CHARLIE
Banking at its best is effortless and empowering. Boosting people's confidence and control of their own financial futures. And with new digital tools and our colleagues' deep experience, we can do more on this front in the next five years than was possible in the last 50. I'm meeting our customers, Phoebe and Fran, to hear what matters most to them.

Phoebe, Fran, it's brilliant to be here in Swindon at your home. Thank you for having me. It sounds like you've got a huge amount going on in your lives at the moment.

PHOEBE
Yes, absolutely.

FRAN
So basically, we moved into this house about two and a half years ago and got engaged. So it's been busy. Got some kittens along the way.

PHOEBE
Just been looking forward to the future, really. Settling in here for the last two and a half years has been really nice, having our own space. So yeah, lots of things to come.

CHARLIE
That's amazing. How do you think about financial services and banking enabling all of that?

FRAN
We were looking for an account to set up for our joint bills. Then, when we started looking into who had the best schemes and rewards, it was 100% Lloyds.

PHOEBE
We got cinema tickets, for example, which we absolutely love. Because we like going to the cinema, and we're always really keen on making our everyday spending and our choices kind of translate to real-life experiences.

CHARLIE
We really want to be the most rewarding financial services company we can be for you.

FRAN
We put in £2,000 a month so that we get the £5 fee waiver. But that covers breakdown, our phone cover, loads of perks. That, for us, makes so much sense.

PHOEBE
The fact that we have mobile insurance, we have travel insurance, and we have breakdown cover included in our account – those are three frustrating, annoying things to have to think about, especially when we drive all the time to work… we love going on holiday. We haven't got to worry about that. It feels like we've just freed up loads of time. You can feel really empowered knowing that, with all of the money that we're spending, we're being smart about where we're putting it, basically.

CHARLIE
Managing finances day to day, how does Lloyds help you be more in control of your finances?

FRAN
For us, we need to feel confident in what we're doing. Like we said, we've had a lot of big life events. We need to know that every penny is being spent wisely.

PHOEBE
When you're planning so many things, it's just really important to us to make sure that we're making the most of that money.

FRAN
We have our app set up so that we can see our other bank accounts, so that gives us complete oversight, which is really helpful. I mean, I literally go on it, I'd say, every day. It's one of my app rotations.

PHOEBE
There is a cashback feature. If you spend £30 at Sainsbury's, you get 8% cashback, and we shop at Sainsbury's. So that's a really cool feature that we love.

FRAN
The data graph is really helpful for us, so we can see exactly what we've saved.

FRAN
It's all visual, so it's not complicated. And banking can be.

CHARLIE
That means even more coming from a graphic designer, I'd say.

FRAN
I have a pet peeve with some other apps. So, you know, it's good.

FRAN
We recently went away to America. We went with a group of six of us, and we had an American card that had a 3% fee on every transaction. That added up to a lot. Our Club Lloyds account had no fees, so we were just paying for everything.

CHARLIE
I really hope you charged your friends for helping with that.

PHOEBE
That’s the 3%!

FRAN
Yeah, yeah, we actually made money!

When we got back, we had a notification that told us how much more we'd spent than the previous week, which was really helpful. And I think that Lloyds get the balance right for the amount of notifications you get through.

PHOEBE
It's a really good feature and we really value it.

FRAN
Yeah, definitely.

PHOEBE
But actually, we went away because we got married.

CHARLIE
Oh, wow.

PHOEBE
In Vegas. In secret, as well. We're doing a fake engagement party to reveal it to everyone. And the money that we spent on that card all went towards our wedding.

CHARLIE
Hence the ‘x’% more than the week before. These are the photos?

PHOEBE
Yeah.

FRAN
So we got them all done on film.

CHARLIE
You both look amazing.

FRAN
It was in a little chapel.

PHOEBE
It was near Fremont Street, if you've ever been.

CHARLIE
I have spent time in Vegas, but what goes on tour stays on tour.

PHOEBE
We do have a video as well that we got, which was all shot on film.

CHARLIE
I love the Super 8 look.

PHOEBE
It’s cool, isn’t it?

CHARLIE
Did you do your own vows?

PHOEBE
Yeah. We wrote them on the way to Vegas, actually, on the plane.

FRAN
Mine were seven and yours were about five. It was so short.

CHARLIE
And yours were seven words?

PHOEBE
Seven minutes.

CHARLIE
Oh, I was going to say! That's succinct.

CHARLIE
Are you thinking about other things even beyond that? So, saving for the future, pensions, investments?

PHOEBE
Yeah, we had a look into Ready-Made Investments. And I think it's something we kind of understand, but it's something that we could probably do with a bit more support with. If we can think about investing money now, we're only going to thank ourselves for it in the future.

CHARLIE
It's never too early to start. That's why our invest AI tool we're really excited by, because a lot of people don't have confidence or know what their choices are. So we just see a huge opportunity to help people with their future financial needs, because really discovering and working out how much you should be investing, where you should be putting your money, and what the trade-offs are, is complex.

FRAN
Yeah, definitely.

PHOEBE
You can get really lost in what is the best thing to do because there are so many options.

CHARLIE
Are there moments when you need to go beyond the app and talk to people?

PHOEBE
When we got our credit card, I had to actually extend our max limit. And I felt more comfortable having that human interaction because it's quite a big decision. I ended up calling Lloyds and this lovely lady said to me, “You can do this all on the app.” And she literally took me through it. It's about having the ability to contact a human when you need to. I just need that reassurance that what I was doing was right, and then also a really easy app to use.

CHARLIE
Yes, it's about confidence and trust. It's about, in the moments that matter, having someone to talk to. What are the things we should be doing better going forward?

PHOEBE
When I first went on the rewards section, Lloyds had already activated certain deals for me that I didn't even know about. So if Lloyds could track my spending and say, 'Phoebe, we've seen that you've been shopping at Sainsbury's. We've activated this for you,' and give me a notification, that's something that I don't then have to go and search for. If you could add a personalised element to it, it's something that we don't have to think about.

CHARLIE
So you bought the house. You've done the wedding. Two of the most stressful things you can do in life. What's the next ambition? What's the next dream in your lives?

FRAN
Yeah, I think for us, the next thing is definitely going to be a family. We're really excited about that chapter. IVF is on the cards, so a lot of saving for that. Having a bank that supports us through that journey is going to be really important.

CHARLIE
What's the best way a bank can show up for you to support you in that future?

PHOEBE
IVF is something that you never know how much it's going to cost you because you just don't know what the journey is. So, for us, it's a really big uncertainty. We really need to lean on our bank to be able to support us along that journey.

CHARLIE
And then, when you get a family, it'll be an amazing feeling, but then life gets even more complex.

FRAN
Yes, exactly. Lots of other things to pay for.

PHOEBE
Money touches everything in everyone's lives. For us, the main thing is just for our bank to be with us every step of the way.