Alliance & Leicester withdrawel from 'Saver'

oranabana

Hi,

my friend has a AL Saver account. She wants to have access to her money now, as she is: a) not feeling too happy about the current banking situation. b) is likely to move away from UK in the next 6 months and wants to have the money available when she needs it.

They have told her that she will have to ask for the money to be made available by prior arrangement with the branch. When she asked them about it, they initially said 24 hrs, but then corrected this to 4-5 working days. In the end it turned out to be 6 working days.

On top of that she has been told she can only withdraw GBP 10k in one go (this being a cash withdrawal). She has over 20k in the account and obviously does not like to have to do this twice. When she quizzed the branched manager on that, she was told that this is bank policy, but they were unable to provide this in writing or point her to terms & conditions that specify the 10k limit.

Are AL making things difficult or where does she stand? They promised to ring back and provide the requested written statement on the 10k limit but have not done so yet.

?!?

Crabman

Is it the A&L Online Saver account? I've had a look at their website and can't see any £10,000 figure mentioned.

Unless there's any particular need to withdraw £20,000 in cash, there's no need to do so from a safety perspective.

All UK bank accounts are covered for £50,000, there are full details in the following article: Are your savings safe?

Swipe

It is true that most banks only allow up to £10k to be withdrawn from a single account in one day. I fell foul of this rule with HSBC when I needed to transfer £30k to a Northern Rock fixed savings account. They made me set up 3 separate transactions on separate days. I think it is only possible to do larger amounts when there is a direct debit in place, which is why I also questioned this policy having previously moved much large sums between internet accounts

msw1970

Back in April I had the same situation with A&L... You can only transfer £10k per day. I needed to transfer £12k and had to do it in 2 transactions on separate days so it's a normal thing and nothing to do with the current situation.

k8r4u

The £10k transaction limit is normal practice for transfers out or withdrawals in most (all??) UK banks. Introduced as one of a number of anti-moneylaundering measures some years ago.

(edit: shortly after 9/11 as I remember, but may be thinking of something else).

oranabana

thanks for that info. I will pass this on. I think they should have told her where to find this info. She has now arranged for a 10k withdrawal next week and will do so again tomorrow, so that she should have it all on Fri next week.

Would not be too keen to carry this sort of cash about with me personally, but then there you go.

In terms of current situation, I imagine that she would still be able to get stuck, as even though they guarantee to cover amounts up to a certain level, its not guaranteed to be available when u need it. Remember reading that all them IceSavers cannot access any of their monies right now, and are even unable to transfer it, let alone take it out - guaranteed or not!

oranabana

she is going to Vietnam to live there.