It is the age we live in that fraud is an area we need to be cautious over, especially with our bank details. Chip and pin has become a standard procedure when paying for goods in shops while orders over the internet need to be made over secure connections.

You would think and hope that the banks who are there look after all your money are doing their up most to keep your personal and bank details as safe and secure as possible, I always thought so. However I was very surprised and slightly concerned about the manner in which my bank, Lloyds TSB dealt with me today.

My debt card is due to expire at the end of the month. I called the bank Friday to find out if my new card was in the post. As normal I got transferred to somewhere in India where I spoke to someone was obviously reading from a set sheet of responses and being paid a terrible wage just because the multi billion pound bank are too tight to pay to run a British call centre. I was told that my debit card was in the post and if it had not arrived by Monday I should call back.

Monday came but the debt card didn’t. I called the bank, again ended up speaking to someone in an Indian call centre. They were able to find out that my new debit card was dispatched but had been posted to my old address! Now I told the bank, in writing over 6 weeks ago of my new address and was personally called by the bank to confirm the change, I have also received two bank statements since then. Due to receiving the call and bank statements I naturally assumed the bank had updated their systems so why was my card posted to an old address?

Luckily I still have family living at my old address but what if I didn’t, what if some fraudster had got hold of my card details and ordered shit loads off the internet? Even if the new residents were not dodgy, they may have been lazy and just chucked the envelope in the bin (it wasn’t marked “Private”) for someone to get hold of outside the house? More to the point, what if I couldn’t have got hold of my card, I’ll need it by Saturday if I want to buy anything.

Banks always stress to their customers to be so careful with their card and pin number, but Lloyds TSB have made such a simple, yet potentially costly error. I just hope this is a one off, but with an estimated £1.7billion of reported fraud in the UK (in this recent news report) it makes you wonder how much is down to simple carelessness of the bank?

Lloyds TSB – you need to be more careful and scrap the foreign call centres. When people need to discuss their money they want to speak to somebody fluent in the language. You must put the customers first, not greed.