Alliance & leicester overdraft usage fees

masonic

kezzae wrote: »

I transfered from Barclays to A&L Premier at the start of the year and I also had this problem. My money went into my account on say a monday, I checked the account balance, money in, but when I withdrew from a cash machine and checked the balance the next day it showed as me being overdrawn. When i asked A&L about this, I was basically told that I couldn't touch my money until 24 hrs later!! Needless to say I transfered everything back to Barclays and phoned up to close my A&L account down.

That's an artefact of A&L re-ordering all transactions to show debits before credits (though they no longer seem to do this). I have been several thousand pounds overdrawn on paper without the overdraft to cover it. It isn't an issue as long as the funds were part of your available balance when you made the withdrawal.

flutterbyuk25

molerat wrote: »

I hope that works !! We sent two letters to close down 4 old (savings) accounts that we have kicking around with about £1 each in them. Got letters back stating that they cannot close these by written instruction, only by telephone !! !!!!!!

They have sent a letter (received today after my 1st post on this) saying account closure is in process.

x

mparter

masonic wrote: »

No, that isn't true. What A&L require is that for standing orders and direct debits, funds must be in the account at the end of the working day before they are processed. This is because A&L seem to process standing orders and direct debits at the end of the day before they are due and queue them for payment overnight.

However, you can FP into the account and withdraw the money immediately. Similarly, as soon as your salary is shown as being credited to your account, you can spend it (what you can't do is spend it earlier in the same day).

Thanks for clarifying that but it still desn't sound terribly helpful. For example, with RBS, if I have a Direct Debit coming out of my account on the 1st June and don't have the sums to pay for it, as long as I pay the money into my account (usually at a branch as it has to register same day) before the end of the banking day, I don't incur any charges.

It appears that this is not the case with A&L?

mollyclayton

I received the £100 cash back for opening the account, the following month I managed to incur charges of £75 due to their method of actioning debits before credits. What's more, I had the money sitting in the compulsory savings account.

It happened on May bank holiday, I realised I was overdrawn on the Friday and immediately transferred money from the savings account, this arrived in the current account on the Monday but was not available for a further 24hours. I was charged £25 Payment review fee on the Friday, again £25 on the Tuesday and £5 per day for the unauthorised overdraft, 5 days.

I had been with my previous bank for 41 years and never incurred charges of this amount in the whole period of holding the account.

If you have managed to claim your £100 be on your guard, for the Spanish will grab it back at the first opportunity.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

molerat

Had a couple of transactions on my account yesterday and a credit is showing before a dd this morning, first time I have seen that :T

masonic

mparter wrote: »

Thanks for clarifying that but it still desn't sound terribly helpful. For example, with RBS, if I have a Direct Debit coming out of my account on the 1st June and don't have the sums to pay for it, as long as I pay the money into my account (usually at a branch as it has to register same day) before the end of the banking day, I don't incur any charges.

It appears that this is not the case with A&L?

Correct, that isn't the case with A&L. It's mentioned in their T&Cs. It's not only A&L that does that - banks that operate like RBS are in the minority.

masonic

mollyclayton wrote: »

If you have managed to claim your £100 be on your guard, for the Spanish will grab it back at the first opportunity.

All banks will grab whatever money they can in bank charges at the first opportunity. The key is not to spend money that isn't in your account in the first place.

mparter

masonic wrote: »

Correct, that isn't the case with A&L. It's mentioned in their T&Cs. It's not only A&L that does that - banks that operate like RBS are in the minority.

Thanks again. Any idea what banks do operate like this?

Extant

mollyclayton wrote: »

If you have managed to claim your £100 be on your guard, for the Spanish will grab it back at the first opportunity.

What a stupid, ridiculous comment - this charging structure was in place before Santander purchased A&L.

masonic

mparter wrote: »

Thanks again. Any idea what banks do operate like this?

It tends to be the big banks that relax these rules for some or all of their accounts as an added service. Small banks and building societies (i.e. those whose systems aren't fully independent) almost always do not, often because they don't have enough control to do so.