Alliance & Leicester Overdraft Usage Fee

Adam_Green

I have an A&L Premier Direct account, and notice that I have been stung with a £5 'overdraft usage fee' this month. Apparently they are charging 50p for every day you use their overdraft, up to a maximum of £5 per month.

Are all banks doing this now? Martin is recommending A&L for their current account. I can't believe he would if he knew about this sneaky little charge!

Adam

rail.link

How long have you had the account ?

It's supposed to be free for the first 12 months.

Adam_Green

Hi,

i've had it for 24 months. you're right it's free for the first 12 months. i don't mind paying interest after that - but this additional usage fee isn't on.

that's why i wondered if other banks apply a similar fee - if not, time to change accounts i think!

Adam

blizeH

A&Ls overdraft scheme seems far superior to others, so I'd stick with it anyway.

BenL

They changed the terms and cons about a month or so ago and advised customers by post.

We have discussed it on here in a few posts as well.

I have just checked and completed the last of my DD transfer checks and my new Norwich & Peterborough account looks to be up and running fully.

I went from maybe 1 or 2p interest a month with A&L to at least 50p a month so i've moved on and next job of the day is closing down my current account and 3 savings accounts with them.

This months 50p was due to the way they apply debits before credits even though i requested the funds to go from savings to current the day before.

scof76

No they haven't!

I'm a Premier Direct Current Account customer and everything is done on-line. Looking back, in the emails advising me to go and pick up my latest statements from the web, it says '
IMPORTANT MESSAGE(S)
Changes have been made to your Current Account Terms & Conditions with effect from the 22 October 2007. To view the revised Terms & conditions visit our website, simply go to the 'Current Accounts' homepage and select 'Terms & conditions' from the right hand menu.'
but this is buried halfway down the email and clearly not obvious.

They can afford to send me stuff to brag about their new Swift and secure international payments for just £16 but nothing about 50p for each day you're overdrawn.

I'm really annoyed about this and seriously reconsidering A&L....

masonic

I closed my A&L account because of these new charges, but I couldn't complain about how clear they made it that the charges were changing.

A month before the change was due to take place, I received an e-mail entitled "Please check your online statement - Important Account Changes" which explained the changes, and even included a table showing the new rates. I then recieved a reminder a few days before the change came entitled "Important Account Information", which explained the changes again.

In both cases, there was no need to go looking for the T&Cs because the terms were explained clearly in the e-mails.

Lavendyr

BenL wrote: »

They changed the terms and cons about a month or so ago and advised customers by post.

Advised *some* customers, you mean. I only heard about it via the BBC (I posted it on here when I did) - A&L have never bothered to tell me. :mad:

nick1977

I was charged £2 overdraft fee the other day, for being 5p overdrawn for 4 days. What's worse is the 5p o/d was because I was charged 45p interest from the month before when I was only 40p in credit!
I phoned up their customer services and said that £2 charge for being 5p into my authorised overdarft limit for 4 days was extortionate, but they said they wouldn't refund it, even when I said I am going to close the account. Which I am now going to do.
I don't like this method of charging 50p per day regardless of balance. It doesn't suit me given that I rarely use my overdraft and if I do it would only be by up to £100 for a few days a month.
A+L have lost me as a customer because of this stupid new way of charging for the overdraft facility.
Can anyone recommend a good high interest current account that charges o/d interest in the "traditional" way, even if the rate isn't that competitive?

Thanks
Nick

TomJ

Adam_Green wrote: »

Hi,

i've had it for 24 months. you're right it's free for the first 12 months. i don't mind paying interest after that - but this additional usage fee isn't on.

that's why i wondered if other banks apply a similar fee - if not, time to change accounts i think!

Adam

It's not an aditional cost, as it effectively replaces the overdraft interest, which has been zero reated across the board. Whether or not this method of charging suits you or not will depend on your circumsttances, but it's a tad unfair to imply they're charging it on top of an interest charge.

Adam_Green

Hi,

yeah - agree that was my mistake. the usage charge is instead of interest from what i can tell.

Adam