Alliance & Leicester (merged)

oops_a_daisy

Sorry this is a bit of a long one but any help is appreciated
I have an internet current account with Alliance & Leicester and a Plus Saver Account. I keep my cash in my saver account and transfer into my current account when I need to - or before I go over my overdraft limit whichever comes sooner!. I have not been able to access my accounts over the last couple of days due to their site being down. I got a standard letter from them today stating that they were charging me £25 for payment of a Direct Debit which took me over my overdraft limit. I finally managed to get connected to their website tonight and found that they have in fact charged me at total of £50 for going £61.78 over my overdraft limit ( £50 of which is charges ) so in total I have actually gone £11.78 over my overdraft limit but I have over a thousand in my saver account. If I had been able to access my accounts I would have transferred moneys over from my saver account to my current account to cover them. I phoned them and they have said that they will only refund one of the charges because they say I should have used their phone banking service to transfer money over. Obviously I am not happy about this for many reasons - mainly because I would not have gone overdrawn had I have had access to my accounts and the second 'offence' only occurred due to their charges!
Does anybody have experience with claiming charges back from Alliance and Leicester and could you please advise how they will react to me claiming back the £25 which they have refused to refund. I will not have to ask for statements for the last 6 years but I also do not know if I will be charged interest on the overdrawn amount so will I have to wait a month to see exactly what they end up charging for this before I start reclaiming ?

thanks for reading

dj9928

I have requested my statements twice from them and twice the smug guy said they would be sent out, I still have nothing a month and a half later. Yet in all they where very quick at cashing the £10 cheque, same is happening with MBNA, its almost like these companies know what Im at and are avoiding semd out the statements, anyone else had problems like this

Rex_Mundi

I've moved your post over to the A&L thread. You are not the only one to have a problem with this.

See post number 7 in this thread to see what to do next.

Nosskibird_2

feefeegabor wrote:

I've finally had a reply from A & L to my recent claim for a refund of Bank charges.

It says - "The Office of Fair Trading has commented that theyconsider the level of late payment charges to be unfair, however they were actually referring to late payment fees for credit card payments, which are quite distinct from a bank's charge on current accounts.

As yet, the OFT have not entered into any discussions with the banking industry rearding current accounts ...".

Am I going mad or is this totally wrong? Anyone have any advice at all? Anything would be appreciated - I don't really know whether to go back to them again and tell them they are talking rubbish or just issue the Court proceedings.

Thanks.

Hi, I received this letter from A&L after sending the second template threatening court action, they are in fact wrong. I went ahead with court proceedings and they settled the full amount £104.01 plus costs of £30 by cheque from their solicitor stating that they are lawful to charge 'something' but didn't want it to get to court stage. Hope this helps!

Nosskibird_2

oops_a_daisy wrote:

Sorry this is a bit of a long one but any help is appreciated
I have an internet current account with Alliance & Leicester and a Plus Saver Account. I keep my cash in my saver account and transfer into my current account when I need to - or before I go over my overdraft limit whichever comes sooner!. I have not been able to access my accounts over the last couple of days due to their site being down. I got a standard letter from them today stating that they were charging me £25 for payment of a Direct Debit which took me over my overdraft limit. I finally managed to get connected to their website tonight and found that they have in fact charged me at total of £50 for going £61.78 over my overdraft limit ( £50 of which is charges ) so in total I have actually gone £11.78 over my overdraft limit but I have over a thousand in my saver account. If I had been able to access my accounts I would have transferred moneys over from my saver account to my current account to cover them. I phoned them and they have said that they will only refund one of the charges because they say I should have used their phone banking service to transfer money over. Obviously I am not happy about this for many reasons - mainly because I would not have gone overdrawn had I have had access to my accounts and the second 'offence' only occurred due to their charges!
Does anybody have experience with claiming charges back from Alliance and Leicester and could you please advise how they will react to me claiming back the £25 which they have refused to refund. I will not have to ask for statements for the last 6 years but I also do not know if I will be charged interest on the overdrawn amount so will I have to wait a month to see exactly what they end up charging for this before I start reclaiming ?

thanks for reading

Hi, I have also just received 2x £25 charges for going overdrawn. I rang up on the day to transfer money from my savings account and was told as it was before 4pm I wouldn't be charged any fees. Low and behold the two fees (£50 total) were applied the next day. I rang and protested and was told half of them would be refunded. However they have only refunded half of one of the charges (£12.50) so rang again and was told the other half would be applied but won't show on my account until Wednesday 3rd Jan! No apology was offered either. The ironic thing is I have just taken A&L to court and received my requested payment in full but they still go ahead and charge me fees again!

oops_a_daisy

Nosskibird wrote:

Hi, I have also just received 2x £25 charges for going overdrawn. I rang up on the day to transfer money from my savings account and was told as it was before 4pm I wouldn't be charged any fees. Low and behold the two fees (£50 total) were applied the next day. I rang and protested and was told half of them would be refunded. However they have only refunded half of one of the charges (£12.50) so rang again and was told the other half would be applied but won't show on my account until Wednesday 3rd Jan! No apology was offered either. The ironic thing is I have just taken A&L to court and received my requested payment in full but they still go ahead and charge me fees again!

thanks for replying I have just checked my account and as they said only one of the charges has been re credited. Do you know if I will be charged interest on the overdrawn amount and if so when will that amount show ? I am going to reclaim the £25 plus the cost of the phone call plus the cost of registered post and any interest charges. The more I think about it the more cross I get with them - it wasnt even my fault :mad: so much for goodwill at Christmas. Boo Hiss to Alliance & Leicester. I would also like to know if they are likely to close the accounts so that I can open up a parachute account before I start sending legal letters.

Happy New Year to all EXCEPT Alliance & Leicster

madman

Damn Damn Damn. Please could anyone tell me if I have a case.

On Sunday 31st I transferred money from my A&L PLUS SAVINGS ACCOUNT to my A&L CURRENT ACCOUNT. I have some direct debits coming out of the CURRENT ACCOUNT and the money transferred would cover the costs.

When the direct debits came out on the 2nd January the money I transferred in on the 31st Dec had no credited. Alliance and Leicester have stated that this is because I did not allow a full working day yet the transfer was done between TWO of my ALLIANCE AND LECEISTER accounts!! I am going to be charged for each direct debit taken out which could lead upto a hundred pounds. Surely they cannot do this??

Hope someone can give me some sound advice?

Fill_7

hi ppl.

recieved my 6 years of statements from A&L this week. been going through the first years statements and something doesnt seem right. monthly overdraft charges range from £8 to £20+. the next entry on my statements after this monthly od charge is 'unauthorised daily od charge. x days at £3.50'. so in one instance, ive been charged:

monthly od charge -£10
'unauthorised daily od charge. 9 days at £3.50 -£31.50

does 'unauthorised daily od charge. 9 days at £3.50' also count as an unfair bank charge? so in this case could i claim a total of £41.50, or just £10 for the monthly od charge.

it had entered my mind that A&L might of doctored my statements in an attempt to reduce their potential refund?!

ive also found on my statements:

failed dd charge - £27.50
paid item charge - £25
failed chq charge - £29.50

are these refundable too?

thanks for any help

Fill_7

Edinburghlass_2

The point you are missing though is 31 December would not be a working day.

However I would put in a claim to reclaim the charges.

madman

:mad: They told me that the 31st was a non working day but surely as Im transferring money between twon internal accounts it should be done instantly. It shouldnt take a day. Im just waiting now to see what charges I get hit with!!