Best Current Accounts Discussion Area

Snapelover

Took out on A & L Premier Direct Current Account earlier this year but following some trouble I had and found that A & L would not help me I am considering moving to another bank. Looking carefully at RBS and Halifax as they are paying 5.12% but also wondering if Lloyds TSB may be any good. They only pay 4% but also pay interest on the day that you pay cheques/transfers in and until the day that your money goes out to pay another bill etc.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Also, my hubby has a graduate account of his own (in order to take advantage of nice overdraft for free). As he gets his salary paid into that account and then he transfers it over, would we be better off taking his name from the current account so that we could qualify for higher rate of interest as I do not pay tax. Would doing this cause us any unforeseen problems?

M_Thomson

Snapelover wrote:

Looking carefully at RBS and Halifax as they are paying 5.12%

Royal Bank Of Scotland are owners of Natwest and pay 0.1%. Halifax and Bank Of Scotland part of the HBOS group pay 5.12%.

Gambler

is the Lloyds £50 bonus for switching still on, can't seem to find it?

bhutan

just wanted to let people know what a terrible time i have had with A&L. i have been with then for 7 months and it has just been one big hassle - so much so that despite having a substantial interest free overdraft i can't take it anymore and am now changing banks.

a flavour of what happened......they didn't switch several of my payments (i used their switching service) - i ended up having to ring around my direct debit companies giving them my new details......the 10% regular saver account took 4 months for them to set up despite several phone calls - and i still can't access this account via the internet despite several phonecalls (all they can come up with is "oh i don't know why that isn't working - why dopn't you try again"...aargh!)......i have had mail sent to my old address (security risk or what?) 5 months after i changed my address!!.....and i am still waiting for a paying in book 3 weeks after ordering it (this means that i can't pay cheques into my account at the post office; A&L branches are few and far between).

if you do decide to open an account with then i hope you have a better time than i have. i don't think i could ever bring myself to open an account with them again, however good the offer

Emms

Does anyone remember the First Direct open a new account and pay £50 before the end of May and we will give you £50. I paid in £50 and when i a text message statement from them I misread it and thought it said they had paid in their £50 so I took £100 out but now im minus £50 cause they hadnt paid anything in! Going to start reading the rest of this thread incase someone has posted this before.

Emma

Heat

Has any body else suffered with A&L being very slow/not setting up direct debits?

My partner and I both opened accounts. he decided to use their facility to swap his direct debits for him but three months down the line my partner has only had 4 of his 35 direct debits set up. After he gave them the first list, they lost it. The second time he gave them a list they managed to do 4 and now it has all stopped. They are blaming non replies from the companies that need to approve the direct debits but we have spoken to a couple of companies and they claim never to have never received them. It is highly suspicious that the 4 set up were all after one another in the list that he supplied to A&L.

In the meantime his account at his old bank is stopping allowing the facility for direct debits so he is starting to fall between cracks and doesn't want to be reported as a late payer through no fault of his own.

Is he just unlucky or is there repeated poor customer service from them out there?

lipidicman

I have always moved DDs myself. However I only have them for CCs and major bills so it is pretty simple. I have to say I got my A&L account for the bonuses and to get the 10% saver. I route money through it and use it a little. From my impressions of them I am glad I kept my lloyds CA.

tigerman

A complete waste of time messed up d/d and s/o transfers. Took 2 days to sort out then transferred cash and left d/d and s/o in old account, now having to move cash back to A&L be warned

EagerLearner

pigeonpie wrote:

Sorry does anyone know if the First Direct offer of open a current a/c, get 50 pounds credit and a CD Wow 15 quid voucher is still on? I can only see the 50 pound credit on their website for switching to them. I did a forum search but it throws out the word "First"!! & can't find the link someone posted a while ago.

They can't force you to close your old 0.1% interest bank account, but if you don't,can they withhold the 50 quid? Would be paying in a salary each month and using it for the dds.

cheers

If anything, register via Quidco for a FD account and you'll get £45 via Quidco cashback and another £50 welcome bonus from FD... Tidy £95 that way I think :T . You should be aware that they seem to be planning to charge customers to bank with them from next January, so take up the offer whilst the goings good - and you never know, they may not bring in the bank charges so you would then be smiles all round. :rotfl:

matd

Has the TSB refer a friend and both get £50 offer been withdrawn? I can't find mention anywhere on the site. My partner is with LTSB and it'd be a nice little bonus for us both.