A&L Be Warned & Help Required

mshaw77

Dear All.

This is a word of warning against Alliance & Leicester. Their current account sounds all very well and is brilliant as long as you abide to the letter their Terms and Conditions. But if you don't they will soon come down on you with charges( which you can claim back) But worst of all they register Late payments and arrears on your Credit reports, so they really screw you. Essentially I had an overdraft of £1000 for a year, I then recieved a letter saying if I did not pay atleast £2000 into account a month they would review in six weeks. I could not, so they reduced my overdraft that day to £600 leaving me £370 over my overdraft, they then charged me £50 for going over my overdraft and slapped arrears on my credit file. Question is are there any standard letters to get these arrears removed off of my file? Funny thing was I paid £370 after a bit of struggle and their £50 charge put me £0.46p over my overdraft again so they then charged me a further £50.00p. Please Help..... Michelle

grade15

Hi there.. where does it state that you have to put £2000 a month?
I thought that it was £500 a month?( its written on their website)

red_flump

grade15 wrote:

Hi there.. where does it state that you have to put £2000 a month?
I thought that it was £500 a month?( its written on their website)

£2000 might be necessary if you have a £1000 overdraft facility.

red

grade15

not necessary..cos i've got a £1500 overdraft...

KTF

It used to be £1000 min funding on their current account so 1k to clear the overdraft then 1k to meet the min funding requirements.

I know the 0% overdraft offer is only for a year but this seems a bit harsh. Have you called them up and spoken to them. A lot of the charges get applied automatically and they might waive them if you give them a call.

Plutos_2

Alliance and Leicester just got current account supplier of the year from moneywise. I wonder how much they are getting paid?

ALLIANCE & LEICESTER'S PREMIER DIRECT CURRENT ACCOUNT WINS MONEYWISE AWARD FOR SECOND YEAR RUNNING
24 July 2006

ALLIANCE & LEICESTER’S PREMIER DIRECT CURRENT ACCOUNT WINS MONEYWISE AWARD FOR SECOND
YEAR RUNNING

· Premier Direct awarded ‘Best Current Account 2006’ by Moneywise magazine – with the Premier current account taking second place!



Alliance & Leicester’s Premier Direct current account has been named as ‘Best Current Account 2006’ by the UK’s best selling personal finance magazine, Moneywise – with Alliance & Leicester’s Premier current account also taking second place.



The criteria used to judge the award include consistency in offering competitive credit and debit interest rates and first class customer service.



Jeremy King, Publisher of Moneywise magazine said: “Alliance & Leicester’s fee free Premier Direct account has consistently offered a market leading credit interest rate, and highly competitive overdraft rates since its launch.



“Taking this into consideration, alongside the first class customer service offered by Alliance & Leicester, Premier Direct emerged as the clear and deserved winner of Best Current Account 2006. Its branch-based account Premier, with free travel insurance and a competitive overdraft rate also scored well, taking second place.”



Premier Direct and Premier current accounts offer:

· Premier Direct: For people who are happy to bank online, customers benefit from the UK’s lowest authorised and unauthorised overdraft rate of 5.9% – after an initial 0% overdraft for the first 12 months, alongside a great credit interest rate of 5.00% AER on the first £2,500 fixed until 30 September 2007.



· Premier: Customers benefit from free annual travel insurance and attractive rates – 1.50% AER credit interest rate and a 7.9% overdraft rate after an initial 0% overdraft for the first 12 months, together with a range of account servicing options: branch, online or telephone.



Helen Palmer, Current Account Manager at Alliance & Leicester, said: “It’s a double delight that Premier Direct has been recognised by Moneywise magazine as the UK’s best current account for the second year running – and the icing on the cake is second place for our Premier current account. Both accounts offer 0% overdrafts for the first 12 months from account opening, and competitive overdraft rates after the 12 month period – with free annual travel insurance also offered on the Premier account.”



Alliance & Leicester’s popular Recommend a Friend offer also continues. With £25 being paid to any existing customer recommending the Premier Direct or Premier current account and £25 going to the new customer opening the account.



Customers can apply for the Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct and Premier current accounts online at https://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk,/currentaccounts by phone on 0845 300 2887, or at any Alliance & Leicester branch.

http://www.alliance-leicester-group.co.uk/html/media/non-indexed/release.asp?txttable=pressreleases&txtcode=PR2407061

mshaw77

A&L Criteria has changed with regards to overdrafts or atleast it has in my case. They require you to pay double whatever your overdraft is a month otherwise they charge an underfunding fee. Yes I have called them with regards to the charges and I have sent them a letter. No joy, so have had to file a claim in court but it is the removal of the adverse credit they have put on my equifax i am more concern with. Don't get me wrong I am not slagging them off I am just warning people......

michaels

It doe sseem like unreasonable behaviour - if they have a specific conditionwith respect to overdrafts and fundings should this not be included in the acocunt terms and conditions rather than the usual 'we can review overdraft at any time' clause.

Also I'm suprised that reducing an overdraft limit and immediately imposing a an unauthorised overdraft fee without first communicating the change in writing and allowing the customer the opportunity to repay isn't outside the banking code of conduct - otherwise and bank could do the same to all its customers with an overdraft at any time simply to earn extra profits...

wearside_2

I would like to share my experiences with the Alliance and Leicester Bank, who have notified me that I am due to have a £25 charge taken from my account in August. The charge arises from transactions on my account that took place on 3 July 2006. I transferred £323 from my Online Saver Issue 2 Account to my Premier Direct Account. I also arranged for the same amount to be transferred on the same day to my wife’s external account, as she is registered to receive gross interest. As the debit was processed prior to the credit from the saving account being processed, I was charged £25 for being overdrawn. The transfer to the external account then took place leaving me with a debit balance of £25. I think it was the following day that I noticed this and contacted the Customer Service Department. I explained that in my opinion I was not overdrawn on 3 July and should have not been charged the £25, as according to my records my opening and closing balances on that day were £0. The lady I spoke to said that she would reduce the charge to £12.50 but after further discussion and her consulting with a manager, she agreed to refund the charge in full. The refund was credited to my account on 5 July 2006.

On 29 July 2006, I checked my account and noticed the pending bank charge of £25. I telephoned the Customer Service Department and spoke to a woman who identified herself as Lisa from the Portugal Team. She told me that the bank charge was as a result of me being overdrawn by £5 for two days on July 4 and July 5. I explained as best I could that this was not the case and technically I was overdrawn by £25 but that was as a direct result of the Alliance taking the £25 charge on 3 July and failing to refund it until 5 July. She told me that she could not deal with my request to waive the impending charge and said that she would consult her manager, who would phone me later. I asked to speak to the manager but was told that this was not possible. I confirmed with her that the manager definitely would telephone me, and was assured that the call would take place before 9.00 pm. Needless to say the call did not take place.

How Moneywise can call this service First Class is beyond me!!

YorkshireBoy

wearside,

In your online secure area for the Premier Direct account, you have two 'balances' - one called 'balance' and the other called 'available balance'. The one labelled 'Available Balance' is the one you should work to.

Additionally, and I'm not 'preaching' here, but A&L do say in their T&C's that...

21. Order of Transactions
21.1 We shall not be obliged to carry out transactions on Your Account in any particular order.

babe_ruth_3

think plutos must be on commission from a&l:rolleyes: