A&L account closure - closing withdrawal

Dagobert

At the beginning of August, I requested the closure of my current account in writing.

I never received any communication nor a cheque for the closing balance of £1. So I assumed my request had not been acted upon.

I just logged on and noticed that the account had been closed on 24th Aug and the balance had been withdrawn to ************. This is not one of my account numbers.

Do they just pocket small closing balances these days?

Joe_Bloggs

It costs me time and effort to deal with a cheque upon account closure. My approach is to leave a fiver in the account and offer it to the supported charities of the bank upon closure. This may not be money saving but I have not been pestered with nagging requests for more money from long forgotten accounts.

J_B. (If someone is stealing your money it could be a philanthropist in disguise!)

Sceptic001

Joe_Bloggs wrote: »

It costs me time and effort to deal with a cheque upon account closure. My approach is to leave a fiver in the account and offer it to the supported charities of the bank upon closure. This may not be money saving but I have not been pestered with nagging requests for more money from long forgotten accounts.

This approach is fine unless you have a Santander account which charges £5 per month "underfunding fee" if you don't pay in £500.

scragend

Dagobert wrote: »

Do they just pocket small closing balances these days?

Yes I think so. I closed an account (not with A&L but I can't remember who with) a while ago and asked for the balance to be sent to me. It was less than £1. They never sent it but transferred it to another account instead.

They might claim it goes to charity. Perhaps the Santander Customer Service Staff Benevolent Fund?

Dagobert

If I want to make a contribution to charity I will do so myself.

Just keeping the balance without confirmation of closure is not on. I shall request my £1.

AnonymousForObviousReason

I suspect any amount will be excessive for some people, especially if they are leaving a bank because of bad experience. I would be loathed to give A&L a single penny. Some people also leave token amounts as the cheque acts as a confirmation of closure.

Dagobert

AnonymousForObviousReason wrote: »

I would be loathed to give A&L a single penny.

Bloody right I won't!

AnonymousForObviousReason wrote: »

Some people also leave token amounts as the cheque acts as a confirmation of closure.

This is preceisely why I did it so I would know the date of closure. But they did not even bother confirming closure in writing.

zppp

Dagobert wrote: »

At the beginning of August, I requested the closure of my current account in writing.

I never received any communication nor a cheque for the closing balance of £1. So I assumed my request had not been acted upon.

I just logged on and noticed that the account had been closed on 24th Aug and the balance had been withdrawn to xxxx. This is not one of my account numbers.

Do they just pocket small closing balances these days?

I would strongly suggest you remove the account number and sort code, as this could belong to a poor unsuspecting person - the bank may have made an error.

Rufus_Dufus

Dagobert wrote: »

At the beginning of August, I requested the closure of my current account in writing.

I never received any communication nor a cheque for the closing balance of £1. So I assumed my request had not been acted upon.

I just logged on and noticed that the account had been closed on 24th Aug and the balance had been withdrawn to ************. This is not one of my account numbers.

Do they just pocket small closing balances these days?

When I closed my A&L savings account I had exactly the same thing. It seems they transfer the money to an Abbey National (I think) account and then send you a cheque. My cheque came about a week or so later.

adindas

Hi Guys
I have A&L and I pay £500.00, next month the interest start to drop.
When do you think the best time to close this a/c?.
Is it possible that when I close it I open a new one (if any available) to start a new one ....

I also have Santander PICR a/c and I pay £1,000 a month.

Thank you
ADINDAS

payless

after hearing bad press about telephone/postal closure ( and not keen on £5 underfunding fee again / not found myself happy enough to transfer business to A&L) .. I went to a local Santander( ex Abbey) branch, took over an hour for them to close our ( 1 each) current account and ISAs...
well at least its now done.