Interest Calculation wrong. What can I do?

jm7472

I have had a Direct Saver Account with Alliance since January.

I caculate the interest I should be getting and for January and Febuary my calculations matched theres.

Aprils interest was a different story. It was wrong. Not by much, but still wrong.

I have contacted them a couple of times. The first person i spoke to was no help at all and said the calculation looks correct to him without any explanation as to how its done. He said he would send me a breakdown of the calculation for me to read.

After a week I didnt get this so I rang to chase them up. Nothing! No notes on my account, no sign of them sending me the calculation. I was told that had he sent a calculation to me there would have been a charge of £15!!!

I got nowhere trying to find out how they calculate interest and so decided to complain in writing to them. I wrote my letter last night but when it came to adding the address I could not find one anywhere on their website. I rang them again to get the address for complaints. They were more helpful this time and told me how they calculated interest. They also did a calculation for me using a spreadsheet they have. The calculation was still wrong by by working out and also using the method I was told they use.

I've put my thoughts and complaint in writing to them so lets see what happens.

Does anyone else have experience of mis-calculated interest?

Can they really charge me £15 for showing me the calculation they have used? What they're saying by doing this is that for minor discrepancies they will get away with miscalculating as no-one will challenge it when a charge of £15 is required.

Please appreciate that they are not ripping me off in a big way, its only 50p.

But if you work out 50p x the number of customers they may have ripped off it would be a lot of money.

Any help anyone can offer will be appreciated.

Jm

McSaver

Dont forget the number of days in each month is different so you will get different returns on each month, And you may of added cash to affect the returns.

In your case its only 50p so i wouldnt worry too much about it. You may well get a month were you get 50p more than you calculate.

The usual calculation is

balance x rate x 365
----
number of days in month (or in account for any extra during that month.)

jm7472

Thats exactly what I've calculated. And yes I've allowed for there being 30 days in April.

It might only be 50p but I save as well as I can and every 50p counts. And it is my 50p, not theirs.

tom188

Are you sure that the way you are calculating interest is the same as the way they are?

jm7472

Yes. I'm sure.

I've done it using my spreadsheet and also using a calculator and the method Alliance and Leicester told me on the phone last night.

jm7472

I've just sussed out why its wrong!!

Feel stupid now.

This financial year included next febuary as 29 days as 2008 is a leap year.

Therefore the calculation need to use 366 days to work out the daily interest!!

Silly me.

Milarky

I had a similar experience with the Halifax. When I first worked it out it looked wrong (interest for a year this is) so I called them. They also told me they would send out a calculation - but nothing ever arrived. However, within a few minutes of coming off the phone I spotted my own error and when I amended this on the spreadsheet it was almost exactly in agreement with the interest - so I didn't worry about the 'postal failure' at their end.

In general I only check interest some of the time - and once you have checked that a particular bank has been spot on once (and they nearly always are) you accept they are going to remain accurate in future.

[It's also a bit of fun seeing how close you can make your figure match theirs]

jm7472

Agreed. Quite enjoy trying to get the figures to match what the bank say.

Wouldnt like to do it with my surrent account though. Its a little easier with a savings account.