A&L perfect account???

zdenka

Just to let you know about my experience with Alliance & Leicester.

I went for their account purely because of the interest rate they offer - but you need to be aware of the disadvantages! The whole transfer took about 3 months, which I guess was not too bad and not too many glitches.

Unfortunatelly that's about the only advantage. I was with NatWest before and my cheques cleared the same day - now I have to wait about 4 days, more if I deposit the money in the post office(closer and more convenient).

Paying money out of the account is subject to the same delay, so pay the credit card bill early!! I would choose the payment day and the money would go out of the account but would not reappear on my credit card balance till 3-4 days later!

The money management leaves you unsure what you have/ have not in your account. Some transactions appear quickly, others take couple days so you never know when you check your account if the summary is right. Sometimes the summary shows lower balance because it takes into consideration latest transactions but they don't appear individually on the account till a day or 2 later so it's guesswork what they are.

To summ it up: Great account if you have loads of dosh and don't need to worry about comings and goings.
Bad account because of long cheque clearance, delays in sending money and not showing up-to-date balance.

You decide if the extra money is worth the hassle.

BTW, we put in about £1700 a month and get around £3 in interest.

morg_monster

I recently changed to A&L from HSBC, again for the interest rate and also for the 1 year interest free overdraft (finished uni a couple of years ago, the overdraft is reducing well but just need a bit more time to pay it off than HSBC are giving me.). It took me a long time to change because I really did and still do think HSBC are excellent for customer service and their internet banking (especially the secure messaging system), and having banked with them for ever I did have some loyalty! So I kept the account open, anyway.

Moving to A&L - I don't have many direct debits and only my salary going in so I chose to switch them all myself as I didn't trust them 100% to do it right.

I find their internet banking not as good as HSBC but it is OK. I too find that withdrawals and payments take a while to appear, and also that money will appear in my balance, but my statement won't tell me for a few days where it has come from!!! I don't find the lag too annoying, as all my spending goes in a notebook and then in an excel spreadsheet, so I always know exactly how much of my salary is left at any time. Also I put most spending on my Egg money card (using it as a credit card) and so that just gets paid off once a month in a lump. Haven't had any problems with late payments, I told Egg I wanted them to take the money on the 3rd of the month so out it goes.

So far I haven't had a chance to assess their customer services, but do find it annoying that you can't seem to talk to anyone without inputting your account details. Once I just wanted to know what address to put down for the account when it is not based at a branch, and gave up as I didn't see the need to type in all my details.

If the interest rates all reduce after a year I might go back to using my old HSBC account, if I can't find anything better. I continue to move a small amount of money in to this account once a month and then spend it so that it appears to still be active. I'd agree - A&L are certainly not perfect but at the moment they will do!

grumbler

zdenka wrote:

A&L perfect account???

Who called it 'perfect'? Nothing is perfect in this world ...

I went for their account purely because of the interest rate they offer - but you need to be aware of the disadvantages! The whole transfer took about 3 months, which I guess was not too bad and not too many glitches.

Transfer is a known problem: Alliance & Leicester Switching Solution!. Best rates usually don't last long. IMHO it is not a best tactics to switch current account regularly chasing the best rate. I agree that their CS is far from being good, but with online banking I almost never need it.

I was with NatWest before and my cheques cleared the same day

Are you sure? Were funds shown as available? And even if they were, I have serious doubts that cheque can be cleared the same day. See, for example, posts #15,16,20,22 of this thread: The future of banking on the back of reclaiming Discussion Area. See also:
Can I draw money as soon as it has been paid in? :

Generally you can, but if it is not paid in as cash then it may require up to seven days to clear before it is available.

and Rates and charges summary:

All accounts: fees for specialist services: Obtaining a special cheque clearance £15

Paying money out of the account is subject to the same delay, so pay the credit card bill early!! I would choose the payment day and the money would go out of the account but would not reappear on my credit card balance till 3-4 days later!

What credit card do you mean? All BACS transfers take about 3 working days. If it is A&L card run by MBNA you can always make make debit card payments via their website and the money is credited next working day if paid before 5 p.m. Also there are Direct Debits ...

The money management leaves you unsure what you have/ have not in your account. Some transactions appear quickly, others take couple days so you never know when you check your account if the summary is right. Sometimes the summary shows lower balance because it takes into consideration latest transactions but they don't appear individually on the account till a day or 2 later so it's guesswork what they are.

From my experience this can happen and happens regularly with any current and credit card account with any bank (I am not sure about basic accounts though). However, I agree that A&L online banking is not the best and some transactions that you make online are not shown instanly.

BTW, we put in about £1700 a month and get around £3 in interest.

Interest is paid not on money that you put, but on money that you keep on the account. If your balance is £1700 during a month, monthly net interest is £1700*5%*0.8/12=£5.67. Do you expect to get more on such a balance?

zdenka

I called it "perfect" account because of the times motley fool pushed this account on me; they all seem to love it.

As far as NatWest is concerned, I could bank cheques, go outside to the till and withdraw the money almost immediatelly(ei it would not only appear on the account but you could withdraw it!). I am not sure about tranfers, i think they appeared in my ISA(my usual transfer) the day I scheduled the transfer but I can't be too sure.

