Best Current Accounts Discussion Area

lipidicman

Just applied for a A&L online saver issue 2 and at the end got a
'Apply for a Premier direct current account NOW and get £50 cashback'

dagnabit, I got mine last week - still it is an easy way to get £50 for the rest of you

Offer conditions

1. £50 cashback offer is only applicable to new Alliance & Leicester current account customers opening a Premier Direct Current Account or a Premier Current Account who have also applied online for an Alliance & Leicester Personal Loan, Direct ISA or Online Saver in the last 24 hours. Monthly funding of £500 required. £50 will be automatically credited to your Premier Direct or Premier Current Account within 8 weeks of account opening and provided eligibilty criteria is met. Multiple applications are only eligible for one total £50 payment. Offer can be withdrawn at any time is not available if you are accepted for an alternative current account product.



2. Applicants must be 21 or over only. £500 monthly funding required or fees may be applied. Account subject to status. The right to decline any application is reserved.

Edit: I am actually quite annoyed that applying in the wrong order means that you miss out. I wonder if a quick complaint might help..........

grumbler

I've just checked Lloyds TSB website and cannot find anything regarding refer a friends £40 bonus. It looks like this incentive has been withdrawn, although they still offer £50 cash welcome ...

lipidicman

Grumbler, try here:
http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_accounts.asp?link=top_navigation

grumbler

I checked exactly the same page in the noon and it was different - the link was missing ...

topgranny

My son and I both opened current accounts with A&L and used the "refer a friend" incentive. I can honestly say I have never come across such a useless bank in all my years of banking and am now in the process of reverting all my direct debits and payments to my Cahoot account which, thankfully, I hadn't closed.

Even though they wrote to me saying that they had transferred all my receipts and payments to the A&L account, I found that my two biggest sources of income were still going into my Cahoot account. Of course by the time I had transferred the amounts, with it taking so long to clear, it was too late for my biggest payment (my monthly credit card bill which is always paid in full) to go through and so they were charging me £34 for not having enough money in my account to pay the direct debit. They did refund the money when I pointed out that it was their fault that it had gone into the wrong account, although the last time this happened I got a really stroppy woman on the 'phone who said I should ask the DSS (state pension) people to pay me the £34 as they obviously hadn't changed their records!

I was also bombarded with letters from A&L and am thoroughly sick of the company. What a waste of paper, time and resources!!

will-in-estoril

Much has been made of the headline rate paid on some current accounts. However, what is given with one hand is often taken back with the other!!

If, like me, you need to withdraw cash abroad, a Nationwide Flex Account is the ONLY choice, as they make no charges at all

Assuming £1 = €1.50:

Withdrawing €100 costs £66.66 with Nationwide

With A&L it would cost £70.87 (£2.50 charge + 2.75% loading on exchange rate)

With Cahhoot £69.19 (£1.50 charge + 2.25% loading)

Except Nationwide, they're ALL at it!!

Long live mutual status!!

sparkymark_3

Nationwide launching c/acc today paying 4.25% on balance up to £3k (7.75% overdraft) min. credit £1 k a month.
Stick that in your pipe big 4 (+ Halifax) LOL

innovate

sparkymark wrote:

Nationwide launching c/acc today paying 4.25% on balance up to £3k (7.75% overdraft) min. credit £1 k a month.
Stick that in your pipe big 4 (+ Halifax) LOL

They won't start paying 4.25% before April 1 2006, though.

lauraj_3

Myself and my boyfriend moved banks to A & L in April last year and had nothing but problems, I would advice against anyone moving their accounts there, they may have good rates but everything else about them is useless. They can't even discuss anything with you in the branch, it's not like a normail bank, you have to call the customer service line to discuss your account and the people on the phone are useless too! I moved back to Barclays despite higher rates.

topgranny wrote:

My son and I both opened current accounts with A&L and used the "refer a friend" incentive. I can honestly say I have never come across such a useless bank in all my years of banking and am now in the process of reverting all my direct debits and payments to my Cahoot account which, thankfully, I hadn't closed.

Even though they wrote to me saying that they had transferred all my receipts and payments to the A&L account, I found that my two biggest sources of income were still going into my Cahoot account. Of course by the time I had transferred the amounts, with it taking so long to clear, it was too late for my biggest payment (my monthly credit card bill which is always paid in full) to go through and so they were charging me £34 for not having enough money in my account to pay the direct debit. They did refund the money when I pointed out that it was their fault that it had gone into the wrong account, although the last time this happened I got a really stroppy woman on the 'phone who said I should ask the DSS (state pension) people to pay me the £34 as they obviously hadn't changed their records!

I was also bombarded with letters from A&L and am thoroughly sick of the company. What a waste of paper, time and resources!!

lauraj_3

What are Cahoot like? Cos I was thinking of either moving to First Direct or Cahoot, can't get £50 incentive from First Direct apparently, as I already have a savings account with them.. unfortunately.