SWITCHING SERVICE alliance and leicester

deb788

i have just opened an Alliance and Leicester account as i am in the process of reclaiming my bank charges with HSBC and want to close my account with them


The Alliance and Leicester have a switching service where they transfer , direct debits , salary etc.. and close your exsisting account


I wondered if anyone had used this service and has any feedback on it as i am slightly nervous of using it

hackyd

I used this service last year and it went really smooth. All my direct debits go out within a few days of each other so that may have made it easier.
They send you a letter well in advance with all the DD's on and you tick the ones you wish to transfer and they do the rest, it was very easy.

IFA

Sorry to be negative , but My experience (and the experience of my referral) has been bad. Missed dd's major delays etc etc It got sorted in the end but was a bit of a headache..

deb788

did they match your overdraft ?

they have given me £400 and say they will probably match my existing overdraft of £1000 but i am worried what will happen if they dont match it ?

cant seem to get any info off them , one said they will match it if you had at least 2 days per month in credit and another said there is no real set criteria

sillydaddy

I had a bad experience with them. Only my salary and charity dd's went over. Everything else then carried on coming out without my salary to pay for them. I got hit for a lot in bank charges. They said sorry and that they would pay the charges but then retracted it.

Personally I would do it all myself next time. It takes time but its worth it.

h_roberts

Switching SERVICE? Don’t make me laugh!
I started the process of moving from Halifax to A&L in mid-December by going into my ‘local’ branch. I had to ask one vital question before I opened an account (the ‘recommended’ Premier Direct).
As I had not climbed out of my £1500 O/D with Halifax, nor even seen the light above a zero balance for a couple of years, would A&L still match my O/D?
Nice young lady said ‘Yes!’, so I began the process.
For the next umpteen days, got deluged with paperwork from all angles. Cards, PINs, cheque books, blurb etc, etc.
First hurdle: moving my salary from H to A&L – easy – just told Payroll and it’s done!
Noticed that on some of the paperwork it said my O/D limit was £600. Went to branch, nice young thing made call to switching people who said, ‘Ah. Because you are opening an account in your name only, and not joint as per Halifax a/c, we can’t match O/D.’ Oh great! That was the main reason for switching – to get the 0% OD instead of paying H loads of interest.
Got the nice young thing to copy several H statements showing good management of a/c even though permanently overdrawn. She said, ‘It’ll be no problem.’
Several more to-ings and fro-ings and loads more bumf.
Eventually agreed to add my wife’s name to the account to make it ‘like-for-like’. She hasn’t used the H a/c and won’t use this one.
Meanwhile (presumably) the H account with its max £1500 OD must be piling up interest, ‘cos I can’t close it, and there’s nowt going in/out!
Yet more exchanges. ‘Sorry, still can’t match.’ GRRRRRRRR
Meantime, the switching of the few DDs and SOs has taken place, but OH SO SLOOOOOOWLY. Could have done it faster myself by walking on my hands between the various payees and A&L.
Alongside all this, I said ‘Yes’ to an A&L credit card at sign-up time. Got it and yet more PINs, bumf etc. Then received letter wanting my signature on a piece of paperwork they’d ‘missed’. Signed and returned. Then another similar letter – noticed that CC number was different, so returned letter with note saying ‘must be a duplicate – don’t want it’. Second CC appeared! Sent it back! Now received another letter saying I will receive my CC and PIN soon! That’ll be THREE! GRRR GRRRR
Still waiting for nice young lady at branch to get back to me with update on O/D situation. If they still can’t do it, then I’m going to throw the whole process into reverse and SOD ‘EM!
Thinks: If I go back to Halifax, can I get the £100 bonus?????