Alliance & Leicester (merged)

MarkyMarkD

PhatDad wrote: »

AAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhh what the hell is going on?

You might recall a recent number of posts I made regarding A&L.

I stopped using my account ages ago but didn't delete the card details from Amazon. I kept about £12 in the account in case anything unforeseen came out that I was not aware of.

This was fine for months until for some reason, whether it was human error or amazon themselves, used this account to pay for £13.14 worth of books. I was unaware of this and a month or two went by. Then I received a statement and I noticed that I was no £130 overdrawn.

I called them up told them to sort it and they removed the £130 as I was a good customer and had not gone overdrawn before. They also said they would close the account for me.

Wooohooo I thought, until I received a letter the other day to say that I had gone overdrawn in january and now will be charged for it.

I've contacted them again now to say that it was their charge for going overdrawn the previous month that made me overdrawn. And now they are charging me for going overdrawn this month I will get a charge for next month. Like a womans PMS this monthly cycle will happen repeatedly causing me stress, pain and rage. All I want is the account closing.

They've replied to say that I need to pay the charges first. This is driving me mad. If I knew where a local A&L was I'd go down there and do this face to face.

I don't quite understand your attitude in this circumstance.

Let's face it - you could have closed your account with A&L and you should have deleted your payment card details on Amazon.

It wasn't "amazon themselves" who chose to use your A&L account to pay for your purchases, it was you either by selecting that account or by failing to remove it as your default payment method.

You phoned A&L and "told them to sort it" when they hadn't done anything wrong. You'd paid using an account with insufficient money in it.

They refunded a substantial amount of charges "as I was a good customer" even though you told them in the same phone call that you wanted to close your account and you also hadn't been using the account.

So far in this story, A&L are angels and you have been totally unreasonable.

Your sole reason for complaint is that, at the time A&L refunded all the charges to date, there was a pending charge which has been debited to the account.

How about simply paying off the single charge, admitting that it was your fault in the first place, and then getting the account closed, rather than moaning on and on about it? You get notice of each charge, ages before it's debited, so there's no need for the endless cycle you imply has to occur - when they notify you of the impending charge, credit your account to the exact amount and then when the charge hits, the balance will be zero and the account can be closed. End of story.

yorkie1980

Happened to me too mate, I am due to be charged £65 for being £.28 over drawn.
I rang customer services today and said that I demand it be nulled, otherwise I'd withdraw my wages and savings, open up another bank account and they;'d have to get the £65 of me through the courts.
She's passed it on to the "charges" team, who will "write to me hopefully within 7 days".
I told her to log on my notes that I have warned I will empty my accounts before the 14th March (date the charges are due to come out) and A&L will need to go through the courts to reclaim.
She said they're currently dealing with cases from the 20th Feb, so there's a one week backlog so I should hear by end of next week.
Will keep you posted.

skyeceilo

I've got a problem with A&L not quite like yours. My joint account was charged £25 for a fault of A&L at the begining of Feb. We phoned and asked for it back and they said they will put it through to the claims. One week later nothing heard. My partner phoned again and again they said they will email claims. Still nothing heard. My partner phoned yet again and asked them to tell claims to phone him urgently and still nothing heard. My partner has phoned them again today and the !!!! (excuse my french) decided that all the managers had disappeared so no-one to talk to him. What can we do? They know they are at fault but it seems like they are hoping for us to give up. The phone calls alone must be adding up to £25. This is so unfair

PhatDad

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I don't quite understand your attitude in this circumstance.

Let's face it - you could have closed your account with A&L and you should have deleted your payment card details on Amazon.

It wasn't "amazon themselves" who chose to use your A&L account to pay for your purchases, it was you either by selecting that account or by failing to remove it as your default payment method.

You phoned A&L and "told them to sort it" when they hadn't done anything wrong. You'd paid using an account with insufficient money in it.

They refunded a substantial amount of charges "as I was a good customer" even though you told them in the same phone call that you wanted to close your account and you also hadn't been using the account.

So far in this story, A&L are angels and you have been totally unreasonable.

Your sole reason for complaint is that, at the time A&L refunded all the charges to date, there was a pending charge which has been debited to the account.

How about simply paying off the single charge, admitting that it was your fault in the first place, and then getting the account closed, rather than moaning on and on about it? You get notice of each charge, ages before it's debited, so there's no need for the endless cycle you imply has to occur - when they notify you of the impending charge, credit your account to the exact amount and then when the charge hits, the balance will be zero and the account can be closed. End of story.

Will they let me do that though?

I go overdrawn in Sept/Oct they don't notify me till december and I owe £130. At that point I was £1.14 overdrawn so I put sufficient funds in. And they say they will close the account.

