I discovered today thst Lloyds now has a Charities Account that has no monthly charge. The first 100 electronic payments OUT each month are also free (and we have never exceeded 40 transactions a month). We would be charged for cash paid IN—but then we never receive cash.
So this Charity Account is very attractive to us. No charges and the use of Lloyds’s excellent online banking and mobile banking app systems.
I recently discovered that our tiny Lloyds Treasurer’s Account, that was set up to receive our weekly charitable collections from our on-site chapel, had been converted into a Community Account withiut me being aware of the change. A Community Account, unlike the Charity or Treasurer’s Accounts, DOES of course charge a monthly fee. Unfortunately, the monthly charge would go a long way to wiping out the collection income!
Luckily, I got to talking with a Customer Support person (when clarifying the charges raised in respect of Charity Accounts) and was told, by the way, that both registered charities (eg our almshouse charity) and exempt organisations such as churches/chapels that belong to the major Christian denominations (CofE, RC etc) can all open a Lloyds Charity account.
My chapel’s Treasurer’s Account (that had sneakily been turned into a Community Account) was converted into a Charity Account within 5 minutes, over the phone. And I am now 90% of the way through opening a brand new Charity Account for the main almshouse charity, to replace its current CAF Bank account. Hopefully, there will be no glitches. And no charges. And no more of the petty annoyances suffered by CAF Bank users since they.’improved’ their user interface.
The only fly in the ointment, I think, will be the fact that CAF Bank is not part of the Current Account Switch Service, so the change-over will have to be a carefully planned and executed ‘mandraulic’ operation. By me.
Ho hum.
Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk