DON'T open an account with Alliance & Leicester - even if they are offering you £100!

cannonball_2

I changed with them about 18 months ago and have had no problems really, just with one direct debit at the beginning I think but that was soon cleared up. There online banking is not as good as Halifax as it isnt real time (as said) but you can get used to that. I would prefer they stayed as A&L as I am pretty sure the £5 max overdraft charge is going pretty soon.

crazyfj

no problems, direct debt switching was fine, 100 quid up, got use to the on line system

B.E.N

topgranny wrote: »

They even told me that I should chase up the DSS to change my details (I was claiming sickness benefit at the time) rather than them. Because they didn't transfer all the payments that should have been made into the account.....

The utter cheek of it :eek:

Why on earth would you assume that they would contact your employers / DWP to change the bank details that they have for you. Furthermore, what makes you think that the DWP would take notice! Heck, if that was to happen, every Unemployed person with debt would have debt collectors/banks sending in letters requesting this change.

sun_tzu

topgranny wrote: »

I see from the latest e-mail that Alliance & Leicester are again offering £100 when you open an account with them.

My advice to anyone thinking of doing this is DON'T, DON'T, DON'T!!!

Both my son and I opened accounts with them a couple of years ago and we had nothing but trouble with them. They messed up the transfer of our standing orders and direct debits from our old accounts. They even told me that I should chase up the DSS to change my details (I was claiming sickness benefit at the time) rather than them. Because they didn't transfer all the payments that should have been made into the account, they were constantly stopping payments that should have gone out, and then charging me for the privilege.

I closed my account after just 2 or 3 months and transferred everything back to my cahoot account. My son closed his a while later but received a letter last week pointing out changes in the terms and conditions. He rang them, only to find that his account had not been closed (he actually went into a branch to close the account) and that they were loading charges onto the account as he hadn't been paying any money in!

Worst of all, I have now received the same letter from A&L and I'm worried that MY account wasn't closed either. I did write to cancel and can't now remember whether I had an acknowledgement or not.

Cahoot is also part of Santander.

Although is not great, their Internet service is not as bad.
A&L branches are very frustrating, part due to staff, part due to old IT systems.

ApolloBlue

Hello all! I hate for my first ever post to be negative but I have had the same problems. First of all they messed up several of my direct debits which I ended up having to rearrange myself, they set up 2 savings accounts for me at the same time which I didn't ask or apply for, I applied for a credit card at the same time but they lost the application (even though it was online), they claimed to match my overdraft via their 'simple and easy' switching service which they did not so I ended having to make several trips to the branch and provide reams of evidence to eventually get them to do, they have not given me my incentive payment and I have been told my account is not eligible for it as it is the wrong type of account even though I applied for the account on their website through the link that said it was for the account with the incentive (figure that out?) and I was told in branch I would get the incentive once my second salary payment had gone in, and to top it all their online service is terrible and it takes forever for anything to show up in my account. I thought HSBC were bad but they are faultless compared to A&L. I fully intend to switch back once the 0% overdraft has expired.

Glad to hear that some people had a better experience though sadly I was not one of the lucky ones!

debbym

Consumerist wrote: »

I did have a problem with one DD during the transfer process but I came to the conclusion, at the time, that it wasn't the fault of A&L. They did rather leave it to me to sort out though.

I suspect that many problems arise because people don't fully understand the Ts&Cs and therefore tend to fall foul of them. On the other hand, the Ts&Cs seem quite complex and tend to be divided up into different documents which can be contradictory so that it's sometimes hard to pin down a requirement.

My problems with A&L are the derisory £250 FPS which restricts the ability to move money around quickly and they seem to be inordinately slow to do even the basics - you can't, for example, move money between savings accounts; you have to withdraw to a linked account (which may be an external account) and then make a payment from the linked account back to A&L. This seems to be a pretty antiquated system harking back to its Building Society days.

I have been trying to change my nominated account that is linked to my A&L savings account for 6 months now with no joy. Result money sitting in my savings account linked to a now defunct current account, A&L current account overdrawn by less than the savings and charges mounting daily. :mad:Doesn't help that I am sat in Germany at the moment and their advice is to visit a branch in person- the very reason I opened an Internet account in the first place was so I could manage my accounts whilst living in Germany for 2 years due to OH's job. Yep I had problems galore with the DD's at the start too!

missile

topgranny wrote: »

I see from the latest e-mail that Alliance & Leicester are again offering £100 when you open an account with them.

My advice to anyone thinking of doing this is DON'T, DON'T, DON'T!!!

Both my son and I opened accounts with them a couple of years ago and we had nothing but trouble with them. They messed up the transfer of our standing orders and direct debits from our old accounts. They even told me that I should chase up the DSS to change my details (I was claiming sickness benefit at the time) rather than them. Because they didn't transfer all the payments that should have been made into the account, they were constantly stopping payments that should have gone out, and then charging me for the privilege.

I closed my account after just 2 or 3 months and transferred everything back to my cahoot account. My son closed his a while later but received a letter last week pointing out changes in the terms and conditions. He rang them, only to find that his account had not been closed (he actually went into a branch to close the account) and that they were loading charges onto the account as he hadn't been paying any money in!

Worst of all, I have now received the same letter from A&L and I'm worried that MY account wasn't closed either. I did write to cancel and can't now remember whether I had an acknowledgement or not.

I don't like A+L either, but you are being unreasonable - no bank would arrange transfer of payments IN from your old account.

sneaky

With A&L always double treble check everything. I arranged a direct debit last month and was told it can take upto a month to set up. When I checked online a few weeks later it was showing up as being set up but was told to ignore this as they cant say for sure if the payment will be taken for this month.(still has a few weeks until the payment date) Ended up making a manual payment as had no faith the dd will go through and it didnt.