Alliance and Leicester current account

scroogess

Please be aware if you decide to open an A&L current account and run it online. I made a mistake in my sort code sending money to my A&L account and it didn't reach the account. I never go overdrawn and had about £600 in the account, after my holiday. I had sent 2 cheques before the trip. A&L threatened to take away my privileges (I dont use them anyway as the travel insurance doesnt cover my age group) so I closed my account on Feb 17. That day, although I spoke to the bank to close the account, 2 cheques for total £120 were presented and paid. The first I realised was when they sent me a letter (I bank on line by the way) and the charges were up to £190. I tried to pay by BACS, or credit card or anyway they wanted on the phone. 43 mins phone calls later I gave up (the system was down the first time and the second I could not get through to the credit side at all, just to security and then music) As the account is closed I cant send it by BACS and to talk on the phone you have to give an account number and pin - no account number now as the account is closed. This was on Friday by the time I get through on Monday I suppose the amount will be over £200,
So please be aware of this trickery of A&L. I am a responsible customer and certainly would not go overdrawn deliberately and certainly not in these circumstances. I guess they want the £100 back one way or another. Well they have nearly had it in phone calls let alone the charges they are trying to charge. Be aware of their phone call trickery. Even when I was closing the account they kept me hanging on for over 20 minutes. I will never touch A&L again. I recommend a decent bank - Smile, the Coop internet. No fancy offers but straightforward banking on line. Just like respectable banks used to be but more modern.

rb10

It's a very good idea to always check you've entered the account details correctly when you make a payment, as otherwise, as you've found out, you may well land yourself in trouble.

But it's unfair to blame the bank for what is purely your mistake. It's a bit like saying 'I misread my map, so didn't make it to the bank in time, but meant to pay in that money to cover outgoing payments'.

Robert_Sterling_3

I am sorry to hear of your difficulty in getting A&L to correct a mistake you had made.