Alliance and Leicester - recommend a friend? (Merged)

Smiley_Mum

I tried to open an account with the A&L several years ago, never been knocked back for any type of account before, had credit cards all in good stead, current account etc etc, full time employment, good salary etc. They knocked me back, no explanation. A bit hacked off but opened an account elsewhere. Anyway, I was considering opening an A&L account but after reading some of the problems throughout this thread, I'll think I'll try elsewhere. They don't mind charging us through the nose for slip ups etc etc, but when the boot is on the other foot and they have to pay out, they try and wriggle out of it etc etc, doesn't it make you absolutely boil. :mad: Good on you Gatra for getting your cash out of the [email="b@ggers"]b@ggers[/email].

dennyboy

I thought i'd say my bit as well, just phoned A&L they said my friend didn't credit his account in time (8 week limit), so suprise, suprise, I'm not getting my 50 quid and hes not either, what a joke!! I would not recommend this bunch to anyone. They probably know most people would fail the 8 week timescale, as by the time your direct debits have been moved and then you inform your emloyer you have little chance.
A well off to Lloyds TSB then!

innovate

dennyboy wrote:

I thought i'd say my bit as well, just phoned A&L they said my friend didn't credit his account in time (8 week limit), so suprise, suprise, I'm not getting my 50 quid and hes not either, what a joke!! I would not recommend this bunch to anyone. They probably know most people would fail the 8 week timescale, as by the time your direct debits have been moved and then you inform your emloyer you have little chance.
A well off to Lloyds TSB then!

There is no requirement to pay the two lots of £500 by direct debit, and even if there was, direct debits can be set up in a lot less than 8 weeks.

I am sorry, but in this case it appears you/your friend didn't play by the rules, so there's little ground for a complaint, as bad as other people's experience may have been.

dennyboy

Quote
[HTML]There is no requirement to pay the two lots of £500 by direct debit, and even if there was, direct debits can be set up in a lot less than 8 weeks.

I am sorry, but in this case it appears you/your friend didn't play by the rules, so there's little ground for a complaint, as bad as other people's experience may have been.[/HTML]

Dont agree with this. My friend applied online. It then takes at least 5-6 weeks to ensure all your direct debits and other standing orders have gone through ok. This is to be safe. Once this has happened and your happy you can then let your employer know, who then pays your wages in. your employer needs time to set this up, i'd say 5 working days, plus the time taken to BACS it into the bank, so if you are 2 or 3 weeks away from being paid then in total I would say it takes about 10 weeks to get this through into your new account. I'm not saying everyone will do it in this length of time, but I would say it is average.

If I am wrong why have we got so many pages of people complaining it has happened to them, lets face up to it the average time taken for someone to swap bank accounts, if you have direct debits etc, must be well over 2 months and the A&L know this, which saves them money, after all once your with them most people would stay. (I certainly won't be!)

You obviously are not in this average statistic, or haven't applied for the account!

Dan29

dennyboy wrote:

Dont agree with this. My friend applied online. It then takes at least 5-6 weeks to ensure all your direct debits and other standing orders have gone through ok.

You obviously are not in this average statistic, or haven't applied for the account!

I agree with innovate - it's nothing to do with direct debits or anything else other than making sure you pay £500 in within 8 weeks. I know many people who've successfully claimed the incentive. A&L might not be perfect in some respects, but you can't expect them to pay out if you don't follow the terms and conditions.

dennyboy

Dan29 wrote:

I agree with innovate - it's nothing to do with direct debits or anything else other than making sure you pay £500 in within 8 weeks. I know many people who've successfully claimed the incentive. A&L might not be perfect in some respects, but you can't expect them to pay out if you don't follow the terms and conditions.

If your a stoozer or you play the banks at their game then this may be the case. But if you are setting the account up in the way normal Joe Public would do, i.e. genuinely waiting for your direct debits to clear then paying your wages in, then I am certain most people will struggle to do this within the 8 week period.
Look at the past posts on this board, thats what there complaining about. If you genuinely set up your new account and get your wages paid in then you should be paid the 50 quid. Why are they imposing this 8 week limit on people, its obviously so they don't have to pay the majority of account holders there reward, once they have them they'll stay anyway attitude.

innovate

dennyboy: the rules for the £50 bonus are VERY clear and simple.

There is zero requirement in the T&CS for the additional actions you are describing, regardless of whether the applicant intends to make the account their main current account or not. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with stoozing, either.

If your friend knew he wasn't going to be able to pay in £500 within 8 weeks, it probably wasn't a good idea to apply for the bonus in the first instance.

If either you or both of you still have your A&L accounts, I would recommend you read the account Terms and Conditions again. Pay specific attention to the clause that talks about the charge you have to pay if the £500/month doesn't get paid in - this might avoid another surprise.

dennyboy

innovate wrote:

the rules for the £50 bonus are VERY clear and simple.

I don't think so, otherwise we would not be writing this thread.

innovate wrote:

If your friend knew he wasn't going to be able to pay in £500 within 8 weeks, it probably wasn't a good idea to apply for the bonus in the first instance.

My friend opened his account as he was with one of the big 4 being ripped off with the 0.10% interest. And the bonus would have helped.

innovate wrote:

If either you or both of you still have your A&L accounts, I would recommend you read the account Terms and Conditions again. Pay specific attention to the clause that talks about the charge you have to pay if the £500/month doesn't get paid in - this might avoid another surprise.

The whole reason for the account and the delay is he pays his wages in which is more than 500 quid a month. So there will be no suprises here!

you have still said nothing to convince me that the 8 week clause is justifiable and in the customers interest! From what I have looked at it only helps the bank. A three month limit would be much more reasonable.
from what you say above its ok if you get the account fund it with 500 pounds, but is this really using the account as it should be? A current account in most cases is used for your wages and direct debits.

Searcher

I just have to say that we moved to A&L and everything went without a hitch.
I opened My account waited for my first months wage to be credited and then recommended my wife.
Because of bad timing on my part her wages went into her old account so we just withdrew the money and deposited it into her new A&L account so we met with the T&C.
In total we made £150 in bonuses :j
£25 each for opening the accounts online and £50 each recommend a friend incentive.

dixie_dean_2

I have received 4 lots of £50, all well within 8 weeks and am inclined to agree with the view that if you are gonna play them, you do have to play by their rules. Am still waiting on another 2 incentive payments but just being patient. I think from memory the terms and conditions state they will pay up within 8 weeks of the account being credited with a monthly payment and them receiving the referral slip, not 8 weeks of your friend opening the account. All my referals knew they had to pay the money in and knew it had to be regular and not from an A an L account. It is pretty simple and in my case (maybe I have just been lucky but who knows) A and L have stuck to the deal. as such if anyone is thinking of doing this but has been put off by negative comments on here, I would say it's well worth an hour. Stick to the T and C and hopefully it will all go smoothly - even if you are not as lucky as I have been it's still gonna be an easy £50 quid with an interest free OD. I've opened accounts for my parents with £500 going from their joint account in my mums name to my mum's A/l and the same amount from the same account but in my dads name to his A/L. A day after it goes in my Mums A/L pays £500 to my dad (but the same joint account it came from) and vice versa. I have had no problem with this arrangement and have come to the conclusion that their computers must be pretty crap at spotting moneygrabbing !!!!!! like me.