Unfortunately the bank became too pushy sending me letters to make an appointment to "review" the account, trying to sell me something every time I went to the branch even to the point that they refused to bank cheques over £1000 unless I opened a savings account where my money would not be so accesable to fraudsters? My husband can't say no to anything and as a result of one of their "review" appointments was stuck with paying £9 a month for an account with - to us - useless benefits; it took almost a year before he bothered to switch back to the no-charge one.

I guess there are pros and cons to every bank/account; I just wanted to mention some one the annoying things about A&L that I didn't notice before I signed up so others can make a more informed decision about joining them.

gingerdad

We were with a&l for two years, but the cs is the worst, and they repeatly lost cheques between the post office and liverpool. we have swoped to first direct. but we did make the most of the 0% overdraft.

I think they need to sort their systems out, as they are spending allot of money to attract new customers with great offers, but offer a crap service to back it up with.

very happy with first direct so far.

Voyager2002

A and L is great as a savings account, but that is as far as it goes.

---lee---

Just a quickie re. cheque clearance, when I was with Barclays, a cheque appeared on your balance the day you paid it in and was available for spending - of course if it bounced, they would simply take it back and you would have been left with any charges if you had gone beyond agreed limits. Not sure if you earned interest in it from day one though.

Afahmaep

zdenka wrote:

I called it "perfect" account because of the times motley fool pushed this account on me; they all seem to love it.



I guess there are pros and cons to every bank/account; I just wanted to mention some one the annoying things about A&L that I didn't notice before I signed up so others can make a more informed decision about joining them.

I have got 2 identical A&L current accounts. I did apply a few years ago for an upgrade to thier Premier but was given a 2nd current account but I kept it because I then had 2 Online Savers which were market leaders at the time with the doubling of SAVINGS limits.
Transferring BETWEEN Current Accounts though was the problem.
ACCOUNT 2 was CREDITED on Day 2 of the Transfer
ACCOUNT 1 was DEBITTED on Day 3 of the Transfer
Although I couldn't access the money from either account on Day 2
I appeared to have doubled my money.
The first time it happened I went O/D on ACCOUNT 1 because I thought the money was still there but was refunded the O/D charge when I explained they had the money the whole time
'Why can I transfer immediately from Online Savers to linked Current Account but it takes 48 HOURS to transfer to and from current accounts WITHIN THE SAME organisation.'
Never got a satisfactory answer and have since opened much better current acounts (to me anyway)

wearside_2

Both my OH and myself have Premier Current Accounts and Regular Saving Accounts that we opened at A&L because of the interest rates and the £50 for referrals. I must say that the CS is the worst that I have come across in banking and have had numerous complaints and lengthy telephone conversations with them. At one point they 'lost' two transfers from my account to hers of £10,000 and it took a week to find them. We did not receive compensation for lost interest but after another complaint, received £40 compensation between us. So it pays to complain and to stick to ones guns. I have not transferred my current account to them as I am happy where I am. I use them as saving accounts, just transfering the minimum £500 per month to the OH's current account, then a regular payment to her saving account then out again to mine to repeat the process. A bit fiddly I know, but the interest rate is good and my wife being a non tax payer gets 10% on her regular savings account and 5% on both her current and other savings account. Add to this, the £100 when we joined and the £40 compensation, I reckon we are 'Quids in'.

MarkyMarkD

As Grumbler says, cheques don't clear instantly with any bank at all.

Barclays allow customers to draw against uncleared cheques, at their own risk, but this is IMHO a fairly insignificant benefit. Obviously if you spend your whole life paying in cheques and spending the money immediately, Barclays is the bank for you.

Some banks will allow you to pay THEIR credit card instantly, but none will allow you to pay ANOTHER BANK's credit card instantly. As Grumbler pointed out, you can pay many credit cards by debit card online instantly or almost instantly, or by direct debit without any loss of interest if you arrange it in advance.

Whilst you have to enter account details to speak to a member of staff, I presume this is to ensure that there's a record of the call. Otherwise people will claim to have been given information on a particular date and there'll be no record. It would actually be for the customer's benefit to be able to trace the call in some circumstances.

Afahmaep didn't apply for an upgrade to Premier, but applied for a new Premier which is why (s)he ended up with two accounts. There was never an online upgrade path and people who ignored the "if you already have an account, PHONE us to upgrade" message online ended up with a second account.

You can transfer money instantly between A&L current accounts by PHONE if you quote the 9 digit account number but not online because all online transfers are made using BACS.

Gingerdad refers to cheques getting lost - this is probably down to the Post Office not A&L. If it's a recurring problem it ought to be escalated to A&L to bring up with the Post Office as it's clearly not satisfactory; I've never had a cheque lost myself.

[Deleted User]

Cheques into my smile account have been clearing in two days. Transfers between smile accounts take place instantly Those into my lloyds account take 4 days.

A +L hang onto customer`s money as long as possible for obvious reasons ie more interest for the bank plus the additional charges imposed on customers who are not completely aware of the transition times, even between it`s own accounts