Alliance & Leicester - Online Issue 5 shambles

Yuzo

i linked my A&L online saver issue 5 by direct debit to my barcalys current account.

i log into the A&L online banking and request payment from my linked barclays account into my A&L savers account.

i then find out this takes 4 days to hit my account.

i phone them up to transfer funds into my monthly saver and they say the funds will not be cleared for another 7 days..... :eek:

so thats 11 days in total to get access to my money... how can they be serious? ... thats 11 days missing out on interest.

why do they set up direct debits to fund your savers account if it takes so damn long to actually clear into your account? ... wouldnt i just be best sending a standard payment from my barclays current account into my A&L savers and avoid all this direct debit rubbish,... wouldnt this then be classed as a "faster payment" which takes under a day?

td_007

Yuzo wrote: »

i linked my A&L online saver issue 5 by direct debit to my barcalys current account.

i log into the A&L online banking and request payment from my linked barclays account into my A&L savers account.

i then find out this takes 4 days to hit my account.

That is normal and it will take 3-4 working days.

Yuzo wrote: »

i phone them up to transfer funds into my monthly saver and they say the funds will not be cleared for another 7 days..... :eek:

so thats 11 days in total to get access to my money... how can they be serious? ... thats 11 days missing out on interest.

Not sure where the additional 7 days come from - that should not be the case and probably the rep is not up to speed.

Yuzo wrote: »

... wouldnt i just be best sending a standard payment from my barclays current account into my A&L savers and avoid all this direct debit rubbish,... wouldnt this then be classed as a "faster payment" which takes under a day?

Do not think the saver a/c can accept faster payments. However, if you have a A&L current a/c, you can transfer via FP to it and then do an internal transfer and all this can be done almost instantaneously. If you do not have a current a/c with A&L, I would suggest to open one for convenience, as it would take you 3-4 working days to move your money out of your saver a/c. But with a A&L current a/c you transfer from you saver to current and then use card/bank to withdraw funds. Mind you, you cannot yet make payment via FP from A&L.

masonic

td_007 wrote: »

Mind you, you cannot yet make payment via FP from A&L.

I think you'll find you can. Faster payments were brought in towards the end of last year, IIRC. They are, however, limited to £250 per day per destination account.

masonic

Yuzo wrote: »

so thats 11 days in total to get access to my money... how can they be serious? ... thats 11 days missing out on interest.

Yes, it's 11 days in total before you can withdraw the money (if you count the 4 days prior to it arriving in the account). However, it is 0 days missing out on interest - it earns interest from the day it arrives. The 11 days wait to withdraw is usually not a problem for most people, as they transfer money into the savings account that they intend to save.

freddysmith

I have an A&L issue 5 account and a linked Barclays current account.
I have transferred 10k as one lump sum from Barclays to A&L, took less than a minute to show up in the A&L account. But the max is only £250 faster payment from A&L into Barclays, anything over £250 takes 3 days. eg transfer on Monday, in account Wedensday. Thats my experience.

Yuzo

td_007 wrote: »

Do not think the saver a/c can accept faster payments. However, if you have a A&L current a/c, you can transfer via FP to it and then do an internal transfer and all this can be done almost instantaneously. If you do not have a current a/c with A&L, I would suggest to open one for convenience, as it would take you 3-4 working days to move your money out of your saver a/c. But with a A&L current a/c you transfer from you saver to current and then use card/bank to withdraw funds. Mind you, you cannot yet make payment via FP from A&L.

yeah i have a current account with A&L, they cant change the direct debit linked account from barclays to my A&L current account,.. but i dont need to rely on the direct debit feature do i? ... i can just transfer money around using the standard transfer funds as you said.

Yuzo

masonic wrote: »

Yes, it's 11 days in total before you can withdraw the money (if you count the 4 days prior to it arriving in the account). However, it is 0 days missing out on interest - it earns interest from the day it arrives. The 11 days wait to withdraw is usually not a problem for most people, as they transfer money into the savings account that they intend to save.

ahh i see, no problem then, just thought i wouldnt be earning interest on this extra waiting i am having to do before it clears.

masonic

Yuzo wrote: »

yeah i have a current account with A&L, they cant change the direct debit linked account from barclays to my A&L current account,.. but i dont need to rely on the direct debit feature do i? ... i can just transfer money around using the standard transfer funds as you said.

They should be able to change your linked account to the A&L account (no direct debit is needed for this). It may be beneficial to do this, because you'll be able to withdraw funds to your A&L account, allowing you to send them anywhere else you need to without waiting an extra 3 days for them to arrive at Barclays.

If the A&L holding account now accepts faster payments, the direct debit system may as well be scrapped (yes, I know not everyone can send FP yet ).

td_007

Yuzo wrote: »

yeah i have a current account with A&L, they cant change the direct debit linked account from barclays to my A&L current account,.. but i dont need to rely on the direct debit feature do i? ... i can just transfer money around using the standard transfer funds as you said.

No you do not need to relay on dd, you can do manual transfer to A&L current and then internal transfer into the saver a/c. Btw, the above post re faster payments from A&L current is restricted to £250 - personally I find it quite useless feature and will be happy only when it allows for a decent amount to be transferred.

natman

Hi.

I have a Bradford and Bingely issue 7 AND now an alliance and leicster online 5 so know what you mean about the lenghty times it takes to get to your money....................However, Usually I am transfering into the account to save and not withdraw so its is fine. yeah its a bit of a pin to get to the money if you have made an error transfering or want some money back, but to be honest a lot of online accounts take 3-4 days to get into the system and a furthe 5 days for the funds to become available.

I was annoyed to begin with, but to be honest i am fine with it now. The interest is calculated when the monies arrive in your account, so no worries.

In addition you can set up a payment from your current account, they will send you some details of how to do this - i.e account number and sort code etc, and this works well too. Dontgive up on teh account, its currently a decent paying rate, instant access and covered by a large bank, so should be safe...

KingL

I have been having similar experiences lately (only with HSBC as the external account).

"Pushing" funds from HSBC to A&L Savings takes about 20 minutes to arrive (works fine for sums of several thousands).
Pushing funds from A&L Savings to HSBC takes about 20 minutes to arrive. (I have only tried this with small sums).

Pulling funds from HSBC into A&L (i.e. using the A&L site to initiate the transaction) says it takes a day when you make the transaction, but also took 11 days to actually arrive (and then a couple more to clear). Phoning them up and ranting about it reveals that the 11 days applies for the first transaction only (while they set up the DD relationship with your external account); thereafter a pullinto A&L will take 3 days.