A & L Premier Direct Current Account

Sponge

I transferred a couple of months ago and used their switching service. All seemed to be going well until I logged into my account on Friday. There was a returned direct debit for my car loan!

I initially got a £1000 overdraft, but then using their switching service meant they matched my existing overdraft of £2000. However, even though they sent me a letter to confirm the increase, it seems they didn't actually update their system. So at the beginning of this month my car loan direct debit put me over the £1000 and it 'bounced'.

A couple of emails and a phone call later, they've admitted it's their fault and have updated their system. But it doesn't make up for the fact I have missed a payment on a loan and all that happens because of it!

I now have to run around calling my car loan company to sort it out and probably have to call someone like Experian to get my credit file sorted. (Doesn't that normally cost something?)

I'm still waiting for my 'refer a friend' dosh too.

mrs_baggins

after reading the posts about the a and l premier acct it seems like some people get refused for no apparent reason. I was looking to open one soon but as I recently had a post office visa and 6 months ago a (free wine) smile account would they maybe think twice about giving me an account. I have no o/s debts but these may have affected my credit rating.

MarkyMarkD

Sponge

Your overdraft limit is very clearly shown when you log into online banking - could you not have observed that your limit was shown as £1,000 before you exceeded it?

You can't get Experian to correct your record; you would need your lender to do so. But they won't, because as far as they are concerned you missed a payment. You can get Experian to put a note on your file explaining the missed payment, but I wouldn't bother - one missed payment is not significant, and I have heard that some lenders' (poorer) automated credit scoring systems mark down people with manual notes on their file as they consider that people who need to have such notes are inherently problematic.

Mrs Baggins

I don't think that your credit rating will be damaged by having successfully applied for 2 accounts, if you have no outstanding debts.

Essenchill

Possibly a stupid question - there is a limit (£2,500?) to the amount you can have in this account before you forfeit the impressive interest rate. I was just wondering - does the overdraft effect this?

i.e. if you have £1,500 in the account plus an overdraft of £1,000 - are you then at your limit for the interest rate, or is the overdraft in no way included, and so you have to physically HAVE £2,501 in the account before you start to miss out on the decent interest?

tom188

No you earn 6% up to a credit balance of 2500.

Sponge

MarkyMarkD wrote:

Sponge

Your overdraft limit is very clearly shown when you log into online banking - could you not have observed that your limit was shown as £1,000 before you exceeded it?

Oh, I'm sorry. It's quite obviously my fault. I should have assumed they would mess it up and checked up on them everyday waiting for their mistake. How could I have been so stupid.

MPH80

Sponge wrote:

Oh, I'm sorry. It's quite obviously my fault. I should have assumed they would mess it up and checked up on them everyday waiting for their mistake. How could I have been so stupid.

Because one of the first rules in everything in life is never assume?

This applies especially in big corporations.

It's your finances - they make no guarantees about *when* they'll set up an overdraft (they took 4 weeks to do mine) - and I knew the day they did it because I checked every day - just a quick two second look.

Until that moment - I knew I had to make sure I didn't breach it.

If you asked a builder to build you an extension - would you leave him to it and assume he did it - or would you check on him?

M.

MarkyMarkD

Sponge

There's no need to be sarcastic. I didn't say you had to check your account every day - but if you needed to exceed the £1,000 overdraft limit which you were originally allotted, it seems prudent to me that you'd check that the overdraft limit was shown correctly the next time you checked your account online. If you'd done so, you'd have queried with them why the increase hadn't been effected and avoided any difficulty.

Essenchill

You can't have a £1,500 credit balance and a £1,000 overdraft at the same time. So you can't benefit from the good credit interest rate, and the interest free overdraft, at the same time. So the maximum benefit you can derive from the account is a £1,000 interest free overdraft, or a £2,500 credit balance at a good rate.

Touche

MarkyMarkD wrote:

Sponge

There's no need to be sarcastic. I didn't say you had to check your account every day - but if you needed to exceed the £1,000 overdraft limit which you were originally allotted, it seems prudent to me that you'd check that the overdraft limit was shown correctly the next time you checked your account online. If you'd done so, you'd have queried with them why the increase hadn't been effected and avoided any difficulty.

Essenchill

You can't have a £1,500 credit balance and a £1,000 overdraft at the same time. So you can't benefit from the good credit interest rate, and the interest free overdraft, at the same time. So the maximum benefit you can derive from the account is a £1,000 interest free overdraft, or a £2,500 credit balance at a good rate.

Actually the interest free overdraft can be upto £2500 too. But you're right, you cant really benefit from both the OD and 6.1% credit rate at the same time.

Personally I have a £2000 OD and dumped £1950 of it right into a savings account, in a year I'll just move it back again and keep the interest!

Essenchill

thanks tom188, markymarkd and touche - helpful comments. What initally made me wonder is the way that it says online and on mini statements 'available balance' and clearly includes the overdraft - just made me think for a second that maybe I would loose out on the interest rate if my 'available balance' was above the £2500, even though that was partially made up of overdraft allowance. I knew it was a stupid thought, but thought I would make certain it was. Cheers for the responses.