Alliance & Leicester help

socmwils23

Ok kind of running into a brick wall here. What i need is to speak to a customer services advisor at Alliance and Leicester.

The reason for this is that tomorrow i am buying a car and need to make a £7000 debit card payment to the dealer. The money is in the account so no problem there but the dealer said i need to inform my bank in case they block it for fraud.

I went to the nearest branch to our house and was told we had to phone customer services. Then the problems started.

I have numerous phone numbers but none get through to an advisor. I have no idea what my phone pin is as i have never used it, i do all my banking online. They also keep asking for my 8 digit customer id when mine is 9 digits. I found the number to dial for 9 digit account numbers but cant get past the automated enter your pin details.

So my questions are:

1) is there a number where i can speak to an actual human being?
2) how likely is the payment to be blocked?
3) can anyone think of any other way?

YorkshireBoy

socmwils23 wrote: »

1) is there a number where i can speak to an actual human being?
2) how likely is the payment to be blocked?
3) can anyone think of any other way?

1. Look on their website under contact us/complaints, and you'll see the Group Customer Relations number. Starts with 0116 from memory.

2. I've had >£5,000 debit card payments declined previously, although not with A&L. I've also had >£10K debit card payments go through without a hitch. Make sure you have your mobile number registered with them, and are carrying it, in case they ring you for authorisation.

3. Cheque, and wait 4-6 working days for the car? Pay £20-30 for a CHAPS transfer?

ShelfStacker_3

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

3. Cheque, and wait 4-6 working days for the car? Pay £20-30 for a CHAPS transfer?

Banker's draft sounds like a better idea. Or write a normal cheque and pay for the garage to do a special presentation on it (so payment of the cheque is guaranteed.)

socmwils23

It turns out that your phone details are the same as your internet login now. Dont know when they changed that.

The lady just put a note on my account so it shouldnt get stopped.

Thanks for your help.

Airwolf1

What happened for me was that when I paid for my car this way, a message appeared on the card scanner to ring the banks up. After the dealer spoke with VISA (or whoever) I spoke with the Alliance & Leicester (my bank) and the payment went from my debit card no probs.