Problem with direct debits when switching to A&L

Sminty

Hi All,

Have recently been sorting my finances and decided to swap to an Alliance and Leicester Premier Direct account as deal seems quite good with £100 cash, free travel insurance etc. A&L were sorting out the transfer of my standing orders and direct debits as part of the deal which they advised on 18th Feb was complete.

I've had two issues with the direct debits crop up which am annoyed about the first of which may not have been avoidable, but the second am sure may have on going effects (possible credit rating?). I believe A&L arranged for the existing d/d's with RBS to be cancelled and give the new details of the A&L a/c.

1). The d/d for may gym membership with the local council didn't go through and received a letter from them asking me to get in touch as payment hadn't been received. Had to go to the to complete a direct debit form and an additional amendment form which had to be signed. Expect that the council have their own rules in accepting amendments so ignored the letter from A&L so possibly not avoidable?

2). Today I received a text message from Egg re: my credit card advising I had an urgent message from them. Checked on line and message advising my card payment was overdue. I'd checked at the weekend and had seen the payment on the account (always pay the full balance now) on the 26th Feb and the new A&L account details registered on system. When I checked today there was an account adjustment reversing the payment from my account!

I made payment by switch card straight away and noted that it takes 3-4 days to credit the account which means I'm a fair bit overdue on payment.

Was mildy annoyed at this point as potentially it means I will incur interest which I shouldn't have / may affect my credit rating or interest rate payable in future.

Anyway, got a phone call from Egg collection dept 10 mins ago asking about the direct debit so I explained as I had in my email to them this afternoon. The person then asked was I having financial difficulties and will it happen again! So explained again that it was due to account switching and no it wouldn't. They advised they would waive the £16 fee for late payment and had an email to say they will credit any interest when calculated on the next statement.

Sorry for the long post, but has anyone have any advice or experience on taking it up with A&L for inconvenience caused as the whole issue should have been avoided.

System

Hi Sminty

My experience of A&L:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=13805643&postcount=144

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14355457&postcount=181

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14485913&postcount=191

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=15905779&postcount=278

Definitely complain to A&L, you deserve compensation IMO.

And make sure you check your credit files to ensure a late payment marker hasn't been added by Egg.

Regards
UNDERGROUND

Joho42

They are awful. I swear they just offered this incentive to give their incompetant switching team something to do.

I used the switching team, literally monitoring my account every couple of days. I only had my salary to transfer over as well as my dd's. I asked them whether I could do the admin stuff/transfer my salary/dd's myself but they said they had to do it to get the £100 incentive.

Four months on, yes, I have got the £100. I had to transfer my salary myself, as they sent me a letter advising they hadn't been able to do it - so I did it myself. Also, despite them saying they had, all they did was cancel my dd's from my old account. I have reset them to the old account, and have cashed out the £100. Recommended my friend to open an account, he gets £125, and I get £25 for recommending him. As soon as that comes through, I'm closing the account with immediate effect.

£125 for their incompetance, thanks very much. If you make sure that you monitor the account consistently, and have money to cover any dd's that do get switched correctly, then its £100 for hassle essentially. But I would recommend getting the account, then cashing out and closing it.

jonnythurston

What you said is spot on joho

From what I hear it is a bit of a running joke about how bad the customer service is A&L. I recently openend the current account for the £100 reward. I filled in all the forms for the dd's, and switched my salary myself.

After about a month they sent me a letter saying it all had been completed. (I had just 1 dd.) They paid me the £100 and it was happy days. Surprise surprise, the dd didn't collect at all, but i was straight on it and paid over the phone.

The day after I closed the account, cashing out an easy £100. I think it is doing more harm to A&L than good. As all they are showing is that they can't move 1 dd into their bank, hardly someone that I want to be trusting with my wages in the future. Wont be going back . . unless it's for another £100!

I am doing the exact same thing with Natwest for another £100 so will have to see how I get on. So far they have moved it across and the dd is collecting, but no sign of the £100 as yet. . .

Fingers Crossed!

tufc_mark

Yup, me too. Switching has been a nightmare... phone bill paid late so missed out on my cash back deal with the mobile phone company. I've just seen my cable TV bill's overdue too so that's another £10.
At a time when I'm considering getting a first mortgage it's a bad time to have Alliance and Leicester screw my credit rating up. They received a letter explaining my experience and they just said they'd done everything within regulations. Unfortunately those regulations are clearly useless and cause confusion within the system.

I also had to ask them for the £100 incentive in the letter as I didn't receive that either. They said they would in view of my letter... unfortunately, that should have been automatic!

I wish I hadn't bothered, it's cost me £85 thanks to late payments so far plus a load of hassle setting up direct debits they'd messed up.

The £100 is pure compensation for the hassle of using their incompetent switching 'service'... I say don't do it if you have lots of DDs.

karatedragon

You would think with the number of moans on here about A&L that people wouldn't bother with them. Shows how desperate people are for £100 :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: