Alliance and Leicester £100 for opening account: a farce

raulpaul

Just a note of warning to those of you flocking to get your £100 from A&L for opening a bank account. I would not advise you to. I did and they mucked up the transferal of my direct debits and wages costing me over £100 of charges from my old bank - who would not return it. Alliance and Leicester then also charged me £75 in total for going overdrawn even tho it was as a result of their mistakes.
It took several months to fix all of their errors and a whole lot of stress. In the end i was £75 down over all and god knows what It did to my credit rating. They are awful.

A word of advise if you have gone to them and this has happened to you: THEY HAVE TO RETURN YOUR MONEY IF YOU ARE IN FINANCIAL HARDSHIP. All this requires from you is to phone them up and state that you are in this position and then run through your incomings and outgoings monthly. nb. make sure that your outgoings are higher than your incomings = instant refund.

They're awful though really -stay away!

ally18

Oh dear. I just had my acceptance email as well.

Littlemadam83

WOW - you got an acceptance email?!! I applied online, recieved no email and have been bombarded with letters. Tried to cancel as they couldnt match my overdraft, so will call the "new customer" line next time as he said he could cancel it.

That is sooo bad they have given you all that additional stress AND charges RaulPaul. Shocking :mad:

Paulos77

Well I move to them earlier this year and everything went through fine for me. There were a couple of direct debits that hit a snag but I caught them before any charges were made. Even though they do all the transfers of direct debits I would recommend always keep on top just incase a few dont go through in time before they are due. I got my £100 incentive bang on the 3 months too

Anyway since then Ive had problems with A&L and dont like them, but I couldnt fault there transfers when i changed to them

Markie11

I opened an account up with them a year or so ago and had so many problems. I received 4 letters from them after my application was accepted, 1 with debit card, 1 with d/c pin, 1 with credit card and 1 with c/c pin. Not one of them was addressed correctly. Each had a different way of spelling my name e.g. Mr M Smith, Mr Mark Smith, Mr MR Smith, Mr Smith, none one of them had my house number on but only my apartment building. Luckily the postman put two and two together and delivered to correct address. I got a credit card even though I said I didn't need or want one.

I rang their Liverpool call centre up to ask why this had happened but one department blamed the other, nobody taking ownership. I played the Identify fraud card but nobody cared. I went straight into the bank that day and demanded the accounts to be closed. I should really check my credit ratings to see if the c/c is on there.

Though very tempting, just don't do it. My previous account was with Barclays, though the interest rates were poor, the service and professionalism was top quality.

MikeThomas

Wow am I glad I read this thread, have been mulling this over for a few days! thanks!

DigForVictory

I've not benefited from this either - within 2 months I'd wiped the £100 in fees. Yes in part because I didn't plan money in & money out well but also because a fiver a day adds up awful quick. Mr.Dig has had no problems - but has 2 Direct Debits to my 19. We're planning to go back to the previous incumbent because we know them & they have a local branch. Moving the DDs back will be the sticky bit.

Paulos77

DigForVictory wrote: »

I've not benefited from this either - within 2 months I'd wiped the £100 in fees. Yes in part because I didn't plan money in & money out well but also because a fiver a day adds up awful quick. Mr.Dig has had no problems - but has 2 Direct Debits to my 19. We're planning to go back to the previous incumbent because we know them & they have a local branch. Moving the DDs back will be the sticky bit.

Dig, That is exactly what has happend with me. Im seriously thinking of going back to my old bank because I had no problems with them and they didnt charge a fiver a day, they are also local unlike having to go miles for an A & L branch.

And its not just that, there online statements are rubbish too and can catch you out. Its says you have money available but money may have come out but doesnt show for 24 hours so you need to be on the ball all the time checking your direct debits. Also wages, you cant touch them for 24 hours after they have gone in your account. This may sound like little ppicky things but they get to me .

20vt-rs

Hmmmm, I applied last Saturday and have heard nothing and have not received an email within 24hours as it says. Perhaps it's a sign to leave it!!

mike33_2

Any help appreciated here-applied for the £100 incentive bonus for opening account on sunday 8th november and i think im 100% right with the offer closing at midnight on that date,anyway phoned them up today when you finally get through to the right department and they said i was too late to get the £100 bonus but explained i got the automated email back from them on the sunday just after i registered online to say they they had received application and reply to me in the next 24 hours obviously they are closed on a sunday,sorry im rambling but then got an email back on monday 9th november to say the application was successful but now they are saying i applied to late to get bonus and want proof of emails which i have got but i dont think this will be the last of it with them also saying the only sent the one email out to me on the monday- how incompetent are these and thats before everything is transferred over from old bank so got a funny feeling im not going to get my money-any advice please.

Melaniep101

My advice would be to steer well clear of A & L. I have had untold problems during the year that I have held my current account with them. I've managed to rack up over £500 worth of charges, most of which are due to their uncomprehensible internet banking which isnt up to date figures. Their customer service isn't great either.

I'm going back to Nat West... Never had issues with them in the past but was lured by an incentive from A & L.