Switching Banks to A+L cost me £400+ !!

snaili

I used a switching service with Alliance and Leicester moving my bank from Barclays, thinking it would be a nice easy process, as well as a free 'gift' of £100 for switching!!

:money:


Instead, IT WAS A HUGE MESS!!

:mad:


They didn't inform my employer to switch my income payments in time which resulted in a string on bounced direct debits out of the account.

I discussed the situation 5 times with various staff;

Firstly Linda in Customer Services on 14th May 2009 at 5.10pm told me this situation was down to switching team.

On 15th May 2009, at 11.59am I spoke to Rosanne in the Switching Dept stated the errors were no fault of the switching service.

Following lengthy discussions with all departments; Switching, Complaints, Loans and Customer Service the Customer Services then conceeded the fees on the account are due to a fault with the Switching dept.

:j

Customer services advised that all charges will be paid back due to the switching error.


The Customer Services Manager asked me to supply a covering letter of all charges on the account due to the switching errors.

14th April £25 (Account)
29th April £25 (Account)
1st May £25 (Account)
5th May £25 (Account)
6th May £25 (Account)
6th May £25 (Loan)
7th May £25 (Account)
11th May £25 (Account)
12th May £15 (Overdraft)
12th May £5 (Overdraft Fees)
12th May £25 (Account)
14th May £25 (Account)
15th May £25 (Account)
15th May £25 (Loan)

The total repayable would be £320 in Fees, plus further fees of £50, plus all the interest and overdraft exceeding fees.


I also asked for a compensatory payment to cover my time and anxiety caused.


In total this switching experience cost me in excess of £400!!

I asked A+L to set up a temporary Interest free overdraft on this account until they resolved the problem, but they were very unhelpful and said no!

On the 12th June, I then recieved a letter stating that A+L hold NO RESPOSIBILITY for the charges and will not be paying any back because 'I should have checked that there was money in the account to cover all the direct debits!'

:mad:

To cap it all off, they then wrote to me saying Im not entitled to my 'gift' of £100 for switching, due to not setting up payments into my account within the first 4 week period!!

:mad:


Please help!!


Now that I have been made redundant, this is really painful and I am not getting anywhere with A+L, I have already threatened closing my accounts and going to the Ombudsman.


What should I do??



Any help will be gratefully received!

:A

ray123

Have a look at this thread, it should come in helpful:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1671237&highlight=alliance+leicester+problem&page=2

talana

They didn't inform my employer to switch my income payments in time which resulted in a string on bounced direct debits out of the account.

I don't wish to sound unsympathetic here, but if you were a bit more proactive and on-the-ball during the switching process it wouldn't have come to this.

I also switched to A&L, and the important thing is never to assume the process will run smoothly on its own. Keep an eye on it.

- You should also inform your employer of the change to speed things along. Don't leave it up to the bank.
- Presumably your old account was still open at this point and being credited with your pay? Closing the old account is the last stage of all in the swtiching process.
In which case, worst case scenario, all you have to do is transfer funds from one account to the other for a while so that all DDs are covered.
Or even physically withdraw cash from one, walk down the road and pay it into the other.

Bear in mind if you now want to switch again

Sp3no

The switching service at A&L made a huge mess of my bank account and life too. I switched to them, they messed everything up then charged me £1050.19p for the pleasure. I took them to the ombusdman who sided with the bank, no suprise there, and i ended up closing the account and having to pay the full £1050.19p amount after they bullied me with the debt collectors. They also ruined my credit report for the 12 months i was indispute with them, i ow them nothing now and even now each month they are still registering me as a status 3 on my credit report!!
The switching service caused all my DD's and standing orders to fail and then once they set them all up they duplicated one 3 times and paid it, i ended up £1299 out of pocket and i never got it back
Crooks plain and simple

talana

Sp3no wrote: »

The switching service caused all my DD's and standing orders to fail and then once they set them all up they duplicated one 3 times and paid it, i ended up £1299 out of pocket and i never got it back
Crooks plain and simple

If they were DDs rather than SOs paid out demonstrably in error then all you needed to do was quote 3 words at them ..... Direct Debit Guarantee
You're entitled to a full and immediate refund, no argument.

withnell

Sp3no wrote: »

I took them to the ombusdman who sided with the bank, no suprise there

I think you'll find the ombusman doesn't side with the banks unless they are in the right