If it ended at that point then great. Good on A&L. However on a date in January they took £130 from my account making me overdrawn. That same day they put it back in the account leaving zero balance.

If it ended there then great. Good old A&L.

I then leave it, expecting the account to be closed till this week when I receive a letter stating I have been charged for going over drawn in January. Their £130 taken out and placed in again the same day has cost me £50.

So, I am expected to put £50 in the bank and clear it?

Will they let me close the account if they have on their records that because of this 50 quid charge I have gone overdrawn again in February.

MarkyMarkD

Firstly, if you went overdrawn in Sept/Oct you would have known by the time of your Sept/Oct statement. If you didn't check your statements (I'm presuming you were on online statements) that's not their fault.

The £130 wasn't taken out and placed in again on the same day. It was ex gratia refunded at a later date, wasn't it?

And once again, you were told about the £50 charge before it was charged. Why didn't you fund it for that before it was debited?

PhatDad

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Firstly, if you went overdrawn in Sept/Oct you would have known by the time of your Sept/Oct statement. If you didn't check your statements (I'm presuming you were on online statements) that's not their fault.

The £130 wasn't taken out and placed in again on the same day. It was ex gratia refunded at a later date, wasn't it?

And once again, you were told about the £50 charge before it was charged. Why didn't you fund it for that before it was debited?

Nope I had downgraded my account to the basic account when I stopped matched betting and wasn't funding it by £500 a month. Previously I had received notification that I should check my account online but once downgraded I received paper statements through the door. Like I say, I was unaware that I had gone overdrawn so didn't know until the paper statement dropped on the mat and I discovered I was ovedrawn. This I immediatley sorted out and they said the £130 they would have the relevant department look at. Then the next month they did take the £130 and replace it on the same day. I then thought the matter was over and done with. No more correspondence till I received the letter this week to say I had been charged for going overdrawn.

So yes, I cocked up for going overdrawn £1.14, and they have been good and stopped the £130 but now I'm in this cycle it would appear. It took 12 days from post date for me to receive this letter to say that I had gone overdrawn last month and they are taking the money from me. Had the money gone out and then gone in again another day then I would have been charged £5 per day on top of that too I suspect.

yorkie1980

skyeceilo wrote: »

I've got a problem with A&L not quite like yours. My joint account was charged £25 for a fault of A&L at the begining of Feb. We phoned and asked for it back and they said they will put it through to the claims. One week later nothing heard. My partner phoned again and again they said they will email claims. Still nothing heard. My partner phoned yet again and asked them to tell claims to phone him urgently and still nothing heard. My partner has phoned them again today and the !!!! (excuse my french) decided that all the managers had disappeared so no-one to talk to him. What can we do? They know they are at fault but it seems like they are hoping for us to give up. The phone calls alone must be adding up to £25. This is so unfair

Hi Skyeceilo,
I had a problem with RBS a while ago (see my other threads). My advice is to write down the exact time, date and content of each conversation (or as close as you can remember). Try also to get the names of the people you speak to - they should be able to provide either a surname, phone extension or some other identifiable 'tag'.
Also, when you speak to them, ask them to confirm they have entered the conversation on the 'customer notes' screen - maybe even get them to read it back to you so you're happy with what they've recorded.
And keep pestering them. Maybe ring them today and ask what exactly has been recorded on your 'customer notes' to date with regards to this complaint. This will help especially if you can't remember exactly who you spoke to, what was said and when.
Ask for a written copy of their complaints procedure too. I think they have a specific timescale within which they have to deal with complaints. If they keep fobbing you off they may be breaking their own rules. That will give you loads of weight in terms of complaining to regulatory bodies.
All this evidence stacks up nicely when/if it comes to you having to take any action against them.
PM me if you want to see my RBS letters, although I think I posted them on here.
yorkie1980

tomstickland

I've just logged onto my A&L account which I left at zero balance a few months ago.
I've accrued a series of underfunding fees of £5 and overdraft interest, totally £34.83. I'm rather annoyed, though I will take the blame if the T&C say I will be charged for underfunding. I don't remember any such fees though. I'm going to phone up and tell them to close the account, maybe see if they'll refund any of the fees.

Richmondo

Ok, I went £15 over my overdraft limit. Not great, but I thought a charge of £20 to £30, and I'd weather it, and watch it in future.

Not so. Alliance and Leceicester decided to charge me £5 per day, for 25 days, without telling me. They didn't charge me as it went, but just billed me £125 at the end of month.

This is shocking. All for £15, and no administration on their part.

I asked them to review it, and they refused. Can someone give me some advice on this? Can I claim it back? I feel robbed.

MarkyMarkD

The Ts & Cs do clearly mention the under-funding charges. I find it unlikely that you will be refunded in these circumstances.

I thought they sent out underfunding letters as well as charging your account. Did you not get anything?