Slow Alliance and Leicester

missile

I find NWide best for service. Their online banking is easy to use. Transfers between their accounts is instant, not just my own but even to a.n.other customers. Charge free Debit Card withdrawals when overseas. Not the best, but reasonable interest rates.

Recently closed my Cahoot savings accounts when their interest rate was reduced.

MissEyre

Just wanted to add that First Direct are meant to be great- I want to switch current account this year, so I had a quick look at their site, and they charge £10 a month for their current account UNLESS you pay in a minimum of £1500 a month AND have anothe F/D 'product' eg credit card, OR maintain an average account balance of £1500. Think I have got that right, but apologies if not-anyway, would suggest checking out the F/D terms and conditions, as I was quite surprised by that.

YorkshireBoy

MissEyre wrote: »

Just wanted to add that First Direct are meant to be great- I want to switch current account this year, so I had a quick look at their site, and they charge £10 a month for their current account UNLESS you pay in a minimum of £1500 a month AND have anothe F/D 'product' eg credit card, OR maintain an average account balance of £1500. Think I have got that right, but apologies if not-anyway, would suggest checking out the F/D terms and conditions, as I was quite surprised by that.

You've not "got it right" because you've inserted the word 'AND' where FD use a comma, ie it's possible to pay in less, and avoid the fee, if you have a savings account (which only needs to have a very small balance IIRC).

MarkyMarkD

I think the OP is rather harsh on A&L.

The issue with available balance is correct. If you authorise a transaction with your debit card, it comes off your available balance straight away, but not off your actual balance until the transaction clears which could be a few days later. Any bank will have the same thing - if they don't, then the available balance they are showing is incorrect and will encourage you to spend money you don't have.

Transfers between linked A&L accounts online are effectively immediate - although the funds don't appear in the recipient account until the next day (sometimes) they are available straight away. Transfers between non-linked A&L accounts take longer online, but are instant if done by telephone banking.

How often does a normal person transfer money to non-linked A&L accounts anyway?

As for

Dickieburd wrote:

Also my wife tried to find out the sort code and account number of her Easysaver account to trasfer funds into from RBS but A+L said it was 72-58-10 then 8x0's or 8x9's then a reference number which is ridiculous. She is going to close that account and she has since opened a savings account with RBS which has a normal 6 digit sort code and a normal 8 digit account number.

what difference does this make to you and how is it "ridiculous"? Many savings accounts don't have full sort code and account numbers; no credit card accounts have full sort code and account numbers. There's simply no need for them to do so and the sort-code, account number, reference number system works perfectly well. The only "ridiculous" thing is using that as a reason to change savings accounts!

richardg_2

Thanks again guys. MarkyMarkD perhaps I should expand on my OP, yes I would not want a bank that didnt tell me if I had any money coming out in the next few days and left me spending money I didnt have BUT what I find very difficult with A+L is that they cannot (with their online facility) tell you what the payment that is coming out in a few days actually is. This means you need to cast in your memory exactly what all your DD's are and when you have used your debit cards, how much this was for so you can work out what you have coming out in the next few days. Previously with HSBC they didnt bother with actual balance and real time updated your available balance with every transaction that had occured (or at least it seemed that way to me). I dont know if this meant that I missed out on a days interest as the money left my account straight away rather than hanging around for another day or two?
I was stuck at christmas eve because two days before i had transferred 200 from one of my A+L current accounts to my other (I keep two, one for bill DD's and one for spendies) and this hadnt credited my other t 2 days later!! Very frustrating!!

Finally, my partner is with A+L (we joined the same time for the recommend a friend scheme) and transfering money between our two accounts can take a couple of days wheras with other banks this is instant (see missile post).