alliance & leicester overdraft matching

Hi,

A few weeks ago I applied to switch to Alliance & Leicester's Premier Account, the one that gives a 0% overdraft for a year and says it will match your old banks limit.

I am about £1500 overdrawn with Barclays and paying back around £100 a month, after they increased the APR to 14.9% I thought I would take my business elsewhere.

At first I was curious of this, so I checked their charges leaflet, which said:

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/customer-service/pdfs/Guide-to-Current-Account-Fees.pdf

Overdraft Limit Matching
We will only use Overdraft Limit Matching if you use our Switching Service. This applies to Premier customers only. Before
we decide whether we will match an overdraft limit you have elsewhere, you will need to give us an original bank statement
showing a full month of transactions for the current month. If you have an internet-based account, we will accept a print out of
your statement if the website address is showing at the bottom. If your bank statement does not have your overdraft limit on it,
you will also need to provide a letter from your bank confirming your overdraft limit.
Your previous account must have been in the same name or names as the new Alliance & Leicester current account. If you open
a joint account and have two separate accounts elsewhere, we will need the above for each account holder and we will look to
match the higher of the two overdraft limits. We will assess your circumstances and financial situation before we decide whether
or not we will match your overdraft limit. We will look at each application individually. We will check to make sure the total
unsecured amount you borrow off us does not go over £25,000. We will need to be satisfied that your previous account has
been run in a responsible way.

Now a few weeks later, A&L say they will only match my limit if (message on online banking):

This facility is only available to customers who use our switching service to transfer their regular payments to their Alliance & Leicester account. So that we can consider your request, we need

* A full 30-day original bank statement for the current month from your previous current account provider.
* If the statement does not quote the actual overdraft limit, we also ask you to provide a letter from your bank confirming your overdraft limit. (This must be the current limit)
* Your statement must show that you have been in credit for at least 15 days in the month and that you have not gone over your overdraft limit.
* Your bank statement must show you have paid £500 a month into your account and have made at least three payments from your account.
* Your Authority to Transfer form will allow us to contact your previous bank for a list of direct debits and standing orders.

What good is that?? Ok, I understand the rules, but can you spot the difference between the first statement and the second one! I'm quite annoyed now. I suppose I could of dug deeper to find out the truth, but there doesn't seem to be any mention of this requirement!!

Anyone else had this? I am tempted to abort the whole process, but at least the Barclays overdraft would become a seperate debt I can tackle, instead of money going in and out all the time.