Warning: Alliance & Leicester account under funding charge

MissLondon

A warning to anyone with an old Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct account, it was the one that gave 5% interest for a year if you paid in £500 a month. I left it with a few pence in it and went to close it yesterday and discovered I was £150 overdrawn because of an underfunding charge (£5 a month) and the unathorised overdraft fee (one charge was for £35 the next was for £100!!!).

Sorry if this has been posted before or if this is in the wrong thread but I thought I'd post it in case others have done the same as me.

ses6jwg

This has always been a feature of the Premier and Premier Direct Current accounts in that you must fund with £500 per month or be charged £5. This was always well advertised in the account literature and online.

It is explicit in the terms and conditions.

Before you say you weren't notified, the Premier Direct was an online account and therefore all statements were sent to via online banking, which you should have checked.

See T&Cs here esp. page 11:

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223412341387&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600

In my experience you are entitled to make a formal complaint and you are likely to get the most recent charges refunded however as it is outlined in the T&Cs it is unlikely you will have recourse to a full refund of all fees.

MissLondon

No I accept it was my fault, however I posted it in case other people have done something similar.

Naf

Lots of people have had the same issue, yes. Because they neglected to refer to their terms and conditions, assuming that because they weren't being charged for a period, that the charge didn't apply to them.
Policy is that one charge can be refunded in any 12 month period if it is just for customer service and Santander have not made a mistake on the account. In this case, as you agree, Santander haven't. You can still ask at your branch, as an unused account the management may consent to refund all of the charges and just get it closed for you, but I can't say one way or the other as it would be contrary to the stated policy.

pmduk

It's just another reason to close all santander accounts.

Naf

pmduk wrote: »

It's just another reason to close all santander accounts.

What is, the fact that we adhere to the terms and conditions that our customers sign?

JuicyJesus

Naf wrote: »

What is, the fact that we adhere to the terms and conditions that our customers sign?

Have to take Santander's side here; it is something they mention in their T&Cs.

Their approach is a good one IMO - they shouldn't have to spend money to maintain accounts people no longer use and have no intention of using.

Naf

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Have to take Santander's side here; it is something they mention in their T&Cs.

Their approach is a good one IMO - they shouldn't have to spend money to maintain accounts people no longer use and have no intention of using.

Not even that, none of Santander's accounts actually have this (so far as I can remember; there's just a clause that would allow charges to be levied on accounts not used for extended periods, although none are applied currently), only on the old A&L accounts.

noh

Naf wrote: »

Not even that, none of Santander's accounts actually have this (so far as I can remember; there's just a clause that would allow charges to be levied on accounts not used for extended periods, although none are applied currently), only on the old A&L accounts.

The accounts offered by Santander that have an underfunding fee have similar wording in theit T+Cs as the Alliance and Leicester accounts have.

From page 10 of
http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223411953599&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600

"L3 Underfunding Fee on your account
L3.1 You must pay a minimum amount into your
account each month (charging period is statement to
statement), which we will tell you about when you apply
for the account.
L3.2 If you do not pay the agreed amount into your account each
month you may incur an underfunding fee, which can be
found in our Interest Rates and Fees Information leaflet.
L3.3 Transfers into the account from another Santander account
will not count towards your monthly amount."

The use of the word "may" is different the A+L T+Cs say "will"
Typically the underfunding fees were/are not applied until 3 months of underfunding has occurred as happened with the OP.

ses6jwg

One issue is that under A&L they were quite lax on these underfunding charges and often they didnt start. However Santanders systems are a lot more efficient in spotting things like this so accounts that people stopped using long ago have now started incurring charges since migrating to the new systems.

However, the T&Cs stand unfortunately.

jcb208

I have just been caught the same way had £6.00 in there and logged in to find 2 charges of £5.00 making me £4 overdrawn.I could not believe it never knew there was such a charge.I take it I will get more fees for the over draft now.Have sent secure message to close all accounts with them cant be doing dealing with this outfit