Alliance and leicester and regrets.

capstain411

I have a Alliance and Leicester premier direct current account( I opened it in spite of experiencing poor service in the past for the sake of 100 quid through quidco and frankly better interest rates).

On Thursday I noticed a email in my internet banking about A&L compatible with faster payments up to 10k.

I had opened up a Tesco savers account. I wanted to transfer 5k by 30th of Nov. I transferred 3.5k from A&L to HSBC current ac. on Thursday 27th Nov, to be ultimately transferred to Tesco. The reason I wanted to transfer via HSBC was because I know for a fact HSBC undertake faster payment and was more confident of money reaching Tesco in time from HSBC account.

It has been more than 48 hrs and my money has not reached HSBC account from A&L. Consequently I will be missing out on 30th nov deadline with Tesco losing effectively £60 pounds. I could not fund my A&Lwith min. £500 pounds so I will be fined £5 as per the T&C. And lastly I lost interest on £3.5k for 3 days.

I am annoyed with A&L. Customer service is recommending me to lodge a complaint. Has anybody had similar experience and do I have a valid case to lodge complaint and demand compensation.

Please reply.

noh

and do I have a valid case to lodge complaint and demand compensation.

Don't believe you have a valid case.
If its the same message I received it says in regard to the transfer limits:-


"These limits may change at any time without us telling you first. Other banks' limits may be different. Additional security checks may be carried out to protect you from fraud. If this happens your money may not be available on the same day."

I don't understand how you were intending to fund the Tesco saver account had you not noticed the mail on Thursday 27th. As by then it was too late to make a BACS transfer?

Nigel

masonic

capstain411 wrote: »

The reason I wanted to transfer via HSBC was because I know for a fact HSBC undertake faster payment and was more confident of money reaching Tesco in time from HSBC account.

If, as you say above, you had doubts that the transfer from A&L to Tesco would go via faster payments, why were you so sure the transfer from A&L to HSBC would? Faster payments from A&L currently seem to be limited to amounts of less than £200, so your £3.5k would almost certainly have gone by BACS.

shirlgirl2004

I thought the A&L emails said it was happening later in the year. I didn't think faster payments were in place yet. I can't wait 'til there are though it makes life so much easier.

Bisoy

Faster payment is probably working with small amounts yet as I've tried to send £1 to natwest and it arrived instantly in seconds. I have today sent a secure message to A/L inquiring how much maximum can be sent via faster payment. Will report back tomorrow when I get the reply.

Bisoy

I've just got a reply from A/L and said they can send FP up to maximum of £250/day/account at the moment. Any amount above £250 will be sent by BACS which is 3-4 working days.

capstain411

I still think by not obviously mentioning £250 pounds as limit they are misguiding customers. At least I did not know about £250 limit which I think should have been mentioned in emails sent.

masonic

capstain411 wrote: »

I still think by not obviously mentioning £250 pounds as limit they are misguiding customers. At least I did not know about £250 limit which I think should have been mentioned in emails sent.

The limit started much lower than £250 and is gradually increasing.

From the letter/email:

We are now able to receive money by Faster Payments and have started to send money by the scheme. We plan to have the Faster Payments scheme fully implemented later this year. Certain conditions will apply.(2)

(2) ... The Faster Payments scheme limit is £10,000 for immediate transfers and one off transfers set for a future date ... To start with we will have lower limits...

I don't know how you could have interpreted that as a guarantee all payments would be sent using the Faster Payments service.