Alliance and Leicester - Utter Crap

FATBALLZ

Not a customer service issue as I gather others have had with A&L/Santander, however in case anybody felt like taking a chance with them anyway here's another warning not to.

I openened a web saver with A&L some time ago, and more recently a Santander web saver because it was 2.75% interest which was more than my other instant access accounts. Anyway I started trying to transfer money across from HSBC...

...7 days later it finally appears in my balance on A&L internet banking...

...9 days after the initial transfer it finally appears in my available balance, so I can transfer it into my new web saver.

So a slightly better interest rate than some of the others out there, but every time you put money in, it takes 9 days - so you lose 9 days of interest. And you'd better hope you don't need the money back in a hurry!

I've opened an Egg saver instead, only 2.5% interest but it is paid into the account in seconds, not weeks!

johnmoney05

Did you do something wrong? A&L accounts accept FP. I did it myself, from my Ulster saving account transferred £10,000 to A&L saving account last month. The only problem is transfer out.

FATBALLZ

johnmoney05 wrote: »

Did you do something wrong? A&L accounts accept FP. I did it myself, from my Ulster saving account transferred £10,000 to A&L saving account last month. The only problem is transfer out.

Don't think so, my original web saver account was opened with my HSBC Current account as a linked account, so i could only transfer money to and out of A&L via my HSBC account. I've never had FP on it. To get money to my new Santander account, i had to transfer from HSBC into my old web saver, and then into the Santander account.

johnmoney05

FATBALLZ wrote: »

Don't think so, my original web saver account was opened with my HSBC Current account as a linked account, so i could only transfer money to and out of A&L via my HSBC account. I've never had FP on it. To get money to my new Santander account, i had to transfer from HSBC into my old web saver, and then into the Santander account.

Wrong. You don't have to transfer money in through your linked account. Read your welcome email again.

AnonymousForObviousReason

johnmoney05 wrote: »

Did you do something wrong? A&L accounts accept FP. I did it myself, from my Ulster saving account transferred £10,000 to A&L saving account last month. The only problem is transfer out.

I found the FP service really quite random, sometimes happens sometimes not. Of course last time I transferred money out it caused my account to be blocked.

System

AnonymousForObviousReason wrote: »

I found the FP service really quite random, sometimes happens sometimes not. Of course last time I transferred money out it caused my account to be blocked.

I think they are referring to incoming payments - incoming FPs are almost never blocked.

Sceptic001

johnmoney05 wrote: »

Wrong. You don't have to transfer money in through your linked account. Read your welcome email again.

Quite right. You should have received a sort code and account number allowing you to transfer directly into the esaver from any outside bank using BACS (or FP if available).