A & L account - £100 incentive

Mistic

do direct debits take days or hours to set up? Could you not set one up for the transfer?

noh

Probably take a week to 10 days to set up from scratch,
Moving an existing one only took 3 days in my case but all depends how efficient the organisation setting up the DD is.

Mistic

If I set up a DD in the bank for a savings account, I would imagine that would happen the same day would that be right?

noh

Yes most likely
If I was going to do it I would open an AA savings account with £1 deposit and DD on linked account.

http://www.theaa.com/savings/savings_calculator.jsp

skaterboy

Hi,

I applied for an A&L account on the 4th Dec.

As yet I have not received any emails or details through the post.

Has anyone else who applied for this account, with the £100 incentive, had a similar lack of response, or do you think I have been declined?

I have it tracked on Quidco, so I'm not sure if I should call them and risk loosing that payment.

Any thoughts?

wq0pco

skaterboy wrote: »

Hi,

I applied for an A&L account on the 4th Dec.

As yet I have not received any emails or details through the post.

Has anyone else who applied for this account, with the £100 incentive, had a similar lack of response, or do you think I have been declined?

I have it tracked on Quidco, so I'm not sure if I should call them and risk loosing that payment.

Any thoughts?

I began the process last Tuesday and having heard nothing went into my A&L branch in Sunderland.... they were absolutely useless. I actually said to one of their "customer service" (AHEM!!) staff "Have you ever heard of the phrase the customer is always right?". It was clear to me they had not!! All I wanted to know was how the online process of closing my Halifax acct and opening the new A&L acct was progressing.

I started to cause a scene and demanded the contact details for the complaints dept. The manager came out, and, after waiting for 10 - 15 mins, he took me into a private room and called their online team. After asking 3 security questions, he told me it had been "established" I think on the Friday and gave me a tel no to ring on Monday (today).

I have tried ringing the Switching Team 10 times today and have only been put on hold listening to some music every time. The manager said I will receive something through the post about Wednesday.

My god, everything that has been written on this forum about A&L's appalling customer service is coming true. I will keep up to date, but have a feeling of regret about how this is going to end, even for the "free" £100

norniron85

skaterboy wrote: »

Hi,

I applied for an A&L account on the 4th Dec.

As yet I have not received any emails or details through the post.

Has anyone else who applied for this account, with the £100 incentive, had a similar lack of response, or do you think I have been declined?

I have it tracked on Quidco, so I'm not sure if I should call them and risk loosing that payment.

Any thoughts?

I applied on Wednesday 9th December and have had no response whatsoever, I've been expecting at least an email confirming my application. I also tracked the purchase through quidco so I've no idea whats actually happening.

wq0pco

Am I being thick, but is the acct I am trying to open an account with a card for use at ATM machines? I have rec'd a letter today (hurrah!!) from A & L confirming my acct no and advising a PIN is on the way also. But there is no mention of when I will receive my card.

Sorry if I am missing the bleeding obvious, but I am all over the place at the moment with the argy bargy I am having with this transfer (and also with Virgin Media may I add, but that's another story.......)

santander

UPDATE - after sending a letter to A&L my wife has now received a full refund with no charges to her A&L account, needless to say the account with A&L has now been closed.
If only A&L had listened and sympathised in the first place they would still have her account.


QUOTE=santander;27535447]I've been with A&L (previously Girobank) for almost 30 years. I persuaded my wife to transfer her current account from the Halifax to A&L (she gets her monthly salary paid in to her account and she has only one direct debit for £20.00 each month).
During the course of the transfer two monthly direct debit payments went unpaid, as a result A&L have now charged her almost £50.00 for having an unauthorised overdraft!
She telephoned A&L and explained the situation, but they have refused to refund the £50.00, their explanation was that they (A&L) had sent a letter to my wife's Employers and that it was the Employers who were at fault for not paying into my wife's new account on time...............have they never heard of letters getting lost in the post!!
As a consequence my wife is now £50.00 out of pocket plus numerous telephone calls to A&L plus she now has an indifferent credit rating!
My advice is be very wary if deciding to change bank accounts....."better the devil you know", so much for A&L's "hassle free" Transfer Team!
Will keep you updated on any further developments, but I'm not too confident of a successful response from A&L![/QUOTE]

The_Moog_2

Moving from Halifax to A&L has been a valuable lesson to me. I am now in the process of changing back. I am pleased to learn that they won't want the £100 though because I spent it on a netbook

I applied to A&L on 19 October last year. They finally confirmed that the switching process was complete (all of one DD and my salary) on 20 December. The £100 appeared in my account on 22 December.

So whilst they don't charge OD fees for the first 3 months, it is actually that long before the account is properly up and running, so you don't really get the benefit.

The online banking system is a joke. I cancelled an £800 standing order online when it became apparent in the first month that the money was taking too long to get to the Halifax account that our household bills come out of. It was more hassle but equally more effective to drawn out as much as possible from the ATM and physically pay it into the Halifax account in cash.

Only on the second day of my doing this there was insufficient funds in my account. They had STILL sent the standing order I had cancelled. And because the money takes so long to hit the destination account I had no means of getting it back into my A&L account. Which in turn meant that I went into unauthorised overdraft and incurred £60 charges (one DD, once SO and two £5 per day in unauthorised OD charges). I complained that I had cancelled the £800 SO and they refunded one of the £25 charges.

I am beyond !!!!ed off with this mickey mouse outfit. As I think someone else said, better the devil you know. I am awaiting receipt of my 0% for 16 months Virgin card to clear the OD and a small store card balance and then I will return to Halifax with no OD to get charged for every day. I just wish I'd done this in the first place.