Alliance & Leicester Saga - Advice Please

pootas

As a brief introduction I banked with Alliance & Leicester (A&L) for several years until moving my account to the Nationwide in 2008. At the time of moving I completed a form which insured all my direct debits, standing orders etc were transferred to my new Nationwide account. During this point my A&L became £6 overdrawn so paid in cash over the counter at a local branch to ensure I was not overdrawn. During this period I also notified A&L of my change of address and requested the account be closed. I thought it would be sensible to advise A&L of a change of address just in case any issues arose.

So fast forward to this week when I receive a letter from Moorcroft Debt Recovery advising me I owe A&L £418! I contact Moorcroft and they advise that the amount is payable due to overdraft charges on a current account. I explain I have no current account and that I will contact A&L. On contacting A&L I am initially told:

The account is closed but charges were incurred after the account was closed due to being overdrawn. I explained that surely if the account was closed then no further transactions could have taken place? The advisor doesn't seem to really understand the situation so I am passed to the Debt Recovery Team where I am told:

The account was never closed nor were my address details updated. The account is pending closure due to being overdrawn but they cannot at this point explain why I am overdrawn. The advisor tells me that a default has been placed on my credit file due to the fact I refused to communicate with A&L or pay my debts! I explained that I had informed them of my change of address and wished to close account. The advisor states there is nothing she can do until she unarchived my statements so will call me back later

In the mean time I attend my local branch who advise they cannot help due to the fact it was an online account. Later in the day the Debt Recovery Team call me back and advise me that they reason I owe £418 is as follows:

My account was never closed and each quarter £12 has been charged to a company called Call Credit who would appear to be some sort of credit reference agency. I advise A&L I have no knowledge of these transactions and did not authorise them. I was also advised that due to the fact my account was a Premier account I was charged £5 for every month I did not deposit £500. These charges then took me into my overdraft and I was then subsequently charged for this. I again reiterated that I had requested my account be closed and had informed A&L of my change of address but the advisor didn't seem to take any notice.

After this I decide to call the Group Customer Relations Team at A&L to file a formal complaint. They take all my details and assure me the matter will be looked into. In the meantime I decide to start collecting some evidence against A&L so asked my friend to visit my old address and speak with the occupiers to establish if there had been any mail for me. The occupiers confirmed no mail had arrived.

I also checked my credit file and no default notice has been placed onto my account which contradicts what the Debt Recovery Team have stated. I decide to call the Group Customer Relations Team and the following points have been raised:

1. Why was my account not closed nor my address updated.
A&L have said that if a customer requests to close an account but a card transaction is still active they will not close they account HOWEVER there is no policy whereby they would inform the customer the account has not ceased
2. Why did I receive no correspondence at all from A&L.
A&L initially stated that it had been sent to old address with no response however when I informed A&L I had spoken to current occupiers the A&L now state all mail was returned to sender
3. Why was I informed a default was placed onto my credit file when it was not.
A&L are currently looking into this and I have requested the listen to the calls
4. Why did A&L pass details to Moorcroft rather than search electoral roll to confirm my address.
A&L are looking into why the electoral roll was not searched


I have raised some other issues regarding their policies but I think the 4 points above are the main issues.

If anybody can offer an advice/help/past experiences with dealing with issues like this I would really appreciate it. It has only been ongoing for 2 days and already I'm stressed over it!!!

Thanks in advance

Sugarhunny1

I have never come across a bank like A&L.

My OH went 37p overdrawn and had to pay over £100 in charges due to this. We put our hands up to this and paid. We also requested that the bank account be closed.

Roll on a month....

Another letter through saying we were overdrawn. OH phoned up and asked how he was overdrawn and had to request to listen to the previous calls to determine that he had paid in the correct amount as stated by the call centre advisor. OH had to talk the man on the phone through the charges and finally convinced the chap on the phone that it was A&L fault.

He fought for compo, got offered £20. Bearing in mind this was a stressful situation dragged over weeks and endless phone calls. He finally settled on £40 and the reassuarance that this account would be closed.

Roll on a week....

Got a letter saying the account was closed and they were sorry for the hassle etc etc and please accept the enclosed cheque for £40.......

There was no cheque!!!!

Awful awful bank!!! They don't honestly know what they are doing. He then phoned up to ask about the cheque and they bascially tried to lie to him saying it was due to the bank hol monday that he didnt get a cheque.

We still awaiting to receive the cheque.

This has nothing to do with your situation but I wanted to share my story and also try and say....

Try and not worry, this will probably take ages to sort out! Good luck.

Sugar xxx

pootas

Just to update I have spoken to Callcredit who were somewhat helpful. They confirmed that an account had been setup in my name at my address in 2008. They also confirmed this was done online but had never been accessed. Apparently this isn't the 1st time this has happened and they are going to put it in writing to me. In the meantime I will be submitting a Data Protection Act request to A&L to get full disclosure of what is on my account...

I have a feeling this issue could take sometime to resolve...

Sagaris

Virtually the same thing happened to our account, but with Abbey instead of A & L (who we opened the account with after 'closing' the Abbey one. Our debt didn't get passed on as we still got statements, so for 3 months we were visiting the branch to pay off the charges (like yours, because we were no longer paying in the minimum amount to escape the account fee) - eventually it took a few letters to the Financial Ombudsman for them to see sense and to finally close the account.

I want to move the account away from A & L now they are part of Santander, but am biding my time for now - I'm not looking forward to it though!