A&L Available Balance doesn't add up?!

tia86

Hi
I'm a bit confused (and worried) about the balance of my A&L account.

I am in credit in my account plus have an overdraft with them, yet these two figures don't add up to the amount shown in the available balance.

I have booked a holiday and am concerned that when the money gets taken this is greater than my available balance and that I will get charged for this....however I dont understand where this figure has come from considering the overdraft alone should pay for the holiday not including the money I have in my account!!

Any explanations would be great!

Techhead_2

Its not really possible to say without some indications of the values you are taking about.
One possible explanation is simply the authorisation hold on the holiday payment. (if the value of the overdraft is greater than the credit balance)

Haze

Hi tia86,

I have been with A&L for years, the way I usually work it out is as follows.

Deduct your agreed overdraft from the available balance then deduct this figure from your actual balance and that will give you the amount of pending transactions still to be applied to your account.

Think about what you have recently purchased on your debit card and the total should be the same as the difference.

Hope this helps?

tia86

Thanks Haze but still rather confused by it - surely if I add up the value of my overdraft plus the amount i'm in credit, that should give me the total value...then if I deduct the amount of the holiday and other odds and ends that should give me the available balance? However thats what doesnt add up as the available balance is suggesting I have less than I have i.e. my holiday is around £1200 yet my overdraft is over £1500...so should have enough to cover it..yet available balance is showing as £1000. My concern is that once the holiday money is taken according to the figures on the online banking that would be £200 over the agreed overdraft and something i'd be charged for! Am I missing something obvious?!

(those figures are approx btw!)

Newly_retired

As Haze says, think about any recent payments you have made that are not yet showing up, even as Pending Payments ( I never see anything in that category). There is often a discrepancy between actual balance and what they show as available, leaving aside the overdraft facility.

NikkiP_2

have you maybe paid in a cheque in the last few days ? Might not yet have cleared and therefore not showing as available ?

curly_B

I had a problem with my Alliance & Leicester account where after the migration to Santander some of my direct debits and debit card payments were being paid but then were also earmarked for I think 10 days before being released back to my account, appearing to be like a double payment. Once I knew what was happening after thinking how on earth was I spending that much, I checked twice daily online and any differences I had to ring bank who could see if things that were paid had also been earmarked !! It went on for 5 weeks until someone referred my account to check everything going out so it only went once !!! Argh it was dreadful . This was why my balance and available nver worked for me over September and early October, worth looking at ?

jen245

I also had issues with balances being wrong on my account. Money would be randomly deducted from my available balance when I hadn't even made any payments. I also had random amounts credited to my available balance, then a few days later it would disappear. My overdraft also doubled for 3 days then went back to normal. I got fed up with it, so I switched to natwest and closed my accounts.

Loughton_Monkey

Do not trust anything. A&L's recent computer migration to Santander was a complete disaster, as many will testify. Errors all over the place. So anything could happen, sadly, and if it is their error, you will have to go through all the hoops with them - after which they weill probably refund bogus charges.