Alliance & Leicester (merged)

jhumpy

This has been going on for some months and I dont seem to be getting anywhere. I had £59 in my account, then a direct debit went out for £40 leaving £19 in my account, before the £40 had gone out, Alliance and Leicester charged me £25 for going over drawn, then when the £40 actually went out they charged another £25 for been overdrawn which I was not, even my bank statements show that I was not at any point over drawn.

I have spoken with the bank and they have spoken with someone else who all agree that I was not overdrawn at the time and was in credit for £19, but they are still refusing to pay the £50 charges back.

What can I do as this does not come under the reclaiming bank charges thing as previous as I really had no reason for bank charges to be applied.

SHARRON1000

you are totally wasting your time with the alliance and leicester, I have had a claim going through for £2711 since june, they offered me £900 which was rejected.
so I tried the hardship route only to be told no way by the manager today.
they won't even discuss it with you because of this ruling.
I would write a letter to head office and try that way but don't hold your breath.

sorry to be so pessimistic but they make my blood boil.:mad: :mad: :mad:

Badger_Lady

If it's a "first offence", or you genuinely did satisfy the overdraft before the second charge, just give them a call explaining the situation rationally and they will normally refund at least one of those.

It is an entirely seperate policy to the "reclaiming", and financial institutions are still practising this as good will to reliable customers. I advised a colleague to do the same thing earlier in the week (with a different company, I think) and she obtained a full refund instantly.

RussWWFC

Thanks for the replies. I sent them a "secure message" via the website appealing for common sense to the totally unreasonable charge.

It is the first time I have gone into debt with this bank (due to an oversight on my part) or indeed any bank.


I'll wait and see what they say, I won't be giving up on this easily though

melissa'smoney

Hi all,

Not been on here for ages....

I've won all my money back from the 5 out of 6 banks i claimed from.:money: :j

I'm still stuck with A&L. I had a court date for the 17th Sept but a few weeks ago i had a letter from them saying that due to the new test case they were postponing this, then i got a letter from the solicitors stating this had been put on hold and it didnt affect my claim??

Anyone else had this same scenario, ive just accepted it but is there anything i can do or should be doing??

I'm not going to drop it as they owe me £1500....

Stokey125

melissa'smoney wrote: »

Hi all,

Not been on here for ages....

I've won all my money back from the 5 out of 6 banks i claimed from.:money: :j

I'm still stuck with A&L. I had a court date for the 17th Sept but a few weeks ago i had a letter from them saying that due to the new test case they were postponing this, then i got a letter from the solicitors stating this had been put on hold and it didnt affect my claim??

Anyone else had this same scenario, ive just accepted it but is there anything i can do or should be doing??

I'm not going to drop it as they owe me £1500....

Did the court say that the matter was being postponed as if they did not and you did not attend you amy find that your claim has been struck out due to your non attendance

melissa'smoney

Stokey125 wrote: »

Did the court say that the matter was being postponed as if they did not and you did not attend you amy find that your claim has been struck out due to your non attendance

Ive had nothing from the court????:eek:

oh no......what have i done!?!?!

Have u just ruined all my hard work????

:sad:

melissa'smoney

Phew!!!!

I've just rung the courts (something i should have done a while ago!!) and all court action re bank chargers have been 'stayed' until the outcome of OFT.

So i havent been penalised for not turning up as they wern't expecting me!!

My case is still viable and the court will be in contact.

xx

RussWWFC

I wrote this yesterday:

I am writing to tell you of my utter disgust at being charged £50 for going just £8.99 overdrawn during the month of August. I feel these charges are totally unfair and totally disproportionate to the "crime" committed. Especially due to the fact I was not even informed about going into arrears and having a chance to correct it. I only found out by chance when logging on to check my balance and immediately credited my account with the money to cover this tiny amount.

I would appreciate your urgent reply in dealing with this matter, if a reasonable solution cannot be found I will have no option but to seek legal help in recovering the fees and will be seriously considering closing my account.




Got this back today....
Thank you for your e-mail regarding charges on your account.

I can confirm that the unauthorised overdrawing charges relate to your account being £8.99 overdrawn. Unfortunately, as the account was overdrawn from 10 August 2007 until 22 August 2007, your account has incurred two £25 charges. These are due to debit on 27 September 2007.

In conjunction with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) a number of current account providers have submitted a ‘test’ case, approaching the High Court for a ruling on the complex issue of unauthorised overdraft fees. These fees include paid item, unpaid item and unauthorised overdraft charges.

Following guidance from the Financial Services Authority, Alliance & Leicester along with other banks and building societies are suspending the handling of requests for refunds of charges and complaints until this court case is resolved.

The Financial Services Authority has issued guidelines on how we should manage the ongoing process. In accordance with this, we have forwarded your details to our specialist charging area who will be writing to you with further information on this matter.

I do hope you find the above information useful, however, if you have any further questions or need any more help please visit our ‘Help’ section online or contact us again.

Kind regards

Customer Services
Alliance & Leicester plc
--Original Message--


So looks like they are holding out for this "test case" whenever it is. Any ideas when it will be held, but I know one thing for sure - the charges are ridiculous

MPG_2

Well, they have applied a charge for no good reason it seems. Complain and keep complaining until you get the money back. If you meet a brick wall, just go higher until you speak to someone with some sense and if necessary, tell them you'll bank elsewhere if they don't refund the charge.

Hope that helps