Alliance & Leicester, swapping current accounts

mediastarfish75

Hi,

Long story which I have pleaded with Alliance and Leicester but yet they refuse, is there any loop hole or way I can get them to help.

I swapped bank accounts from Barclays to alliance and leciester as they had a great offer on an online account. I agreed to swap accounts. The swap began to take place and then they wrote to me to tell me they couldn’t match my overdraft. I live in it [the overdraft] so I cancelled the transfer.

They had already told a company that I was swapping, and had setup a direct debit, which bounced, once in Feb and again in March. Because it was an online current account I signed up to, they never told me and thinking the account was dormant, I never checked.

One day in June I got a call stating I was 710 overdrawn and asked me to repay immediately. I couldn’t, so I agreed to a payment plan of £118pcm, which I couldn’t afford as I was out of work, however I managed to pay the money each time, though a few days out of their desired date, but each month they got their money.

When I checked my credit file, they state that in Feb I was 2 payments in arrears, again in march, then I have 3 payments listed until august until I managed to pay the full amount.

Not only am I furious about the charges but im totally distraught about the 3 payments each month for nearly a year to my file.

The rest of my credit file is practically spotless, with no missed payments to my own bank Barclays, my mortgage or a loan I have.

It took them 3 months to even mark the account as settled.

What can I do, they have basically told me to F Off and go to financial ombudsman.
Any help would be very much appreciated!

useruseruser

Go to the financial ombudsmand with A&L, worst bank i've ever dealt with. I'm currently over my over draft as they have lost 2 of my chq's (but they have managed to cash them) due to these i'm up to about £200 of charges which i refuse to pay, as if they had actually put the chq's they have cashed into my account I would never have gone overdrawn. They make my blood boil just thinking about them grrrrrrr!!!!

GeorgeUK

Write an official letter of complaint to them.

They made you an offer which you accepted in good faith, then reneged on the terms of that offer to your detriment.

They told a company you were swapping? Was the DD set up with your authorisation? If not then i would argue that it's the banks fault and the direct debit guarantee should apply.
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-directdebit-guarantee.htm

I would also inform them that unless they amend your data with the credit reference agency to remove the late payments as this error was the banks and not yours, you will also make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service as you are being penalised for their mistakes.