Switching to A+L Premier Current Account

Skeksis

I am thinking of switching my main bank account from First Direct to an A+L Premier Current account to 1) Reduce the £2000 overdraft on my FD account by switching to one with a minimal to nothing O/D facility, and 2) Take advantage of the switching bonus from A+L into the bargain.

My main concern is when A+L contact FD to switch the DD's (not many) and SO, but not necessarily my salary immediately, FD will know what I am doing and call the overdraft in immediately, leaving me high and dry, although the overdraft agreement has been in place for several years without a problem, but I realise that they can change the T's & C's at will! I also have a £500 O/D on another FD current account, which I am making in-roads into reducing, and basically want to get shut of these pesky accounts with overdrafts early in the New Year.

I also noted in the A+L terms that cahoot account holders can't take advantage of the sign-up bonus, but I read it as current account holders, as I think I have a dormant cahoot savings account. This would basically make switching pointless, so can anyone verify this?

Also, does anyone know what type of debit card the A+L Premier Current account uses, as I'm struggling to find this on their site!

Many thanks for any advice given!

MediaFrenzy

Visa Debit

Consumerist

Frankly, this could be a bit tricky for you. The banks have been pulling overdrafts for no reason at all lately so moving all your DDs and SOs could be seen as a bit provocative. You would be wise to have a Plan B for the overdrafts.

I can confirm that the debit card is a Visa debit card.

michael1983l

Having had a FD account and an A+L Premier account I would strongly advise you not to switch. I stopped using my A+L Premier account and left £3 in it. They charged me a £5 under usage fee that was buried in the T&Cs which took me £2 overdrawn. A+L then charged me without my knowledge and then carried on charging me on a daily basis. Their argument was they were informing me on my online banking, which of course I wasn't logging into because I no longer used the account. Before I knew it I was £120 Overdrawn.

I only found out when I looked at my credit file before I applied for my mortgage. I then called, which I spent nearlyy 30 mins on hold a time to customer services and they then proceeded to blackmail me saying they would only remove the mark off my credit file if I paid them in full immidiatly. Even though they agreed it was an honest mistake and the charges were extortionate for going £2 overdrawn.

There are lots of charges and the customer service is pants, even worse now as its pretty much Abbey.

If I was you I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

sysadmin

Just remember people only post about banks when they complain.

missile

As has been said, most satisfied customers do not post, but I was not too happy with their service either.

Trying to think of something nice to say

A+L did give me a free overdraft.

michael1983l

sysadmin wrote: »

Just remember people only post about banks when they complain.

Fair enough but does a decent bank really leave someone on hold for 30 mins a call and blackmail their customers?

I'm with Co-op now and they are absolutly perfect.

blueberrypie

michael1983l wrote: »

Having had a FD account and an A+L Premier account I would strongly advise you not to switch.

I've been a customer of A&L for a very long time and have never had any major problems with them. But I'm also a relatively new customer of First Direct, and would second the above advice. The two banks are on different planets when it comes to customer service, not to mention on-line banking services. I'd stick with FD, if it was me.

And yes, FD is quite likely to call in your overdraft once you stop making regular deposits into the account.

You need to pay off overdrafts before you remove your overdraft facility - otherwise you're still overdrawn, but now it's an unauthorised overdraft, which brings higher bank charges and worse credit reports.

td_007

Skeksis wrote: »

My main concern is when A+L contact FD to switch the DD's (not many) and SO, but not necessarily my salary immediately, FD will know what I am doing and call the overdraft in immediately, leaving me high and dry, although the overdraft agreement has been in place for several years without a problem, but I realise that they can change the T's & C's at will! I also have a £500 O/D on another FD current account, which I am making in-roads into reducing, and basically want to get shut of these pesky accounts with overdrafts early in the New Year.

Do you have any other a/cs with DDs? If so you can switch those to A&L. Or, just move one or two dds to another a/c if you have one - this will take about 2 weeks to appear on the new a/c (and the switch offer may have gone by then).

Re firstdirect, I would think that as long as you continue paying in your salary, fd will let you hold onto the overdraft - after all they are making money off you.

michael1983l

If you do have money problems FD can be approached and will normally help you with payment arrangements. What they don't like is silence.

wq0pco

I have started the process last night of switching to the A & L Prem acct to claim my £100 for free.

I will let you all know how it goes as I am closing my Halifax acct to transfer everything across, so will see how they go about DD's & SO's being kept on track.