Lloyds has become the first UK bank to introduce vehicle management within its banking app. Manage Your Car helps customers to keep on top of MOT, servicing, tax and insurance, while also providing access to car finance tools.
Lloyds cites new research showing that nearly one in five drivers spend more than a full working week each year on vehicle administration, while 21% say missed deadlines for MOT, tax or insurance can lead to avoidable costs and disruption. The new feature uses DVLA data to minimise manual input and reduce friction.
BehindLogin UX observations
The experience is intentionally simple. Adding a vehicle requires minimal effort, key information is populated automatically, and reminders make ongoing vehicle administration largely passive for the customer.
The design also feels well integrated with the rest of the Lloyds app, offering a springboard to related services across financing, savings and insurance.
One difficulty is found with discoverability
The feature is relatively hidden at the bottom of the home screen, meaning many existing customers may never encounter it organically. This is a common challenge for companies with a broad selection of offerings – should you distract and add complexity by signposting within the core journey? Or risk poor discovery by burying the feature deep within the app?
As providers continue expanding beyond traditional banking services, helping customers discover new capabilities becomes just as important as designing them well. A task for Lloyds’ virtual assistant, perhaps.
Why motor and why now?
It’s over 15 years since the first motor insurance apps appeared with Nationwide and Aviva, and 10 years since Cuvva became the first app to sell temporary car insurance. So why is Lloyds choosing to introduce this capability? And why now?
Lloyds says Manage Your Car is the first car-administration service built directly into a UK banking app. Four factors might suggest why it is launching now:
- Joining up the motoring proposition
Lloyds already spans car finance, insurance, loans and leasing. Manage Your Car creates a single entry point across that ecosystem. - Productising its Caura investment
Lloyds invested £4 million in Caura in 2023. Caura is a car-management app that brings tasks such as tax, MOTs, insurance and payments into one place. This launch appears to bring that capability into Lloyds’ core banking experience. - Expanding the role of the banking app
Vehicle data gives Lloyds new context about what customers own and when key costs are approaching, supporting more personalised engagement. - Using utility to drive relevance
MOT, tax and insurance reminders create stronger triggers for insurance, refinancing, servicing and future vehicle purchases than a static sales tile.
Takeaway
Manage Your Car is the latest example of a bank tackling everyday customer problems beyond core banking.
Its long-term value won’t come from being a one-off feature, but from becoming a useful companion that customers return to throughout the lifecycle of owning a car.
The remaining challenge is ensuring more customers discover it in the first place.
