Adding to 3.5% A&L ISA

Tony69

I opened a 3.5% A&L Flexible ISA back in early March and put in my maximum of £3600. So does anybody actually know if any further I add to this amount in the new finanacial year will still get the same rate as the £3600 already deposited. In the leaflet I received headed Specific terms & conditions for Flexible ISA it states one of the points says "Save from £1 up to your annual cash ISA limit" so from this I would have thought that yes you can add to the account and still receive the same interest.

I rang A&L and the lady I spoke to said that if I added to the money I already have in, the whole amount then reduces to 0.5% interest, I checked with her if she was sure it was the whole amount and not just the added amount but she said it would be the whole amount. I have to say that I did get the feeling she wasn't too sure and hoped she may go away and check...but she didn't.

Does anybody actually know for sure what the situation is?

blueberrypie

Some discussion of the situation on this thread: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2380223

I thought the maximum balance of £5100 shown on their website might prevent people adding their 10/11 allowance, but others (who probably know better than me) think not.

markums

I have just transferred in my 2010/2011 allowance of £5100 into my flexible 3.5% ISA on top of my £3600 which was added on March 20th using Lloyds Internet banking. Today's transfer was instant and I had no problems or errors. I also just logged onto my A+L Internet banking and it shows my new balance of £8700.
No problems yet and I shall let the forum know if I get any calls/queries from A+L, but I think it's safe to assume it's okay.

wriggly

blueberrypie wrote: »

I thought the maximum balance of £5100 shown on their website might prevent people adding their 10/11 allowance, but others (who probably know better than me) think not.

The maximum balance now shows as £10,200 indicating that it is still open for 2010/11 deposits.

TO check this, go to http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/savings/interest-rates.aspx and enter the first 3 digits of your account number (which should be 897, 898 for the 3.5% ISA account).

Ditch_Crawler

Tony69 wrote: »

I rang A&L and the lady I spoke to said that if I added to the money I already have in, the whole amount then reduces to 0.5% interest, I checked with her if she was sure it was the whole amount and not just the added amount but she said it would be the whole amount. I have to say that I did get the feeling she wasn't too sure and hoped she may go away and check...but she didn't.

That is just sooo typical of yer average call centre operative - you can get better advice than that in your local boozer! In that situation, I would ask for the operative's name/team number/extension number, and then ask to speak to a supervisor. Sometimes, the operative will deliberately keep you holding on, so it's sometimes best to hang up, redial and ask the new operative to transfer you, which usually they will do straightaway to avoid having to think about anything.

I would then follow up with a letter of complaint - such a level of incompetence is in nobody's interest, neither yours nor theirs.

Ditch.

gunmaker

My wife & I each opened an A&L Flexible ISA @ 3.5% on 26th March at our local branch. They were both opened for 2010/11 as we had already deposited the max amount for 2009/10 elsewhere. All we got from the branch at the time was a business card from the rep we saw with both account numbers written with Mr by one and Mrs by another. We haven't yet received any other documentation to date.

Today, 6th April, I transferred £5,100 via Internet Banking into my new ISA, or so I thought. It went through with no problem. My wife then tried to do the same and got told she couldn't deposit any more into her ISA as it already had £5,100 in it. On checking we discovered that we both had the same ISA account number and my money was showing in her account too. After 20 minutes on the phone we discovered the number that was supposed to be mine was actually my wife's and my account number hasn't been entered on either account.

I have since received a phone call from them telling me they have sorted it all out and everything is now correct. I won't hold my breath though as both accounts are still showing the same account number online.:mad: