Trying to close Alliance & Leicester esaver

maggiesden

Sceptic001 wrote: »

I haven't tried it myself, but it has been said on the Budgeting & Bank Accounts forum that these annoying A&L online accounts can be closed via secure message. I have a couple of old online savers myself with £1 balances, so would be interested to know if it works!

I transferred my money out of an online saver 4 & 7 today and I have managed to leave zero balances on both accounts, where as before I had to leave a £1

So try transferring the odd £1.00 from these accounts to leave zero balances.

caveat_emptor

This sounds like a typical Santander ploy ie to make it as difficult as they can to close an account.
I had the same problem when I closed an Abbey account. I did it but only after a lot of hassle.

oldfella

other option is to transfer all the money out, and then wait until 1st October when interest is paid, then transfer that out leaving as little as possible in the account.

td_007

The "go to branch" nonsense for A&L has started after Santander migration. Funnily enough, you can close a Santander esaver account over the phone but you cannot do the same with the A&L esaver or the Premier direct account. I spent 45 minutes in branch to close my accounts....

artha

I closed my A&L current account and online saver 5 on thursday(22nd) afternoon. It took about 15 minutes to get to speak to someone but after that it went smoothly. Unlike previous dealings with A&L there appeared to be no questions as to why I wanted to close these accounts or offers to continue the 5% rate on my current account. The ~9K I was removing was in my Lloyds account this morning, a bit sooner than I expected.

roddydogs

oldfella wrote: »

other option is to transfer all the money out, and then wait until 1st October when interest is paid, then transfer that out leaving as little as possible in the account.

Yes, but you then lose 2 months interest on the interest you've earned.

roddydogs

maggiesden wrote: »

I transferred my money out of an online saver 4 & 7 today and I have managed to leave zero balances on both accounts, where as before I had to leave a £1

So try transferring the odd £1.00 from these accounts to leave zero balances.

But wont you have some interest thats not yet been added?
A/L freephone 0800 0566066.......have your details ready and ring as early as possible(Yes i know its been posted before but some people dont read all the posts.) PS online transfer of money still not working...................

tawse57

On another forum someone posted this last night:

'Beware, Santander have changed the small print on ex-A&L accounts. If you do not use your account often enough they can class it as "Dormant", and charge an annual fee. It's all on page 8 of leaflet SA0248/NOV/JW... you did read it, didn't you?'

So in theory if you leave a Pound in the account and think it is defunct you possibly will end up facing charges more than the £1 in future.

castle96

my saver 5 (3.15%) account 'expires' on 1/8, but I have set up a saver 7 account (2.75%) to transfer the money to. I know there are accounts that are (slightly) higher, but the 7 account is a decent rate isn't it ? and they say "just ring and we will transfer the funds". Am I going to get a world of pain !?