Alliance & Leicester twisting statements?

rb10

I would be interested to know where in the T&Cs does it say that money has to be in the account for 24 hours before you are allowed to use it, and why?!?! They should keep it out of the available balance until it's actually available to spend!

mum26

I know! My dp is hopping mad, and also brought up the interesting point that he gets his wages paid into the bank and often direct debits go out the same day - no charges so far...

YorkshireBoy

mum26 wrote: »

I know! My dp is hopping mad, and also brought up the interesting point that he gets his wages paid into the bank and often direct debits go out the same day - no charges so far...

Does he have an overdraft facility on his account? That would explain it.

mum26

He has the same overdraft facility I do, currently used to the max like mine

YorkshireBoy

mum26 wrote: »

He has the same overdraft facility I do, currently used to the max like mine

And if they processed the debit before the credit would that tip him over the edge into unauthorised overdraft territory?

mum26

sometimes yes it would but they don't seem to have applied any charges to his account if it has done so? I'm going to go through all my statements tonight to see if they have only recently started rearranging the order of things at the end of the day or if i've been mistaken and not followed the same routine for the past few years.

Milarky

@mum26

I would have said (like YB) that where there is an unused overdraft (eg of £100) and a scheduled payment for less than this is due out that morning this will be paid and no charges will apply. Then, the deposit made the same day has the effect of balancing off the debit - so that deposit could be made after the outgoing payment if necessary.

Whilst some banks will 'net' off incoming overnight payments and outgoing scheduled ones, by no means will all do so. In general therefore, it is necessary to operate any current account on the basis of money recieved the (working) day before.

Where the weekends are concerned, A&L are a particular pain. Assume you have to make a payment (by SO or DD) on Monday and remember this on Saturday morning. Now A&L can even receive faster payments these days - so you could have credited the account (in cash) on Saturday and then get charged for a payment on Monday simply because Saturday doesn't 'count' as a 'working day'!

Mrs_Ryan

They are well known for doing this. They do this to me every month, but I have never been charged for it. However, in June, which was the same as every other month, they randomly decided to put 2 late payment markers on my credit file.
When I asked why they had placed false information on there, and why they had done it totally at random, they got all sniffy and (I kid you not, these are their exact words) they said 'Because we can.' So keep an eye on your credit file. Needless to say, FOS were not amused. They gave them a stern ticking off - the adjudicator handling my case was utterly bemused at this - she said she had come from a banking background and said they should not be allowed to 'penalise the customer because of the way the banks' systems work' which is what they were clearly doing, and they were most certainly not allowed to place false information on a customers file because they felt like it. One of the orders that they made was that all false information should be removed.
My god that is ridiculous - why should we have to leave our money in for 24 hours before we can spend it??? I get paid tomorrow, so essentially that means I cant spend anything till Friday?! That's probably why I keep getitng knocked back for an overdraft!!! How sneaky is that!!!!! God, the sooner i get rid of this account the better.

rb10

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

My god that is ridiculous - why should we have to leave our money in for 24 hours before we can spend it??? I get paid tomorrow, so essentially that means I cant spend anything till Friday?! That's probably why I keep getitng knocked back for an overdraft!!! How sneaky is that!!!!! God, the sooner i get rid of this account the better.

Is it 24 hours or 24 working hours? If the latter, you should be glad you're not paid on Friday ... it could be Monday before you're allowed your own money!

Mikeyorks

The fact that the order of transactions can vary in-day is, surely, common to most Banks? As the different transactions will have an internal sort code attached to them in order they follow a logical sequence on the day. But most of the Banks appear to operate that both via Batch (previous) and then interactively .. so a new transaction slots into the appropriate order. I've never noticed one vary the order in the following Batch ..... only add detail to some EFT credits.

Halifax, for example, place all credits first (Direct followed by Transfers) and then debits (DDs / SOs / transfers out) follow. Even the debits all have their own sort code so they show in a specific order in the statement.

But ignoring a cleared credit so the effect is that a cash withdrawal ... whilst retaining a net positive balance .... appears to create a transient, and chargeable, overdraft situation ...... is of the dark ages. Surely a misunderstanding? If they order debits prior to credits then - for transactions created on the day (cash withdrawal / FP transfer) - they must surely operate a net accounting?