Alliance & Leicester ISA - don't do it!

EagerLearner

Sillychuckie - I can see what you mean but you will have had a speedy account opening because you were an existing customer. I am confident that if I had applied in-branch rather than online this would have been a far easier and quicker process, but in this day and age I'd expect it to be the other way round. In branch I am sure they wouldn't have made such a big deal of the 'Miss'. Also, I still maintain that they should have been prepared for the influx of new customers by hiring more staff to cope with demand and have better customer service, rather than me chasing them all the time.

LoisLane - I am with First Direct and they are fantastic, when I closed the A&L account I nearly considered opening another ISA with FD but I know B&B will be a better rate...

All in all, it was just a rant about my experience with them and B&B now have my business (and I have a better rate ISA), I am sure that others will be prefectly happy with A&L though - I just found them way too penickety... if that's the right spelling ;op

EagerLearner

webwiz

I opened an ISA with A&L in April with no problems. I also transferred previous years ISA's from First Direct to A&L because I thought their rate was better, but although the money disappeared from FD 10 days ago it dooes not show up on A&L yet and what is more I am not sure if I am getting a good rate after all, it is difficult to tell from their site. My account starts with 608. Can anyone tell me what rate I am getting and whether A&L charge a penalty for transferring?

meanmachine_2

Yeah, this is the BIG problem I have with the A&L online interface.

The money just disappears for days at a time. It's nowhere. Not in the bank, not "pending", it just vanishes.

There is also no way of knowing what rate you're on - unlike with the ING account, which is a breeze by comparison.

By the way, 608 means you're on the 5.2% rate - until the A&L decide to slash the underlying 4.5% rate, of course!

codetown

Sillychuckie wrote:

All I am saying is that for each customer that has a problem, many do not. Clearly you are more likely to hear from those that do have problems, but don't let it put you off banking with A&L. Their great rates (into rates, not really available anymore due to removed bonuses) more than make up for any minor nags - and they must have had a heck of a load of applications for ISA's over the tax year, being the highest rate provider at the time.

And no, before you ask... I don't work for them.

Sillychuckie,
I disagree with your analysis. Of course luckily we only and always refer to a small percentage of people who have issues. But if you browse the forum and do some statistics you will notice how many compaints A&L have received (impressively high) against many other (and much bigger) organisations.

I agree that A&L has given great rates and this is why I went to them, but I will NEVER trust them for anything time-critical or on which I really depend on. And the fact that a large number of people had issues with them just supports my thinking.

BTW: I have been banking for years with many other institutions as well and by far the best I have ever come across is Nationwide. Great employees, great online facilities, wide presence. Not top rates though...

masonic

codetown wrote:

Sillychuckie,
I disagree with your analysis. Of course luckily we only and always refer to a small percentage of people who have issues. But if you browse the forum and do some statistics you will notice how many compaints A&L have received (impressively high) against many other (and much bigger) organisations.

So it's not possible that could be explained by an overwhelming proportion of MSErs applying for an A&L ISA this year as compared with other offerings? People will only complain about the accounts they have and unless you have some idea of the number of people applying for various accounts, you cannot draw any meaningful conclusions from simply counting complaints here.

Anon

Mrs Anon and I set up A&L ISAs online - new customers to A&L. Processed online, email confirmation a few minutes later with the account number and details to pay in. 3 days later, money cleared from Cahoot account. Transferred from Abbey - very straightforward, of proof of ID requested and nothing to sign therefore must have just gone off credit reference files.

If transferring previous years, Abbey close the account and send a cheque, therefore it takes a few more days to clear (Abbey sent a compliments slip and final statement confirming how much was in the account when they closed it to include interest up to that point, A&L sent a letter through confirming payment received and credited).

No complaints from me.

Anon

Ian_W

Just to add that the missus and I had a similar experience to Anon, just got in 1 day before they withdrew series 2 but very smooth opening process.

Downloaded a transfer form for previous ISAs whch I sent to First Direct [should have moved them when the bonus rate ended but couldn't be mithered] on 18/4/06, showed up in the A&L account on 27/4. Overall both FD and A&L operated the transfer procedure [says allow up to a month] very smoothly and promptly.

Obviously CS might be an issue in the future but no probs to date.

Bisoy

I think whatever lender or banking institutions we decide to be with, we won't expect everybody to have similar satisfactory relationship. Not even the ones considered having excellent customer service will be perfect and a few will still be unhappy. As with me I have a premier direct account with A & L and have just move my ISA to them before they cut down their interest rates to 4.5%and removed the bonus. Application and transfer was smooth and no problems. Overall, I am one satisfied customer but that doesn't mean that I am loyal to them because I am a tart. If I could sense that there is a better deal out there then I won't hesitate leaving them.

tonyg_2

I opened an ISA with them with no problem as an existing customer. But their customer service is TERRIBLE. Really TERRIBLE. They do not always respond to emails and when they do it's after days and days, and often misunderstand the question.

A&L Branch customer service from my experience is just as bad.

I am certainly not a loyal customer; to be honest I would not use them if their interest rates were (previously) not better than the competition.

codetown

masonic wrote:

So it's not possible that could be explained by an overwhelming proportion of MSErs applying for an A&L ISA this year as compared with other offerings? People will only complain about the accounts they have and unless you have some idea of the number of people applying for various accounts, you cannot draw any meaningful conclusions from simply counting complaints here.

While not perfect, we have very reasonable references reading financial reports, shareholders meetings, press etc. In terms of statistics, with over 500k people on the site we have a high sample of the UK savers and therefore we must assume that all major banks are well represented.
By far A&L is a small, very small player in the field. The percentage of complaints it receives (and mostly for the current account and customer service, rather than ISA!!) is extremly high when compared to the others. And belive me, this is a very good statistics method with an extremly well drawn sample of the involved population. The conclusions are absolutely clear and sound and show that a percentage of A&L customers higher than Nationwide, halifax etc complain about their services.