Alliance & Leicester (merged)

ahleong78

Hi everyone,

I have in the past 3 months been constantly charged by A&L for exceeding my limit on overdraft. The fact is the exceeding occurred only after A&L imposed unfair penalty of 25-75 pounds pushing the account to exceed its balance and thereafter resulting in more charges. It has become a vicious cycle. I have read through the forum and understand that claiming of any charges is pretty difficult due to the ongoing court test case. There is currently another 75pounds due on 1st May and I am wondering what I should do now. Should i ensure the additional 75 pounds for them to deduct on the 1st May so that my account will not go in red again?

MarkyMarkD

Don't you mean "the exceeding occurred only because I spent more money than I had in the account, and hence got charged a paid item or unpaid item charge"?

The start of the charges cycle was you doing something, not A&L being unfair.

And yes, definitely, you should ensure that the money is there to cover the fees due on 1 May so that the charges cycle ends.

betty_liz2008

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anybody would be able to give me some advice.

My boyfriend and I have a joint acc with alliance and leicester with an agreed o/d of £250.

Since Jan, we have incurred charges of £5 a day for what I can see from my statement going £1.68 over our agreed o/d. We have received these charges daily from 28 Jan - 26 Feb and the 27 Feb - 28 March.

The automated letters have been sent to my parents address as we were told we could not change the address until we provided id with current address (and at that point we didn't have it as we needed to update our passports etc!) Even though I rang at the start of April and they let me change it over the phone!

Anyway, back to my original point! I tried to clear the exceeded o/d but the bank charges continued to put me back in the same positition, thus causing a viscious circle!!!!!:mad: What frustrates me is that we had no warning of the bank charges that were continuously happening!

The last time this happened was on 14 April and we were not expecting this and did not receive an automated letter and were not given 17 days notice (that they protest they give) on the internet banking or through post, as I checked my account on 10th April and as far as I was aware the o/d was in its agreed limit.

I have spoken to the customer advisers, who have remained increasingly unhelpful and therefore am at the point where I would like to take the issue further, as I am extremely frustrated and exhausted by it all!

So....can anyone give me any advice on what I can do??

I would really appreciate it and hope I haven't confused you!!

Liz

welsh_cake

Same happened to me 2 weeks ago. I was £14 overdrawn and didn't even know until i received the letter saying i owed £70.00. I called A&L and they said they would put in a dispute notice for me, but wouldn't promise i could reclaim anything. Within a week I had a letter saying they were letting me off with £50.00 of it and i just had to pay £20.00.

Might be worth going in to your local branch and speaking with someone face to face. But always remember to be nice - you get a lot more when your polite.

betty_liz2008

Thank you, that it intersting and hopeful to hear. I think you are right it may be best dealing with someone face to face at the branch and remaining calm and polite.

Many thanks

AlanLupton

I have a mortgage with Accord and a bank account with Alliance & Leicester, which I just use for mortgage payments. In January I was a bit slow putting the money in and in trying to rectify my error, I ended up cancelling the standing order to Accord. So, on the 17th January, I rang Accord, explained the situation and they re-created the standing order. Problem sorted or so I thought.

However, come february the money didn't go leave, and I received a letter from Accord saying that as my standing order had bounced they were going to charge me £35 for the trouble. I rang them to try to work out what had gone on, and after several hours on the phone they told me the Alliance & Leicester had cancelled the direct debit on the 18th January.

I've tried without success to get some sense out of A & L. When I go into the branch they tell me they cannot see details of my account (which, frankly, I don't believe). When I tried the phone banking, I got told repeatedly that there was no issue with April's standing order (which I already knew), but when I asked about January it was repeated that April's was fine. Eventually, I was told I was being transferred, but in fact was hung up on. So, no progress there either.

This leaves me still £35 quid down and none the wiser as to who is really at fault for either not setting up the standing order in the first place or cancelling it.

Anyone any ideas as to how I get my £35 back?

Thanks

chipstix

betty_liz2008 wrote: »

Thank you, that it intersting and hopeful to hear. I think you are right it may be best dealing with someone face to face at the branch and remaining calm and polite.

Many thanks

betty_liz, There are many threads on here complaining about A&L. It might help having a look under "search" for "A&L" and then we can all begin to understand how out-of-order they treat their customers - I'm a disgruntled A&L customer (hopefully not for much longer). Below is a copy of an earlier post I wrote and this definately worked for me. Think welsh-cake is right - go in and see them - Hope you get success!!......................

You're not alone! This happened to me too. Hopefully my experience may help?
I was being charged in my current account but left it dormant, so I thought.
I phoned up when I got my letter and they said they'd get back to me but it was a few days. In the meantime I went to an A&L branch and after a good chat they wiped the charges. On the way back the *** from A&L phoned me back and said they could only reduce the charges-told them it had just been agreed to have them wiped - got talking and she admitted always best to go in and explain face to face because the branches have more flexibility.
If you've got a branch near you (mine's miles away) it may be best to go in and get the emotive angle on it.
Oh yes and agree that no more £5's will be charged upto the waiving of fees. Hope this is of help - it isn't difficult to do - so good luck!!!
:beer:

ahleong78

It wasnt really over spending on my part. Rather, the money I had transferred in arrived a day late and it resulted in a 5 pounds exceeding the limit.

MarkyMarkD

betty_liz2008 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anybody would be able to give me some advice.

My boyfriend and I have a joint acc with alliance and leicester with an agreed o/d of £250.

Since Jan, we have incurred charges of £5 a day for what I can see from my statement going £1.68 over our agreed o/d. We have received these charges daily from 28 Jan - 26 Feb and the 27 Feb - 28 March.

The automated letters have been sent to my parents address as we were told we could not change the address until we provided id with current address (and at that point we didn't have it as we needed to update our passports etc!) Even though I rang at the start of April and they let me change it over the phone!

Anyway, back to my original point! I tried to clear the exceeded o/d but the bank charges continued to put me back in the same positition, thus causing a viscious circle!!!!!:mad: What frustrates me is that we had no warning of the bank charges that were continuously happening!

The last time this happened was on 14 April and we were not expecting this and did not receive an automated letter and were not given 17 days notice (that they protest they give) on the internet banking or through post, as I checked my account on 10th April and as far as I was aware the o/d was in its agreed limit.

I have spoken to the customer advisers, who have remained increasingly unhelpful and therefore am at the point where I would like to take the issue further, as I am extremely frustrated and exhausted by it all!

So....can anyone give me any advice on what I can do??

I would really appreciate it and hope I haven't confused you!!

Liz

Charges are shown on internet banking from the "statement" date (which might be a virtual statement date, if your statements are online only, but will be the same date each month) until they are debited 17 days later.

If you check your account online at least weekly, you'll always have at least 10 days' notice of overdraft fees being charged.

Not getting statements or letters because you haven't registered your valid address is not much of an excuse as I'm sure you realise. That isn't the bank's fault.

Passports don't show your address so I'm not sure of their relevance to a change of address. Evidence of change of address would (surely) be a rental agreement or a solicitors' letter if you have bought.

Intergalactic_Floozie

What are A&L like, when it comes to 'waiving' fees?

I'll try and keep it short.

January 2008: I haven't used this account in ages. I am £796 overdrawn, with £10 charges pending and they write to me stating they are removing the overdraft facility (fair enough).

19/02/08: I pay in a cheque for £804.86. This leaves me £10 in credit.

22/02/08: A direct debit I have been unable to cancel on line goes out for £11.15 (Serco). This leaves me £1.15 overdrawn (but it's okay because my facility wasn't being removed until the end of Feb).

26/02/08: I realise the above, and pay in £11.15 to cover this.

04/03/08: The bank charges of £5 for "overdraft useage fee" and "under funding fee" go out leaving me with a zero account.

18/03/08: I think to myself "that direct debit to Serco is due on 22nd, better pay it in tomorrow". I look on internet banking and see that it actually left on 17th March, the day before.

I phone A&L who say "tough luck, you'll get charged for it, the faster you bring your account up to date, the less you'll be charged" so I get up to the local post office before it shuts and pay in the money.

I decided to write to the A&L and ask them nicely not to charge me, in view of the fact I paid off my overdraft, and my conduct on my account is normally very good etc....

They did not reply to me, and to be honest I forgot about it.

Except today I realise with shock that my direct debit to Serco might have gone out so go to check....well, it hasn't gone out but there is a "note of charges" which is £70 for being overdrawn. I also see that they took the £4.00 charges on 3rd April, and I have been overdrawn since, hence the £70 charges.

I've rang them (and had to wait 20 minutes for it to be answered) and the customer service advisor was very unhelpful and said they can charge what they like, and they'd decided to take no action when I had written to them (!!!!!!?) and she'd known people overdrawn by 1p who had to pay higher charges than that!!! I asked to speak to a manager (none available) and the charges dept don't work until Monday.

I'm really upset, I can't afford to pay £70 for being overdrawn by £1.43.

Has anyone dealt with A&L, how are they likely to take my request, and what will happen if they refuse to stop the £70 - how should I deal with matters?

Thanks - and give yourself a shiney if you got this far