Alliance & Leicester Payment review Fees

M1AYM

If you want someone to dive into your wallet and take £50 from time to time without your permission then read on… Don’t be suckered by A&Ls interest rates without understanding the small print.
I’ve been with them for 20 years. When it was the post office Girobank it was fantastic. I don’t mind paying for an overdraft but I do mind paying their so called ‘Payment Review Fees’. This amounts to £25 per transaction over our agreed overdraft. I have had to pay these due to their inability to move MY MONEY between MY ACCOUNTS in time.
Their excuse boils down to ‘moneys are paid from your account before credits are made to your account at the end of each working day”
So watch out if your wages are a day late or a check is being cleared !. Their should be a law against this when your internet balance and paper statement both show cheques as cleared on the day they were received.
Their whole so called ‘Payment review fee’ fiasco started a couple of years ago when A&L changed their conditions with their classic statement “We’ve simplified our charging structure…” – For their own ends more like!. Prior to this simply charged £10/year for an agreed overdraft and allowed you to overshoot for £5.
Now the regulator have all the banks stiffed for fair charges those nice people at A&L charged you 50p per day and capped your overdraft at £5. What they don’t publicise is that they hit you with their back door fees.
Worst of it is their appalling telephone system. A national rate number with a robot voice telling you how long you will be screwed for on your phone bill before they can be arsed to answer. Time it and see – if they say 7.5 minutes its bang on – Ask yourself how they know this ?.
In the unlikely event you manage to get through to a human being after pressing 14 million buttons for your own security of course ! (which they change from 13 digits to 4 or 5 depending on weather the tide is going in or out); you then find none of the operators have any authority to re-credit their trumped up charges without first diverting you to another department. This is where the fun starts, these parasites then spend your payment review fee sending you more irrelevant letters regards high court judgments as if you had been one of the millions re-claiming their fees.
Well up yours A&L, your not spending any more of MY money funding a team of Jossworths that the CUSTOMER cannot contact.
[At school I remember it was unacceptable not to put your name address and contact detail on your letters]. Anyway – I digress. After this fiasco, I am re-claiming my charges and as far as I’m concerned – YOU STARTED IT A&L.
If anyone does manage to get any payment review fees back, as matter of good will of course !, I urge each and every one of you reading this to charge them for your administration and change banks out of your own good will !!.
One last thing, If anyone reading this is unfortunate enough to be the executor of a deceased’s estate, don’t go in to the branch. As the old saying goes ‘If your looking for sympathy is between !!!!!! & syphilis” so do yourself a favor and write to their bereavement dept.
CAN ANYONE RECOMMEND A BETTER BANK ?

rb10

Every bank will charge you if you break the terms and conditions (e.g. go over your overdraft limit). This is not something specific to A&L.

Banks will typically make payments (e.g. direct debits, standing orders etc) in the early hours of the morning, when branches are not open and so there is more computer processing power available. So if your standing order leaves at, say 3am, taking you overdrawn, and then at 11am you come and transfer money into the account, then clearly you were overdrawn for a period of time, which results in the charge.

It's not so much

M1AYM wrote: »

due to their inability to move MY MONEY between MY ACCOUNTS in time

but due to your inability to credit your account in time, i.e. before payments are due to leave the account.


And for the 0870 number, try www.saynoto0870.com .

choccycat

ive just got my a & l statement and seen that i was charged 2 payment review fees over 2 months but i have no clue what for as i only had one direct debit coming out on the 1st of the month for £14.50 and my statement shows the account to never have gone below £21.
But because my account s the Basic cash account there isnt even a number i can call about it i have to write to the address.

Very convenient.

mcmlxiii

Santander/Alliance & Leicester are the most incompetent and unresponsive organization I have ever encountered. They are incapable of handling simple processes like change of address, share sales, or transfers between accounts without making a series of basic errors. Communication between our local branch and the various parts of Alliance & Leicester head offices is hit and miss, to say the least.
Their Complaints Procedure and "Customer Service" are a sick joke. I am still waiting after more than six weeks to find out how they managed to "misplace" £40,000 by transferring it from an ISA to an account they had closed (against my express wishes). I am also still waiting for interest due from three months ago. It took three months, four telephone calls, three letters and the threat of legal action before I received a cheque for the proceeds of the sale of some shares.
As GIROBANK it was very good, but each successive takeover has resulted in worsening the level of service. My father, my sister, and I have all terminated our accounts with them, and I would advise anyone thinking of opening an account with A & L (or any other part of Santander) to look elsewhere - anywhere!

em1986

I am absolutely fuming about A&L.... I have just been charged 125£ in 2 weeks for payment review fees as apparently ' our cheques wernt cleared'..... although not once on my online statement does it show this or show im near to my agreed overdraft limit or ever over it!

How am I supposed to manage my money if I cant see how much money I have!!!

greyster

yes I got 2 x £25 fees while on holiday... they said it would be all refunded as a goodwill gesture but a second call revealed that only the first £25 would be.

I've already moved to First Direct. Got £150 with A&L sign up 9 months ago, going to get another £100 with First Direct and most likely stay there as long as I don't get shafted with fees. I'm always in credit but the holiday was an accident and they seemed to be accomodating on the first call.