A&L Charging £100 on a 19p Authorised Overdraft - Now Resolved

Breezy85

clare-t wrote: »

Well my boyfriend's spoken to A&L and they've basically said 'tough!'


He went into a branch this morning and had to speak to Customer Services on the phone. The woman he spoke to did not know what she was talking about! She said that he would have had to sign a document to give permission to downgrade the account. He told her he hadn't signed anything, so why did they change the account without permission, and then she said that his internet banking must have been hijacked!!! She asked for his full internet banking password (I didn't think this was allowed?) and he said that if the account's been hijacked he's not going to give out the password when the branch is full of people earwigging!


He rang back again when he got home and spoke to someone else. This person said that a signature was not needed to change the account. It was because the account was a Young Workers Account and he was no longer entitled to it after he turned 21. He's almost 27 now!!!! The bloke on the phone also said that all the information regarding the charges would have been in the leaflets etc accompanying the monthly statements and it's his own fault for not reading them all. He asked why did they not write a letter to him after the account had been downgraded to inform him that he is being charged £5 per day while the account was 19p overdrawn and the bloke on the phone said they did not have to do that because all the relevant info was in the leaflets.


My boyfriend is fuming! At the start of the week before he knew about the charges he transferred some money in to the account just to start building up a rainy day fund and now he just wants to take that out and not pay the £100 charge. Much as I hate for him to pay it, I think I've managed to talk him out of that but he definitely wants to change to a different account provider.


If he pays the charge, will he still be able to reclaim it (or try to at least) after the account is closed? And is there any point in even trying to get the charge refunded?


Thanks everyone for taking the time to help.

A&L are a law into themselves. I was slightly overdrawn (about 8 odd pence) once on an account I no longer used. They sent no letters informing me I was overdrawn and some how I racked charges of £300 odd pound up. When I finally recieved a letter from them telling me I was £300 odd overdrawn with more charges the next month I was horrified. Looked back on the account and saw that it all stemed from 6p. Went into branch, they said nothing they could do as was in T's & C's. I laughed and said I'd rather you take me to court and see what a judge has to say. They refunded the money back although dont get me started on my late payment markers on my credit file, thats another story but surfice to say they are now gone and I've had no bother with them since.

Hope you sort your problems out. Good luck !

MRS_TO_BE_2

Write a detailed complaint and send it to A & L. In the meanwhile take his banking elsewhere. If no joy from A&L then take it to the ombudsman, This is appalling

chesky369

Write to Margaret Dibben at the Observer - it's the sort of thing she sorts out in her Sunday column in the 'money' section - the banks don't seem to like it when she writes up about them and she usually gets some kind of result.

chesky369

... it might be Dibden, not sure.

Martinslovechild

This is terrible.

If I thought that borrowing 19p was going to cost me £100, I'd be livid.

I dread to think what the equivalent APR would be on this deal!!

twinkle-star

Thanks for the responses everyone, I've posted a letter to Customer Services today - it says on their website that they aim to resolve issues on the day the letter is received so hopefully we will hear back soon.

But based on the telephone conversations my boyfriend had on Saturday, I think it'll be all down to luck and what kind of a mood the person who receives the letter is in!

If they can't sort it out then we'll be closing my boyfriend's accounts (he has 2 current accounts there, an ISA and a savings accounts) plus my own current account, savings account and business account. I know it won't make even a tiny dent in their business but we can't just sit back and let them get away with this.

After their internal complaints procedure is exhausted we'll be writing to the financial ombudsman.

I'll post any updates here in case it helps someone who is unlucky enough to be in the same situation in future.

Thanks everyone for the support, before I found this site we would have just paid up and shut up! x

vet8

I must say that things like this get RIGHT up my nose. How banks can in any way justify these rip-off charges is beyond any sane person. What compounds the annoyance is the smug, holier-than-thou posters on here who say things like, "It's your own fault for being overdrawn", "Read the T & Cs", "If you are overdrawn what do you expect?":mad:

Comments like that make me sooooo mad.!! I do not know anyone who gets overdrawn for the fun of it, it sometimes happens that financial problems occur and the lack of sympathy, in fact the downright sneering from some posters really annoys me.

This is a typical example of banks being the biggest corporate rip-off today. How can they in any way justify charging £100 for 19p? They might say, "Oh well it is in the T & Cs", but any normal person would that is just crazy.:eek:

twinkle-star

vet8 wrote: »

I must say that things like this get RIGHT up my nose. How banks can in any way justify these rip-off charges is beyond any sane person. What compounds the annoyance is the smug, holier-than-thou posters on here who say things like, "It's your own fault for being overdrawn", "Read the T & Cs", "If you are overdrawn what do you expect?":mad:

Comments like that make me sooooo mad.!! I do not know anyone who gets overdrawn for the fun of it, it sometimes happens that financial problems occur and the lack of sympathy, in fact the downright sneering from some posters really annoys me.

This is a typical example of banks being the biggest corporate rip-off today. How can they in any way justify charging £100 for 19p? They might say, "Oh well it is in the T & Cs", but any normal person would that is just crazy.:eek:

What makes it even worse is that he was allowed the overdraft and the bank took it away without informing him, and are now penalising him for it!

twinkle-star

Hi everyone, thought I would post the outcome of this in case anyone is interested (sorry if you're not )

After speaking to two different customer services advisors who were useless, we wrote a letter to CS regarding the situation. The £100 was taken out of the account but returned on the same day along with an extra £25. Happy with that!

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read or respond to my problem x

Garetha

clare-t wrote: »

Hi everyone, thought I would post the outcome of this in case anyone is interested (sorry if you're not )

After speaking to two different customer services advisors who were useless, we wrote a letter to CS regarding the situation. The £100 was taken out of the account but returned on the same day along with an extra £25. Happy with that!

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read or respond to my problem x

Thanks for the update - glad you managed to resolve the problem.:T
It's always worth a gentle approach first and only bring out the big guns when all else fails :eek: