth considering when there’s a bank switching offer available.

Be aware though that it’s a sister bank to Bank of Scotland and Halifax so if you’ve benefited from switching offers with either of those, or have/had accounts with either of those, then you might not be eligible for the switching offer.

More generally, prices for certain Lloyds products, such as travel money, aren’t always competitive, even for Club Lloyds customers who get a special discount on these.

I do like their banking app though. It alerts you to upcoming payments with details like who it’s to and how much it’s for so you can properly budget.

You can also use the app to see your card and pin number, explore your spending habits and even check your credit score, which is provided by TransUnion. 

If you have a Scottish Widows pension, this will appear in the app too.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely. Just make sure you have an account with other bank too if you need fee-free travel money.

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