Alliance & Leicester account switching disaster!

frogmagic

Hi evryone,

I'm new to the forum and was hoping to mine the wealth of knowledge out there.

Last year I changed accounts from Barclays to A&L, moving out of home for the first time and needed the additional credit they were offering. I paid a switching fee and was told that A&L would ensure all my direct debits and standing orders would be transferred. About a month or so later I received a letter confirming that the old accounts were closed and all payments transferred.

All good except it was a complete lie. I've only just closed the old accounts myself by going into Barclays in person. The real issue is that in addition to that they had not transferred the payments for a long standing loan I have with Barclays. Subsequently (and I know I should keep a more vigorous check on my accounts) I missed five payments totalling over a thousand pounds in arrears!! Barclays even sent out a letter ordering the closure of the loan and demanding full repayment. I have now resolved that matter, paid off a substantial amount and they are defering the rest to the end of the loan period.

Just how much damage has this caused to my credit history? How is it going to affect the possibility of future credit? Just how hard can I kick A&L for the almighty balls up?

Any help will be very very very gratefully received

Thanks

graemewh

I am looking to transfer from Nat west to A&L but I dont have any loans. Im confused about the £2,500 6% then after that amount it drops, I have £4,000 in my old account so dont know what to do

frogmagic

Not entirely sure about the rates but I would strongly advise keeping a very very close eye on the switching so you don't fall into the same trap as me.

Thanks

Beate

graemewh wrote:

I am looking to transfer from Nat west to A&L but I dont have any loans. Im confused about the £2,500 6% then after that amount it drops, I have £4,000 in my old account so dont know what to do

You get a PlusSaver linked to the Premier Direct Current Account, which pays 4.80% so you could dump the rest of the money there.
http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/savings/index.asp?page=plussaver&&ct=premierdirhome03

Sitrus

All I can say is DON'T DO IT!! I started the process of changing my account to A&L (can't even remember why, I think free overdraft or something) but they managed to mess up all my direct debits, spent time and money doing it myself in the end!! As they had never closed my HSBC account, I actually went to HSBC and said that if they could match overdraft offer would love to stay with them. They agreed and have been a happy HSBC customer as I was before I had the great idea of changing!! I did complain to A&L but it all left a bad taste in my mouth and would not recommend them to my worst enemy. They also have bizarre rules about being able to withdraw cash from branch - with premier account no supposed to take out less than £250 but have to order it in if want more than £250

LittleVoice

EDIT:

graemewh wrote:

I am looking to transfer from Nat west to A&L but I dont have any loans. Im confused about the £2,500 6% then after that amount it drops, I have £4,000 in my old account so dont know what to do]

Make sure that you have only £2500 in your A&L current account. If you want a really easy life (not necessarily the best in terms of interest), as Beate writes, move the remaining £1500 or so to the savings account they will set up for you at the same time.

Because you will get interest on your current account each month, you may need to keep an eye on this to move the excess to your savings account.

As you spend from your current account, move money over from the savings account. When money comes into the current account, move the excess over £2,500 to the savings account.

This way you should maximise the interest on your current account - which will be at a higher rate that the savings account.

If you can't spare the time to keep a really close/frequent eye on the current account, keep the balance below £2,500 at whatever level you feel will not take you over the magic figure.

Beate

Now how did I manage to get this one posted twice? I blame the server update....

YorkshireBoy

frogmagic,

It's a long time since I had a bank loan, but are you sure the repayment mechanism was one of a direct debit or standing order type?

By that, I mean it could be that Barclays collected your loan payment by some form of internal direct transfer - similar to that used by A&L to collect the regular saver monthly payment, in that the customer has no direct control over it since it's not listed as a scheduled payment anywhere.

If that was the case, then it's understandable that A&L didn't get the information when they asked for DD/SO information only.

You might want to ascertain the situation here before lacing up the size 12's.


Re your credit history, you should order your credit reports from all 3 agencies (Experian, Equifax, & CallCredit) to see just how much damage has been caused by this.

LisaT186

To find out the extent of any damage then obatining your credit file is the first step.

With regards to the switching process Yorkshire Boy could well be correct in that it was an internal arrangement. A&L basically write to all your DD companies and tell them to swap to the new details, that is about all the switching process is, the letter you received probably just told you that this had been done.

During the switching service you should have been sent a list of regular payments from your account and asked to indicate those you wished them to continue with / deal with. You could ask for a copy of that list and see if the loan payment one was even on there. If not then Barclays didn't give them the information to be able to deal with it.

Lastly, you mentioned you paid a switching fee - I thought it was a free service?

MarkyMarkD

frogmagic wrote:

Last year I changed accounts from Barclays to A&L, moving out of home for the first time and needed the additional credit they were offering. I paid a switching fee and was told that A&L would ensure all my direct debits and standing orders would be transferred.

I don't understand what you are talking about here.

I have never heard of any A&L current account which charges any sort of switching fee.

Clive_Woody

Sitrus wrote:

All I can say is DON'T DO IT!! I started the process of changing my account to A&L (can't even remember why, I think free overdraft or something) but they managed to mess up all my direct debits, spent time and money doing it myself in the end!! As they had never closed my HSBC account, I actually went to HSBC and said that if they could match overdraft offer would love to stay with them. They agreed and have been a happy HSBC customer as I was before I had the great idea of changing!! I did complain to A&L but it all left a bad taste in my mouth and would not recommend them to my worst enemy. They also have bizarre rules about being able to withdraw cash from branch - with premier account no supposed to take out less than £250 but have to order it in if want more than £250

I may be wrong but I don't think anybody but the account holder can close an account, I am pretty sure HSBC needed you to instruct them to close the old account.