Grrrr! Alliance and leicester

System

When I ring them .... I don't press the 1 -2-3 option !!!!!! I just carry on holding and you get put through quicker ;D
My local branch advised me to do that and it has worked for me so far ;D

Cas

We tranferred our main accounts to A&L after our existing bank (who is also our employer) reduced the credit interest rate and increased the agreed overdraft rate.

Can't complain about the transfer itself but A&L bounced our M&S bill payment because of the system they use to check for availability of funds on the day the debit is due to be paid.

We set up a bill payment on our current account and an inter account transfer from our A&L savings account to fund it, both future dated for the same date. When the due date arrived the system checked the current account for funds to meet the bill payment. It did this in the early hours of the morning but apparently it doesn't check the account for any incoming credits.


Result was a bounced payment and they charged us £29.50 for the pleasure. >:(

Fortunately we spotted it online the next day, set up another bill payment and got the charge refunded and M&S were nice enough not to charge us for the late payment.

I've worked in banking for 17 years so I'm not exactly naive when it comes to managing my accounts but sometimes I think these systems are set up to screw every available penny out of the poor customers.

ED

Cas, sympathies for your difficulty with A+L.

I'm happy you're here – your 17 years experience working in banking could be very informative… :-)

For instance, any idea why SOs & BACS sent out by A+L take an extra banking day to reach external accounts? (eg £'s leaving A+L on Monday, reach the destination a/c on Thursday)

Coventry Bdg Soc, and most banks (eg Abbey and First Direct) take just "3 banking days" including day of despatch (out Monday, in Wednesday).

Alliance + Leicester being quite a sizeable bank, why do they need an extra day? Or is it a ploy to make extra profit, especially when funds leave the customer's a/c on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday – because then nil interest is paid for the weekend, as well as 3 banking days.

Cas

Very good question! When reading this reply please bear in mind that I've spent the latter half of my career in departments and not a branch so I’m not up to speed on all the recent developments. Plus also the time at which I'm posting this ... zzz

Standing orders and direct directs are effected under the BACS system which is a 3 day cycle, ie you’re debited on Day 1 and your bank sends the information (called a file) to BACS for processing; on Day 2 BACS processes the file and the banks exchange funds; on Day 3 the beneficiary is credited. My understanding is that payments instructed using online (internet) and phone banking are made through the BACS system so these should follow the 3 day BACS rule.

Can't comment on A&L specifically because I don't work for them but the extra day seems to be added because of this automated sweep system they use to check for funds availability. The funds check is done on Day 1 but by the time the system updates it's past the BACS submission deadline for Day 1 so the file is actually sent to BACS on Day 2, ie a day late. The banks exchange funds on Day 3, the beneficiary is credited on Day 4.

So yes, the bank effectively has had the money on its balance sheet for an extra day … >:(

Now I just assume that it will take 4 days to transfer funds between banks – better safe than sorry!

linz

Am currently trying to change all my bank account addresses to a BFPO one in Cyprus. Barclays were no problem at all, neither were Halifax. Alliance and Leicester were having none of it. I don't think the staff had a clue what they were doing really. So went across the road, back to Halifax and am in the middle of changing my alliance accounts to Halifax.

Lesson learnt I think, I won't be having anything to do with such an incompetent company again.

gingerdad

I bank with A&L, customer service is crap, i always use the 0113 number as it goes straight through to some one. but enjoyed the 0% overdraft. i now always transfer cash into the account as using the post office never seemed to work somthy with cheques.

will prob switch to nationwide once the 0% overdraft finishes