Alliance and Leicester are trying to ruin my xmas!!

dooglebugg

I have just gone back to look at all my statments after being spurred on by this thread to see if there is anything I can do and also noticed that A&L charged me £34 for not paying a £10 bill and also the later 2 x £25 charges for being over my overdraft were actually partly their fault. I wouldn't have been in unauthorised overdraft if they hadn't have fined me without warning in the first place. I even paid in over £300 a day later.

I am going to write to them and see how I get on.

Glitterari

Hi Lee,

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I think that's why i have been wussy so far about seeing if I get anywhere...I know that I have 'abused' my bank account a lot, so they would probably tell me where to get off. However, I have gone to my bank on several occasions and asked for help because I was struggling, I basically get told there's nothing they can do. I'm not saying this is a reason to abuse my bank account, just pointing out that I have attempted to rectify things but it seems (a lot of the time) that the more help you need, the less likely you are to get it.

And from what I can understand - I went to that website bankchargeshell (sp?) and had a look and from what I could gather, the charges are unfair when the banks are taking money off you e.g. £30 when your action/non-action does not actually cost them £30.

But anyway...I have had my lightbulb moment and I have worked out my pay off debts plan...so the plan is to not incur any more of these charges - fair or not. But even though I may be the last person they would ever 'refund' these bank charges to, being awful with my account - surely it's worth a shot?

i'm going to give it a go anyway...

Card misuse...well basically - I was desperate for petrol...I put my card in one of those petrol pumps you can use your card in. I knew there was no money (or not much on my switch) but somehow it still let me take out almost £30 of petrol. Got charged £30 for it too which is cr*p - but I needed it. I couldn't ask for money off anyone.

That was Sunday - didn't get paid til yesterday (Fri). I live 30 miles from where I work and I cannot get there by public transport - well I could, but I would have to get the tube into central London, train back out then 2 buses... However, even if I could, I'm a student social worker (that gets paid) and it is a requirement of the job to have a car. I had to put away alot of mileage this week, and the week before doing a lot of unexpected trips...


Again...another ramble...

:xmassign: everyone...

C xx

Dee123_2

S_a_r_a

Appalling behaviour by A&L - I hope you get it sorted shortly. I have found (see below for MY history with them) that Customer Services are very reasonable once you get through to them, but you do have to watch them every step of the way.

Much as I dislike tagging onto someone elses thread with my own tale of woe, I think threads like this are useful for anyone else out there when researching an establishments "reputation". Here goes.

I applied online for a stoozing card. At the time they were offering no fees when BT's were arranged on application. Also, when applying online they asked for my bank details. Rightly or wrongly, I understood this to be arranging a direct debit for payment.

After the first statement, I found they had charged me 3 x £35. I rang several times, each time getting told that they WOULD charge me and there was no way out of it. It took a lot of time and patience and getting through to the right person to get these refunded.

With the second statement, I was informed I was overdue with a payment. Therefore, they had applied interest and withdrawn my 0%. I rang and was told there was no direct debit set up as I had thought by providing my bank details on application. They were quite polite and obligeingly cancelled the charges and reinstated the 0% as I made a payment by Connect card over the phone there and then.

Third statement. More interest and charges applied. 0% cancelled. I rang again and was told that the payment i had made over the phone had been rejected. How could this have happened when I was on the phone to the CS agent when she put it through and authorised it? Anyway, the Customer Service agent this time was again apologetic and refunded everything and the 0% was reinstated by another department. Told "Very sorry, wont happen again as you have your Direct Debit set up now".

Cant fault the CS staff (apart from the brick walls at the beginning who refused to refund the BT charges) as they were polite and have sorted everything quickly.

ginchyqueendangle

Hi there,

Just thought id give some input on this. to appeal against bank charges they use scripting to see if you meet a certain criteria ie have a lot of savings/business loan/ personal loan or if something serious has happened. and if the charges incurred because of an unnotified charge/debit.

Does anyone have any input on whether the aforementioned appeal letters actually get you anywhere?

Forgot to say that if you ever try the whole im changing my bank line they will just hit back with you are supplied with all the t's & c's when you open the a/c, it is your responsibility to keep your a/c under control! That what they train you up to say. Its seen as objection handling. So if you phone make sure you have a good stance on it.

Hope this is of some help.

Ginch

digp

dont give a damn what the yorkbloodyshire bank or whatever it is does. the law is the law. frankly, time they started abiding by it.

digp

oh, and if anyone is still having problems with the muppets at Alliance and Leicester, pm me for the ceo's email address!

K9cuddles

Just an update.. and good news for NYE!!! Got a letter saying they charges were correct but they are willing to refund the 2x £25 due to be taking in Jan.... that was defo worth writing the letter!!!

Thanks for the template!!!

Sara

saverio

digp wrote:

dont give a damn what the yorkbloodyshire bank or whatever it is does. the law is the law. frankly, time they started abiding by it.

Hello everyone, this thread is superb, and it makes me want to dig out an article which I have tucked away somewhere which I kept out of the Guardian many months back.

It goes like this,

A student of law took Abbey National to court in order to recover over 2k worth of bank charges applied to him over the course of the year's education.

Apparently there is some contrived law which states that a company can only charge you if the action itself will harm financially or incur costs on the part of the company. (when I find it I'll copy it in word for word!)

Now technically, since the whole business of automation means that the bank actually does not have to spend anything at all in order to look at your account - see there is not enough to cover the DD and hence return the DD unpaid. IF anything at all you could be charged for the letter and franking (less than £1) to notify you that you didn't have enough funds in the account. Its the same as a charge i got from the Abbey when I had a DD returned unpaid. The monies to cover it were paid into an ATM at my home branch but for some reason 'take 3 working days to process'. Yet knowing that cash had been paid in, they still bounced the DD. £35 charge please.

Digp is right, it's about time that the banking system starts to tow the line.
Right... time to hunt down that article...

HOORA

Quote:
Originally Posted by Harassed
Been stung by unfair 'penalty' bank charges? Then get them back! More below;

http://www.bankchargeshell.co.uk/

Go get 'em!



iVE READ THE FOLLOW ON LINKS AND THE GUARDIAN ARTICLES.

Currently Ive been stung for five consecutive late payments of £20 each, as I thought Id paid off card in full.

As soon as I realised I had not paid of the card and it was still active, I paid off all money and interest notwithstanding the £100, which I consider to be penalty charges.

The company, had put a block on all mail being sent to my address in July 05, as they allege they had mail returned marked 'not at this address'. None of my other mail, financial or otherwise has been returned and I continue to receive it.

Despite having my email, and phone number from the initial application, no attempt had been made to contact me. Further, the Internet account had been locked when I WENT TO OPEN IT, yet interest and penalty charges were accruing.

Should I refuse to pay the penalty charges as the above link suggests, and which in English Law are unenforceable?

Should I pay up in full, close the account, and take the company to the small claims court to recover the charges, interest(on the charges), and my costs?

Or should I roll over and meekly accept that One Of The Big Banks and a subsidiary can screw me? Obviously I dont want my credit rating to be permanently damaged, and I was hoping to get a mortgage in a few months.

THE COMPANY OFFERED TO WAIVE £40 OF CHARGES, but advised me if I refused to pay the other charges, these too would incur late payments charges and eventually be 'recovered' via collections agencies.

THE COMPANY IS ACCUCARD, SUBSIDIARY OF LLOYDS I BELIEVE.

Thank you so much for any genuine, and constructive advice.

Thefunkygibbons

Good going Sara

Just goes to show, if you don't ask, you definitely will not get