A&L: What do they call a "month"?

mleonard79

I've been somewhat ad-hoc with most of my £500 credits in the 14 months or so I've had the Premier Direct account (and sometimes 6 or 7 weeks between credits) and never been charged - or even had a letter.

Hi YorkshireBoy,

I think I might have told you this before but due to some wrong information from A&L my mum was funding her account wrongly for over a year (by paying into it from another A&L account) so technically she was underfunding her account and she was never pulled up for underfunding at all in all that time.

Basically their explanation for this was that the automated system that should detect underfunding can get mixed up and tends not to flag an account up so long as there is money going into the account from external sources at reasonable intervals which there was in my mum's case. So that probably explains why you've never had any letters.

That's not to say it couldn't flag someone up and they could get a letter the very first month they underfund their account marginally but it does mean that it is highly unlikely and I think you really need to be seriously underfunding it over a long period of time for it to become an issue. I tend to think that so long as you are funding it regularly with a decent amount of money they're not pedantic about the dates.

Stephen - I really think there's no point worrying about it as your wages may well not come in late in the first place and if they do you probably won't get an underfunding letter anyway and if you do you can worry about it at the time. Also if your wages do go in late one month that means you're actually fine for the next month anyway so I feel it's highly unlikely you'd be sent an underfunding letter in this case.

Regards

Michelle

Stephen_Leak

"Statementing period" could be tricky - you don't get printed statements. I was just living up to my clan motto - Nunquam non Paratus - Never Unprepared. I'll stop worrying ... Ommm ...

ioscorpio

I asked in the branch how they defined monthly and they said it was not based on your statement dates iwas calendar month and you could fund your account any day of the month.

mleonard79

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

"Statementing period" could be tricky - you don't get printed statements. I was just living up to my clan motto - Nunquam non Paratus - Never Unprepared. I'll stop worrying ... Ommm ...

:rotfl:

I'm pretty certain the "statementing period" is actually a calendar month anyway itself as when you print a statement from your online banking it is done in calendar month format. Anyway I think not worrying about it is the best idea!

Regards

Michelle

MarkyMarkD

"Statementing period" is the period between interest credits, as interest credits are credited on the day the statement would have been produced if it was a paper statement.

I'm not sure how your mother got duff advice about transferring from another A&L account (or more to the point, why she needed advice) - it's pretty obvious in all the documentation that the £500 minimum credit has to be from an external account.

mleonard79

"Statementing period" is the period between interest credits, as interest credits are credited on the day the statement would have been produced if it was a paper statement.

In that case as far as I know it's technically meant to be a calendar month but, as you say above, it's really academic because so long as you are paying in £500 regularly there isn't a problem.

I'm not sure how your mother got duff advice about transferring from another A&L account (or more to the point, why she needed advice) - it's pretty obvious in all the documentation that the £500 minimum credit has to be from an external account.

It's a long story which has been gone over on here before so I won't go over the whole saga again. Basically the jist of it is that A&L customer service told her several times that the clauses saying you cannot fund the account from another A&L account meant only from another A&L account in your own name so my brother happily sent his rent money to her A&L account from his and as there has never been an underfunding problem she assumed the information she was given was correct. It is not, however, as the rule is that you cannot fund it from ANY A&L account irrespective of whose name it is in. A&L's response to the mistake was that since the system had never detected any underfunding problem she should just continue funding it the same way until she got an underfunding letter if she got one!! :rolleyes: This further leads me to think their underfunding detection system isn't exactly foolproof!

Regards

Michelle

MarkyMarkD

Michelle

I find that application of the under-funding rules completely incomprehensible.

There must be lots of people whose only funding to their current account is from another A&L account - many employers bank with A&L too, as well as many tenants whose rent might be the only money coming into a BTL landlord's account, say.

mleonard79

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Michelle

I find that application of the under-funding rules completely incomprehensible.

There must be lots of people whose only funding to their current account is from another A&L account - many employers bank with A&L too, as well as many tenants whose rent might be the only money coming into a BTL landlord's account, say.

Hi Mark,

I totally agree with you - I find it a tad strange as well. I've found quite a few people who think the rule means only funding from A&L accounts in their own name is excluded like my mum did. In any case, as I say, it seems like they don't exactly enforce this rule particularly well anyway. I thought it was a cracker that they told her to just carry on breaking the rules as the system hadn't detected it though!! They seemed to think that since a small pension, which does count as external funding, is also being paid into the account the system is fooled into thinking she is funding the account totally externally and properly as per the rules. I just set up a couple of standing orders for her to route my brother's rent money out to her RBS account and back again just in case she does end up with any unwelcome letters though - better to be safe and all that.

As the Premier Accounts are solely personal accounts I'm sure this rule wouldn't be applied to any business/employer accounts as it would be completely impractical as you say. I think it would be a bit harsh to charge someone who was getting £500 p/m paid into their account from a tenant with another A&L account though I have to say - it could happen though if it is "detected." I can understand the rules excluding A&L accounts in your own name or even any opened by your family though.

Regards

Michelle