Fire_Fox

It might not be Alliance and Leicester's fault that the OPs pay didn't go into the account for some time after the account was set up: I work for the NHS and every change to your salary has to be submitted and processed by the 4th of the month to be actioned in the end of month wage packet. We still have staff who instructed freelance in February who haven't been paid. The cogs of large organisations turn very slowly indeed! :rolleyes:

When I opened my A&L account they switched the DDs very quickly, and I transferred money in and then out the first month. Even so I managed to 'bounce' two DDs and they refinded the charges no problem as it was within the transition period. Sorry OP but I think you need to take some responsibility for the latter charges, you must have known your salary went into your old current account.

snaili

Thanks for all your help guys, seems I should have been a bit more proactive about the process and not relied on the banks to do all the work for me, I'm gonna keep trying though, I'm really starting to hate banks!

ydaw

snaili wrote: »

I used a switching service with Alliance and Leicester moving my bank from Barclays, thinking it would be a nice easy process, as well as a free 'gift' of £100 for switching!!

:money:


Instead, IT WAS A HUGE MESS!!

:mad:


They didn't inform my employer to switch my income payments in time which resulted in a string on bounced direct debits out of the account.

I discussed the situation 5 times with various staff;

Firstly Linda in Customer Services on 14th May 2009 at 5.10pm told me this situation was down to switching team.

On 15th May 2009, at 11.59am I spoke to Rosanne in the Switching Dept stated the errors were no fault of the switching service.

Following lengthy discussions with all departments; Switching, Complaints, Loans and Customer Service the Customer Services then conceeded the fees on the account are due to a fault with the Switching dept.

:j

Customer services advised that all charges will be paid back due to the switching error.


The Customer Services Manager asked me to supply a covering letter of all charges on the account due to the switching errors.

14th April £25 (Account)
29th April £25 (Account)
1st May £25 (Account)
5th May £25 (Account)
6th May £25 (Account)
6th May £25 (Loan)
7th May £25 (Account)
11th May £25 (Account)
12th May £15 (Overdraft)
12th May £5 (Overdraft Fees)
12th May £25 (Account)
14th May £25 (Account)
15th May £25 (Account)
15th May £25 (Loan)

The total repayable would be £320 in Fees, plus further fees of £50, plus all the interest and overdraft exceeding fees.


I also asked for a compensatory payment to cover my time and anxiety caused.


In total this switching experience cost me in excess of £400!!

I asked A+L to set up a temporary Interest free overdraft on this account until they resolved the problem, but they were very unhelpful and said no!

On the 12th June, I then recieved a letter stating that A+L hold NO RESPOSIBILITY for the charges and will not be paying any back because 'I should have checked that there was money in the account to cover all the direct debits!'

:mad:

To cap it all off, they then wrote to me saying Im not entitled to my 'gift' of £100 for switching, due to not setting up payments into my account within the first 4 week period!!

:mad:


Please help!!


Now that I have been made redundant, this is really painful and I am not getting anywhere with A+L, I have already threatened closing my accounts and going to the Ombudsman.


What should I do??



Any help will be gratefully received!

:A

Although my experience with A&L is nothing like as bad as yours I am also disillusioned. I had agreed to use the switching team but was informed by them that they were unable to switch dd's as my old account was in joint names. ok - understandable - but then they disqualified me from receiving the £100 incentive. Beware !!!

agsnu

withnell wrote: »

I think you'll find the ombusman doesn't side with the banks unless they are in the right

Nonsense. The Ombudsman is not a perfect organisation, and many banking-related queries are fairly complicated. There is very little scope for any backwards-and-forwards communication within an Ombudsman process, and so often a lot of the nuances of the details of any case are not fully discovered (contrast this with court action, which often takes many years, with protracted phases of discovery, arguments, counter-arguments, etc).

I don't doubt that many complaints the FO receives are frivolous in nature. But to present them as the divine authority is grossly erroneous.

kennyg123

My old bank refused to give A&L a list of my DD's because old a/c was joint and new was just my name.
I went into old bank for explanation which they couldn't give. I got a list of my DD's and took it to A&L and went ok and got the £100. I did though keep checking both bank a/c's on daily basis. Have had to contact 1 company so far to get DD set up. I didn't want to run risk of unpaid DD's.