Lloyds TSB extends mobile banking

Lloyds TSB announced it is extending the mobile services it offers its customer due to popular demand.

The High Street bank is adding new functionality to its mobile banking application that will allow customers to make transfers between certain accounts, check recent transactions and receive a series of text alerts, as well as top up pay-as-you-go phones on the move.

It already offers SMS-based balance limit and transaction alerts via mobile phone, and has some four million customers signed up to its internet banking services. But a sample poll revealed 60 per cent also wanted to be able to have more control over their accounts via mobile.

Catherine McGrath, director of current accounts at Lloyds TSB, said: "Just as Internet banking has taken the country by storm over the past decade, mobile banking is now set to change the way we mange our money."

The bank stressed the importance of the security built into the service, which it said complied with international security standards. Customers use nicknames to register accounts and enter a six-digit pass code before checking or transferring funds.

The mobile application is provided in association with MONILINK, the UK mobile money network and joint venture between mobile payments specialist, Monitise and UK ATM network operator, VocaLink.

As well as enabling customers to move money between Lloyds accounts, the new mobile services also include High Balance' and Low Balance' alerts to advise them when their current account balances reach, exceed, or fall below certain levels. And an Overseas Transaction Alert' can be sent if their debit card is used to withdraw cash or make a purchase abroad.

The new services will be available in October and are being offered free to Lloyds TSB Premier and Private Banking Premier account customers, as well as to students as part of a limited promotional offer.

All other Lloyds TSB customers will be charged 2.50 a month, except for those with a current account and active debit card using the weekly balance advice text and overseas transaction alert services.

Miya Knights

A 25-year veteran enterprise technology expert, Miya Knights applies her deep understanding of technology gained through her journalism career to both her role as a consultant and as director at Retail Technology Magazine, which she helped shape over the past 17 years. Miya was educated at Oxford University, earning a master’s degree in English.

Her role as a journalist has seen her write for many of the leading technology publishers in the UK such as ITPro, TechWeekEurope, CIO UK, Computer Weekly, and also a number of national newspapers including The Times, Independent, and Financial Times.