Account going to wrong address

TjW

I applied for an Alliance & Leicester bank account a couple of months ago online and was told that I would receive a reply within the next few days. When nothing appeared I forgot all about it until I received a letter by accident from the bank in question that had my name on it but was addressed to my neighbour. I went to see my neighbour who told me he was getting a lot of mail but sending it straight back as he didn't know my surname.

When I opened the letter it told me I had incurred £125 of bank charges for some direct debits and that I should bring my account back into credit. I did wonder why my direct debits disappeared from my other bank account but I just reinstated them online without thinking abut it. When I phoned their customer service and tried to explain that if I knew I had a bank account this would not have occured they were extremely rude and told me that I had to pay it despite the fact that I didn't know it existed. They even said that they couldn't stop the letters being sent out despite it being the wrong address and blamed me for giving the wrong address when I applied.

I just don't know where to go from here and if someone could give me advise I would be very thankful as I'm really worried about this.

Please, please, someone help me :huh:_pale_

olly300

1. Use you old bank account for everything.

2. You need to start the formal complaints process asap as it's ridiculous for a bank to claim they cannot change the address on your account.

Yes you may have to sign something giving them authorisation but that's not exactly hard.

The link is here:
http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/customer-service/complaints.aspx

I suggest you do all your complaints in writing and put "Formal Complaint" as the title of any letter/email.

Keep your letter as concise as possible and straight to the point.

Make it very clear that because you did not receive any correspondence from them stating you could have an account you presumed you had been turned down.

3. Finally if you seem to be getting no where - write to one consumer affairs champions in a broad sheet like The Times or The Guardian. (Just have a look at the online versions of their papers.)