Alliance & Leicester Savings

bargainhunter2009

Beware with Alliance & leicester- i am now in process of trying to close down my account, after weeks of problems. I openned to access a good rate for my savings, and was given incorrect account numbers and sort codes to enable a transfer from my current savings provider to All & Leic. They now have the money, but it's not cleared- it takes upto 8 days to clear!! Any other banks I've dealt with it's 3 days. So I can't even take the money out now and close the account- despite that it's showing in my account.
I've had major problems transferring money in as they use a number of 0's as peoples' account numbers, and then ask you to use a reference number to id your account- my current bank won't accept this is secure enough. My dad also has an account with them and has had the same problems regarding sort codes and acc numbers.
I've tried to contact them via email, and had constant problems getting messages through- beware....

pink_numbers

yes they are very slow at clearing transfers!

bargainhunter2009

bargainhunter2009 wrote: »

Beware with Alliance & leicester- i am now in process of trying to close down my account, after weeks of problems. I openned to access a good rate for my savings, and was given incorrect account numbers and sort codes to enable a transfer from my current savings provider to All & Leic. They now have the money, but it's not cleared- it takes upto 8 days to clear!! Any other banks I've dealt with it's 3 days. So I can't even take the money out now and close the account- despite that it's showing in my account.
I've had major problems transferring money in as they use a number of 0's as peoples' account numbers, and then ask you to use a reference number to id your account- my current bank won't accept this is secure enough. My dad also has an account with them and has had the same problems regarding sort codes and acc numbers.
I've tried to contact them via email, and had constant problems getting messages through- its constantly states that it the message sent hasn't worked.
I've found the customer services advisors very helpful and powerless to action anything I've requested.

trf1960

I have to agree with bargainhunter! We have been trying to open an account in order to put our old Icesave ISA with them since beginning of December and we are still getting asked to complete the original account opening forms (which were done online, signed and sent back). I have never known a company to be so incompetent and quite frankly, am at the point of closing this account before the cheque gets debited. To top it all, I have just had yet another heated discussion with one of their so-called customer services people who was so ignorant and rude that I am now going to write to the financial director to complain about the whole thing. :mad:

mars_2

bargainhunter2009 wrote: »

bargainhunter2009 wrote: »

I've tried to contact them via email, and had constant problems getting messages through- its constantly states that it the message sent hasn't worked.
I've found the customer services advisors very helpful and powerless to action anything I've requested.

I had the same problem with the message system saying the message hadn't been sent but I think there is glich in their system as on 2 occasions the message has actually gone through and I had a reply the next day.

Maybe its just their way of saying we may get around to your message at some stage.

amethystcash

I've just opened an eSaver a/c Issue 3 and transferred funds from current savings account to A&L using direct debit via A&L online banking. It now says payment is pending for 3rd Feb, so I'll keep you posted if this goes ahead.

No other problems with setting up the account - just getting all the paperwork was a bit slow, but then we have been used to doing all our banking and saving with one provider where all transactions are instantaneous!

masonic

amethystcash wrote: »

I've just opened an eSaver a/c Issue 3 and transferred funds from current savings account to A&L using direct debit via A&L online banking. It now says payment is pending for 3rd Feb, so I'll keep you posted if this goes ahead.

A&L normally advise people to allow an additional 4 working days for the first payment under a new direct debit instruction. Don't be too surprised if the transfer happens a few days later than planned.

surfsister

as there is a £100 incentive at the moment to bank with A & L they may be snowed under or not!!

withnell

bargainhunter2009 wrote: »

I've had major problems transferring money in as they use a number of 0's as peoples' account numbers, and then ask you to use a reference number to id your account- my current bank won't accept this is secure enough. My dad also has an account with them and has had the same problems regarding sort codes and acc numbers.

What bank are you with that has an issue? It has nothing to do with security.

A&L account numbers are all over 8 digits long, and it does state clearly in the user guides the account number to make payments too. Several ex-building societies use a small number of clearing accounts for payments into savings (off the top of my head, also Britannia and Abbey)

amethystcash

amethystcash wrote: »

I've just opened an eSaver a/c Issue 3 and transferred funds from current savings account to A&L using direct debit via A&L online banking. It now says payment is pending for 3rd Feb, so I'll keep you posted if this goes ahead.

No other problems with setting up the account - just getting all the paperwork was a bit slow, but then we have been used to doing all our banking and saving with one provider where all transactions are instantaneous!

Just checked A&L account and transfer has gone through on date originally advised.

Sorry that other people are having probs.