Alliance & Leicester twisting statements?

mum26

Hi, I have an Alliance and Leicester online current account and recently have noticed that on days where my child allowance or tax credits are deposited into my account (I use this money as Housekeeping and diesal money, money for school expenses etc, I have 6 children so these are frequent and many,lol!) that when I check my statement later or the next day the order of events has changed.

I always check online before I leave and again at the cashpoint the balance of my account before I withdraw the money, but my statements are showing me withdrawing the money before it has been credited to my account (impossible) making it look as if I have gone substationally over my overdraft. A&L then charge me £5 for each day over this limit, even though in reality I haven't breached the overdraft at all?

Any advise? Normally I don't use my overdraft much but we are rather stretched at the moment with christmas, energy bills etc and could really do without the money being taken from my budget.

Thankyou

mum26

Any advice from anyone before I phone them? Not looking forward to the phonecall as i'm partially deaf, they have no email option that I can find though.

noelphobic

Have you actually been charged or do you just think you are going to be? Although your statement may show the debit before the credit then as long as there is a credit balance at close of day then you shouldn't be charged.

YorkshireBoy

The A&L T&C's say you need cleared funds in the account the day before a scheduled outgoing payment.

Unlike many other providers, A&L say in their T&C's that they reserve the right to change the order of transactions...

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/customer-service/pdfs/Current-Account-terms-and-conditions.pdf (see condition 18.1).

There is a secure message facility within your online area. Go to 'help' for how to use it.

mum26

noelphobic wrote: »

Have you actually been charged or do you just think you are going to be? Although your statement may show the debit before the credit then as long as there is a credit balance at close of day then you shouldn't be charged.

There is a note on my account letting me know they'll be taking the charges out

mum26

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

The A&L T&C's say you need cleared funds in the account the day before a scheduled outgoing payment.

Unlike many other providers, A&L say in their T&C's that they reserve the right to change the order of transactions...

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/customer-service/pdfs/Current-Account-terms-and-conditions.pdf (see condition 18.1).

There is a secure message facility within your online area. Go to 'help' for how to use it.

Would you count cash withdrawal as a scheduled outgoing payment or does that apply to direct debits etc more iyo?

Thankyou very much for the message facility info that is so helpful, i'm going to hve a look now!

tanith

They have a textphone service for the hard of hearing ...0844 800 5050 that might help

mum26

tanith wrote: »

They have a textphone service for the hard of hearing ...0844 800 5050 that might help

Thanks but I don't have a textphone this end. Have just typed up a message, hit send and shock horror they are unable to complete the process, I shall try again.

mum26

oh and again, wonderful service!

rb10

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

The A&L T&C's say you need cleared funds in the account the day before a scheduled outgoing payment.

I agree with mum26's post #6 above. A cash withdrawal cannot count as a scheduled outgoing payment. This term is surely to cover direct debits, standing orders and scheduled bill payments, which will all go out in the early hours.

But it seems very mean to show it in you account before you leave home, then try to charge you for it. They would seem to be effectively saying that electronic incoming payments require 24 hours to 'clear', despite the fact that they are showing as available in your account.

mum26

Well, I gave up on the messaging system after the fourth attempt and phoned. The lady on the phone said pretty much what you've said above rb10, but not in relation to the cash withdrawals - she ignored that fact totally - also on some of the days i'd tranferred cash from my account to my dp's account (also with a&l) to cover things he had paid for on my behalf. I did this online on the day the money had gone in. It is shown as a "bill payment" although I did state to her that there is no other option, I cannot label it as a cash transfer or gift and i've done it manually on the day the money has been credited after being told there is x amount available! She did say that she would do a charges form on my behalf and state I was unaware that the money had to be in for 24 hours but couldn't say whether they would cancel / refund the charges and didn't address the days that i've been charged for just for cash withdrawals at all. One of the most annoying things is i've reverted to a cash economy thinking i've been doing the right thing so I don't accidentally mispend on my debit card and leave too little to cover a direct debit or anything.