Alliance & Leicester change overdraft policy

masonic

PilotJames wrote: »

I am paid into my A&L account on the 20th of each month and also have several SOs coming out of the account on the same day. According to the T&Cs, and your posts above, I should have been charged unauthorised overdraft fees as I'm up to my limit before payday. So why haven't I been charged?

From what you say, it certainly sounds like you should have been charged. Perhaps you should phone them up and complain.

tom0407

I was charged £55 for going £120 overdrawn for 12 hours. If that's better than before then it must have been really bad before.

masonic

tom0407 wrote: »

I was charged £55 for going £120 overdrawn for 12 hours. If that's better than before then it must have been really bad before.

What's the breakdown of that? It could be considered relatively cheap if multiple unpaid item/paid referral fees were involved.

MarkyMarkD

PilotJames wrote: »

MarkyMarkD,

I am paid into my A&L account on the 20th of each month and also have several SOs coming out of the account on the same day. According to the T&Cs, and your posts above, I should have been charged unauthorised overdraft fees as I'm up to my limit before payday. So why haven't I been charged?

Thanks.

I didn't see this one or I would have replied sooner - sorry!

As far as I understand it (and this is from lots of years as an A&L current account customer, but I don't believe that it differs at other banks), batched credits (such as inwards BACS and direct credits) are posted first, followed by batched debits (such as cheque clearances and direct debits, as well as standing orders etc.

Then other un-batchedtransactions happen when they happen.

So, as long as your salary is credited on the same day as your outgoing payments, and covers them, you will be OK.

But what you cannot do is fund batched outgoing transactions with un-batched credits like over-the-counter cash deposits, or online transfers from other accounts, because the batched transactions go through first.

MarkyMarkD

tom0407 wrote: »

I was charged £55 for going £120 overdrawn for 12 hours. If that's better than before then it must have been really bad before.

More of this "12 hours" rubbish.

Banks work in banking days, not hours. Either you were overdrawn when your payments were due, or you weren't. "Hours" are irrelevant.

Obviously when you say "£120 overdrawn" you mean "£120 overdrawn without an approved overdraft limit". It makes a difference.

klint

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

But what you cannot do is fund batched outgoing transactions with un-batched credits like over-the-counter cash deposits, or online transfers from other accounts, because the batched transactions go through first.

I have both a Lloyds Bank account and an A&L account, both of them for many years. I hear many people criticise customer service from Lloyds. From my experience, I don't see any justification in this; in fact, it's A&L's customer service that I've been less impressed with.

Now Lloyds Bank sent an insert with their monthly statement, explaining their overdraft charges more clearly. The leaflet says: "If your account goes over its limit, you have until 3:30pm that day to pay in enough money to cover all your payments. If you do this, we won't charge you any Unplanned Overdraft fees... a great reason to check your balance daily."

Well, that's exactly what I've done with A&L, but A&L don't have this policy. As you've stated in this forum, A&L will charge you £££fees in these circumstances, whereas Lloyds will not.

I know A&L is often recommended, but I really don't think much of their overdraft charging policy at all. Especially their new policy. And especially in the light of competition such as this example.

MarkyMarkD

As I understand it, Lloyds are one of a very small number of banks working like this. (Maybe just them).

If they want to do this as a customer benefit, that's great. If it's a reason to switch accounts to them, then do so.

But people shouldn't claim it's unfair that any other bank doesn't do exactly the same. Different banks do different things in different ways - that's how a competitive market works.

If you run your A&L account within its authorised overdraft, you won't get charged in the circumstances I describe.

YorkshireBoy

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

As I understand it, Lloyds are one of a very small number of banks working like this. (Maybe just them).

I believe HSBC led the way on this with their Fair Fees Policy

gemz700

well i think that it's disgusting that A&L are charging these fees and I am now going through the process of leaving them.

This month there were a few 'anomolies' that went through my account. I have a £50 agreed overdraft. First a transaction came out taking me £2 in to my overdraft - i noticed this and transferred some funds from my savings to cover it. Then, another transaction came out taking me £11 in to my overdraft for 3 days before my salary went in.

A&L are charging me £2.50 for the benefit of using my AGREED overdraft. I very rarely use it and am annoyed that someone that was £3000 overdrawn for the same amount of time will only pay £2.50. I am also annoyed that i agreed this overdraft with them and they have the cheek to charge me to use it. They use the excuse that i am not paying debit interest but my debit interest never came to £2.50!!!!!!

Rubbish

SuiDreams

gemz700 wrote: »

A&L are charging me £2.50 for the benefit of using my AGREED overdraft. I very rarely use it and am annoyed that someone that was £3000 overdrawn for the same amount of time will only pay £2.50. I am also annoyed that i agreed this overdraft with them and they have the cheek to charge me to use it. They use the excuse that i am not paying debit interest but my debit interest never came to £2.50!!!!!!

Rubbish

This is exactly why I have switched, why should people who go overdrawn by a small amount subsidise those with massive overdrafts. When they 1st intruduced this I was paying more than double waht I was paying when they cahrged Interest. My overdraft is now gone, and have switched. I now have a £250 free overdraft if I ever need it, not that I'm planning to ever be overdrawn again