Alliance & Leicester - Direct Saver

Steve_xx

I want to open another can of worms regarding this account. Below is an extract from A&L's terms and conditions regarding it. I read this to be saying that there will be no interest paid on any amount between £1 to £5000, regardless of the fact that the balance may be in excess of £5k. Note the placement of the word investment where I would expect to read the word "balance".What do others think?


36.8 No interest will be paid on any amount invested, which is below or above the minimum and maximum investment permitted in the Account, as
detailed in clause 36.3.

tom188

No I dont think so, should say balance, unless they are distinguishing between deposits and interest.

Typical sloppy wording from AL

Steve_xx

It may not be sloppy wording. It may be purposely designed that way to mislead the unsuspecting!

grade15

I think that you opening balance is 5k and there will be no interest on anything between £1-£4999 and over 100K(which is max limit)
read what clause 36.3 says.
you don't have to thank me..its just a nice thing i do!

oldfella

my monthly interest confirms it is paid on the whole balance

Mike

Steve_xx

grade15 wrote:

I think that you opening balance is 5k and there will be no interest on anything between £1-£4999 and over 100K(which is max limit)
read what clause 36.3 says.
you don't have to thank me..its just a nice thing i do!

I think you could possibly be correct in that no interest will be paid on the first 5K.

If I were to phone A&L twice, what's the betting that each call would produce conflicting answers?

YorkshireBoy

The 'investment limits' are £5K and £100K.

The 'balance' is what you have in there.

No interest earned on balances outside the minimum and maximum investment limits.

Seems perfectly clear to me.

Steve_xx

YorkshireBoy wrote:

The 'investment limits' are £5K and £100K.

The 'balance' is what you have in there.

No interest earned on balances outside the minimum and maximum investment limits.

Seems perfectly clear to me.

If you look at my original post where I stated A&L's terms and conditions you will see that the word "balance" is not mentioned. Instead, the word "investment" is mentioned, and that is what made me question it. Gramatically it reads that no interest will be paid on any amount under 5k, or any amount over 100k.

MarkyMarkD

I do not believe that it is being devious; it is using fairly complex language to describe a situation which is fairly complex.

What I mean is that it is trying to be clear about the fact that interest is payable as follows:

Balance £0-£4,999 = Interest paid on £0 as balance is below £5,000
Balance £5,000-£100,000 = Interest paid on balance as balance is between £5,000 and £100,000
Balance >£100,000 = Interest paid on £100,000 as balance is greater than £100,000.

If it said "no interest will be paid on balances outside the investment limits" then no interest at all would be paid on accounts with a £105,000 balance - which is not the case. It is only the investment of £5,000, which is itself outside the investment limits, which does not earn interest.

It would be clearest if it said that

Interest will be paid on the account balance, save that:

1. where the account balance is less than the minimum investment limit, no interest will be paid; and
2. where the account balance is greater than the maximum investment limit, no interest will be paid on that part of the balance over the maximum investment limit.

But they probably thought that would be more confusing than what they've gone for!

Most importantly, steve_xx, it is not true that the first £4,999 earns no interest where your balance is over £5,000.

Steve_xx

MarkyMarkD wrote:

I do not believe that it is being devious; it is using fairly complex language to describe a situation which is fairly complex.

What I mean is that it is trying to be clear about the fact that interest is payable as follows:

Balance £0-£4,999 = Interest paid on £0 as balance is below £5,000
Balance £5,000-£100,000 = Interest paid on balance as balance is between £5,000 and £100,000
Balance >£100,000 = Interest paid on £100,000 as balance is greater than £100,000.

If it said "no interest will be paid on balances outside the investment limits" then no interest at all would be paid on accounts with a £105,000 balance - which is not the case. It is only the investment of £5,000, which is itself outside the investment limits, which does not earn interest.

It would be clearest if it said that

But they probably thought that would be more confusing than what they've gone for!

Most importantly, steve_xx, it is not true that the first £4,999 earns no interest where your balance is over £5,000.

Yes, I understand what you say. One poster has confirmed that his interest shows that interest is in fact paid on the whole amount.

But I maintain that A&L could have made it clearer, by showing examples if necessary of varying amounts invested. The terms are badly written, and at best they are ambiguous in the way that I have described.

tom188

Steve_xx wrote:

Yes, I understand what you say. One poster has confirmed that his interest shows that interest is in fact paid on the whole amount.

But I maintain that A&L could have made it clearer, by showing examples if necessary of varying amounts invested. The terms are badly written, and at best they are ambiguous in the way that I have described.

I dont see why, after all its quite clear that you will get the quoted interest rate provided you stick to the account restrictions. Why should they need to show what you get if you dont do what you're meant to.

But yes normal badly worded from AL