Alliance and Leicester Close Accounts of People Who Charges

Plutos_2

Hi,

My first post here: but this made me angry so I had to draw attention to it.

According to thisismoney.co.uk Alliance and Leicester has started closing the accounts of anyone who has claimed back their bank fees.

According to the article:

"ALLIANCE & Leicester is kicking out customers who have complained about unfair bank charges and successfully reclaimed them.

Money Mail readers have received letters from the bank informing them that their current accounts will be shut, just days after being refunded hundreds of pounds of bank charges incurred for accidentally going into unauthorised overdrafts.

Asked about the letter sent to one Money Mail reader, a spokesman for A&L said: 'This is a general policy. This customer has not been treated any differently from anyone else in this position. It is clear that some customers do not accept the terms and conditions for the operation of their account.'

Customers who have sought to pursue a small claims court action have had their cases settled and then their accounts closed. This is because A&L takes the view that the customer clearly has a disagreement with the terms and conditions of their account.

Many Money Mail readers have been caught out by A&L's unusual unauthorised overdraft charges. Unlike most other current account providers, the bank will keep charging you the longer you are overdrawn"

This is pretty shocking behavior from one of the major banks - they know that the charges are illegal, so they won't defend them in court. Instead they are holding their customers to ransom by making it clear that if you claim, your whole bank account "gets it".

Plutos_2

The article can be found here:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=409701&in_page_id=7

lynzpower

Thats why the consumer action group recommend setting up a parachute account to make sure that you are not left in the !!!!!! if you bank chooses to do this.

Plutos_2

Makes me determined to claim back ALL charges across all accounts.

Ironically I'm not with A and L at the moment, but have opened an account with them just in case things get sticky with Natwest!

Lawbag_2

this practice is nothing new.

when my brother and I took Lloyds to court via the Ombudsman for disclosing our bank activity to a third party we were awarded £500 and a closed account.

in fact the manager rang me at work and requested I move my account elsewhere.

Broken_hearted

Very bad business practise and in the long run it will cost them more. They will lose out on any future loans, mortgages or credit cards that these customers may get in the future. So instead of getting mad laugh at their stupidity, people will still get their charges bank and the bank gets nothing.

Plutos_2

Absolutely. A and L are saying that if you do anything they don't like, they couldn't give a damn about customer service - you're out. I hope this whole fees issue kills the main banks and transfers business to new starters and internet banks who don't have an expectation of free money from their customers.

luckylukey

This is disgraceful! I was going to move to A&L because of their 0% overdraft. But am not going to do this now!

southernscouser

It will backfire on them though. If too many people claim their charges back surely they won't get rid of them all or they are just increasing their competitors profits and damaging theirs! I reckon they are just doing a few to scare people off.

But don't be! Open that second account and go get the barstewards!

lynzpower

I have got my parachute account with A&L cos of the free overdraft. In all fairness Im not going to USE that overdraft, as thats the whole point of getting out of debt I certianly wont be incurring bank charges- lesson learned

southernscouser

lynzpower wrote:

I have got my parachute account with A&L cos of the free overdraft. In all fairness Im not going to USE that overdraft, as thats the whole point of getting out of debt I certianly wont be incurring bank charges- lesson learned

Would be quite ironic though wouldn't it? :rotfl: