Alliance & Leicester - address for direct debits?

Gytha_Ogg

Hey all,

Searched the forums, googled and looked through all the documents sent from A&L, but can't find this info anywhere.

Just recently set up a current account with A&L. I wanted to set up a direct debit with Littlewoods, but when I came to filling in the online form it asked for the bank address. I tried using the standard customer centre address (the Bootle one, postcode GIR 0AA) but it wouldn't accept it, as the postcode is not in the usual format.

I tried leaving it blank but it wouldn't accept it either.

Can any other A&L account holders tell me what address they use when setting up a direct debit?

Thanks. :j

masonic

I use the Bootle one when I need to fill in those details at all. Littlewoods have obviously gone overboard in restricting the postcode field in their form. Could you phone Littlewoods to set it up? Otherwise, I'd suspect a branch address would be fine.

Gytha_Ogg

Yeah, I should probably just ring them directly, perhaps they can send me a paper mandate (should get here by Christmas with the postal strike....)

Thanks for your reply.

MarkyMarkD

The "real" postcode for A&L in Bootle is L30 4GB. The GIR OAA postcode was a "made-up" special one when Girobank was owned by the Post Office but GIR OAA is not listed in the Post Office's Postal Address File (PAF) as a valid postcode and it also doesn't match the standard postcode format so either layout validation or PAF validation will reject it.

Mikeyorks

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

The GIR OAA postcode was a "made-up" special one when Girobank was owned by the Post Office

It's a 'high volume' user code allocated to organisations receiving a lot of mail. Similar code (BD98 8AA) used by HMRC at their Shipley office and which receives payment for the UK / Scotland / NI. These codes are not well liked by couriers using Sat Nav systems! Used to be a lot of them - but I suspect they are gradually being replaced by more geographically friendly codes.

MarkyMarkD

The difference between GIR OAA and BD98 8AA is that BD98 8AA is a Post Office standard format postcode, even though BD98 is a non-geographical location rather like an 0845 or 0870 phone number.