Alliance & Leicester - New Charges

Doc_N

Just noticed they've hit me with this £5 'underfunding fee' too. £500 paid into the account, as always, and these are the current T&C from the website:


http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/customer-service/pdfs/curr-acc-guide-to-fees.pdf

Premier Direct Current Account You must pay in at least £500 each month

Premier Current Account You must pay in at least £500 each month


What a bunch of useless bankers.

artha

Doc_N wrote: »

Just noticed they've hit me with this £5 'underfunding fee' too. £500 paid into the account, as always, and these are the current T&C from the website:


http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/customer-service/pdfs/curr-acc-guide-to-fees.pdf

Premier Direct Current Account You must pay in at least £500 each month

Premier Current Account You must pay in at least £500 each month


What a bunch of useless bankers.

I posted this info elsewhere but it didn't get any response but this thread seems to be a better place. Both myself and OH got an underfunding fee due in September even though we had paid in the minimum £500(A&L Premier Direct Current Account). When I queried it for my account I was told it was a glitch due to the Santander amalgamation and it would be refunded. When my OH queried it day before yesterday they were told that it was an error and it would be refunded but that from next month (October) the minimum funding for any Santander account (i.e. legacy A&L accounts) would become £1000. Looks like they have been applying new T&Cs befoer they come into force. When asked when existing customers would be informed of these new T&Cs the person seemed a bit flustered and transferred us to another dept at which point we were cut off. Enough said

monkey_writer

I asked in a branch and they said that there were no plans to change the T&C of my overdraft in any way, and they should stay as they are for the duration of the account.

Do any of them know what they're talking about?

Doc_N

Still waiting for a reply from them, 8 days on. So much for the: [FONT=&quot]We will respond as quickly as possible, normally within 24 hours[/FONT]

davidgmmafan

I've not had a £5 underfunding fee but for a few days there was charge showing of £1.50. No idea what it was for, it came up on the charges due to be applied tab. It then disappeared and didn't come out. Must've just been a blip.

AnonymousForObviousReason

Consumerist wrote: »

Unfortunately, you also omitted to tell us all what that FREEFONE number is. The only numbers publicly available seem to be 0844 numbers (10p + 5p/min).

0800 0566066 (don't use that 6p per min 0844 one). I got this from http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php

Loughton_Monkey

Wednesday wrote: »

With the Premier account you always had to pay in at least £500 a month - if you don't, you are charged the underfunding fee - that's not a new charge.

Care! Care! Care!

My wife and I had A&L Premier Direct accounts. They are virtually dormant, but I used to pay £500 into both of them, and then transfer them back to avoid the £5 charge. I do it always on the same day/time for both accounts.

In August, they chose to charge my wife "Under Funding Fee" of £5. But I wasn't charged. My wife phoned. The guy explained that it has to be in 4 days!!!!! Well that's new! I've been shoving it in, then out on the next day for months without charge! Ironically, this particular one had been in 6 days.

Anyway, the guy DID reverse the £5.

This was the last straw and we wanted to close all our accounts. Trouble is (Be warned) there is only one way to do this. Personal Visit to a Santander branch. You CANNOT do it online, by telephone, or by letter.

As evidenced by 1½ hours standing at the counter, Santander staff have no idea how to close A&L accounts. They physically cannot close my wife's account, not least because their erroneous £5 charge put the account O/D and so a £15 Overdraft Fee has now shown up.

How to get rid of this? You CANNOT do this by phone, online, or by letter. Not only do you have to visit a Santander Branch, you have to do it by appointment with the Manager!

This must be costing THEM a fortune, let alone !!!!ing us off enormously (and they know we have substantial money in Santander as well as the old A&L accounts).

Consumerist

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

. . . we wanted to close all our accounts. Trouble is (Be warned) there is only one way to do this. Personal Visit to a Santander branch. You CANNOT do it online, by telephone, or by letter.

I doubt if you are unable to close an account by letter. A letter is a legally recognised document and even though A&L / Santander might prefer you to close an account another way, they can't stop you sending it. If you send a letter by Recorded Delivery post and confirm its receipt using online tracking then you may assume they have received it.

I will be closing a Premier account later this month and I will be doing so by Recorded Delivery post. If A&L doesn't like it then that's what the complaints procedure and the FOS are for.

shymanuk

ive too had the under funding fee though paid in £500 each month to be honest i only keep this account going as have a online saver with them but think i can do without this grief. any ideas wheres best to put £11000 odd thats in it .

molerat

Consumerist wrote: »

I doubt if you are unable to close an account by letter. A letter is a legally recognised document and even though A&L / Santander might prefer you to close an account another way, they can't stop you sending it. If you send a letter by Recorded Delivery post and confirm its receipt using online tracking then you may assume they have received it.

I will be closing a Premier account later this month and I will be doing so by Recorded Delivery post. If A&L doesn't like it then that's what the complaints procedure and the FOS are for.

I tried to close some accounts by letter and got a letter back saying it could not be done that way and to phone to do it. Phoned and they did it straight away. The problem is OH does not like doing things on the phone, one of the reasos for choosing on-line banking.