Alliance & Leicester (merged)

ncp2008

Thanks Smasher.

The thing is this is surely a banking mistake and they must see how wrong they have been. The manager I spoke to today has told me if I don't pay the £175 I will continue to be charged and it will eventually go to a debt company. I have done nothing wrong! what do you all think I should do?

Smasher

Well, you could tell him to get stuffed, but the charges will pile up and be sent to a DCA like he said. You could fight off the DCA from that point given that they will be chasing an unenforceable debt. They would be fools to take you to court for it, but they will probably throw crap on your credit file. You can fight it all the way and succeed as many others have, but be prepared for a headache.

The other alternative is to pay it off, then reclaim it. Personally I wouldn't do that because you'll have paperwork & homework to do in either case and if the DCA took you to court, you could first ask for the case to be stayed pending the outcome of the OFT test case. I would rather them wait ages for money they probably won't get than pay up then have to wait ages for it back.
However, should the OFT lose the case, you will be liable for the whole lot. The chances of that happening are very remote in my opinion & I would happily take that chance, but this is your decision.

ncp2008

Thanks smasher. the think is I don't debt collectors coming to my house etc . I think I should just pay it, write to A&L hopefully they might see sense or just wait to reclaim the charge. I just couldn't handle talking to a debt company.

A&L are !!!!!!!s!

tony_ack

This is almost identical to my experience with Alliance and Leicester, and I went overdrawn by a similar amount (what hurts even more is that they don't charge anything for going up to £5 overdrawn, so I - and you - have effectively paid hundreds of pounds in charges for the sake of £1).

I tried every approach - trying to explain the absurdity of paying hundreds of pounds out for the sake of a pound (reply: rules are rules, it's in the terms and conditions - makes it sound like breaking the rules incurs a penalty...makes one wonder), explaining I couldn't afford the charges, so continually charging me every month would be pointless (reply: that's not our problem), explaining that it was a genuine mistake as I didn't have access to the internet when the charge was levied (reply: If it was me I wouldn't be so careless to let my account go overdrawn sir), and finally stating that I did not want an unauthorised overdraft, and asking them to remove the facility for an unauthorised overdraft from my account (they seemed a little stumped by that, but eventually mumbled something about terms and conditions and refused to do so).

In the end, the only thing I could do was pay back the money (yes, it is a lot of money and not always easy - I had to scrimp and save for a few months), and ask them to immediately close the account. I tried everything else, but there was nothing I could do.

So I would make paying this off a high priority. You are going to struggle to reclaim charges whilst the test case is in limbo, and to be honest, at present you are nothing more than a highly profitable cash-cow to the Alliance and Leicester. They are not going to refund unless they have to.

Even after I had cleared the balance, and asked to close the account, they took ages. In the interim, unknown to me, they had applied two underfunding charges, sending me into an unauthorised overdraft again. When I contacted them to ask why the account wasn't closed, they told me that there was an outstanding balance on the account, and couldn't close it. This time it was their mistake (my account was unavailable online during the closure process, so I was unable to see what was happening), and after a lot of arguing I managed to get them to refund the extra charges and finally close the account.

I'm still not sure exactly how much I paid in charges (the problem with not having paper statements is you have no reference once the account is closed), but there are at least £400 of charges that we are certain of. Worst still, I now have several missed payments on my credit record. All that for £1.

ncp2008

Thanks so much Tony. I think I will just pay it off before the amount owed is ridiculous. Can I ask, if I pay this off and close the account can I later on claim the charges back? Should I try and print out all my statements etc - are print copies acceptable?

I want nothing more to do with them quite frankly

Leighthal

I just got informed I'll be charged 45 quid for going overdrawn by 2.74 for 9 days:eek:

tony_ack

You should be able to claim them back if the test case rules against the banks.

You will need the statements to calculate the charges owed to you, and possibly again if you need to go to court to claim them back (though you may not need to go to court following the test case).

So the statements at this point are for your reference only. Print copies should be fine anyway, as long as the relevant info is present - some banks acually send screen dumps when you request statements/information from them.

buglawton

ncp2008 wrote: »

thanks for the reply.

I do not nor cannot get an overdraft facility with Alliance & Leicester.

Strange - I see you are a Premier Account holder, I thought that this type of account gets various benefits due to the regular in-payments etc so no overdraft facility?

Smasher

tony_ack wrote: »

I'm still not sure exactly how much I paid in charges (the problem with not having paper statements is you have no reference once the account is closed)

You can send in a subject access request & a cheque/PO for £10 and they are obliged to send you every piece of data they hold about you within 40 days whether the account is open or closed. This data will include all your statements..

ncp2008, printed copies are fine and you can claim regardless of whether the account is open or closed, as long as you do so within the next 6 years.

ncp2008

Thanks very very much everyone