A & L fast and efficient switching service ?

danmoran

I decided to change banks to the Alliance & Leicester as there was a great interest rate, a £50 incentive and a 'fast and efficient' account switching service. After 3 months I am getting a great rate of interest. However I have only received £25 incentive (can't grumble too much) but they really cannot be classed as 'fast' or 'efficient'. After 3 months the only things that switched were my salary and a standing order to a charity. I had been keeping my old account topped up with sufficient funds to cope with any minor disaster but for the mortgage and all my services to come out together was too much for my meagre bank account. I have now incurred charges for £65!!

I phoned up the customer services department and they said they were sorry and would pay the charges. When I finally had proof and sent it through, they changed their minds! They will not pay. The funny thing is that the A&L consider this a successful transfer. I now have to go through all this again to change to another bank as I will not stay with this company.

jonesMUFCforever

I am in no way defending A&L here BUT have you asked them (or is it visible to you online)for a current list of d/d and s/o set up on the new account.
It could be that A&L have set up your d/d as requested but that your mortgage company et all have chosen to disregard this and still claim monies from your old account.
It may be that A&L are at fault here but I would investigate a little further before making sweeping statements in your post.
Eric

danmoran

I have checked with A&L and they are at fault.

omega27

I used the LloydsTSB switching service & basically they write to all the companies asking them to change the DD for you. However a lot of co-s don't take any notice, but Lloyds lists all your DDs on your account. So I thought everything had transfered sucessfully.

Most companies were understanding & allowed me to pay over the phone or setup a new DD directly. There needs to be a more efficient system. Lloyds say that if the DD isn't moved, all they do is write to the company again after 3 months. What use is that?!

stormCat99

You have my full sympathies, I have been through this with A&L. Took approx 6 months for everything to transfer, and 4 months for salary!!!!! Incurred charges like you but they repaid them. There's another thread on MSE somewhere discussint this.

If you want to PM me, I can give you the name and number of a very helpful person in Customer Services who sorted everything out - who I unfortunately was only put in touch with after several complaint letters and referral to the Ombudsman. But if you are having difficulties getting yourself heard, this lady may be able to help.

Good luck.....

newfoundglory

Its amazing, I look down this forum and all the red faces down the side are negative threads about A&L. They may pay 5% and all these incentives, but ask yourself, is it really worth it? If the customer service is that bad, and the stress it causes - plus given A&L's history the rate wont be that competitive for long anyway!

It just reminds me what a good experience I had with Norwich and Peterborough BS this week. I sent them a secure message on internet banking at lunch time one day regarding my current account. It was not a simple request, but within just 1 hour of sending it I got an email saying there was a secure message reply waiting for me. So I go read it, and my original message had been forwarded to someone who could deal with it. Within the following hour it was all sorted. I didn't even have to pick up the phone.

Efficient, accurate and no mistakes. I'm sorry, but even money can't buy you THAT type of customer service these days! ... so I beleive N&P deserves a mention for that... and 3% on just £500+ a month is very good!

A&L has had a lot of negative feedback on this site about the current account... has no one noticed? Why on earth would you want to bank somewhere where after things go wrong there is no one prepared to sort it out... If a bank can't take more care in getting things right (it is your money remember), is that really where you want to have your account?

stormCat99

Unfortunately I signed up in October last year, before all these bad comments appaered otherwise I'd have steered well clear! After the months of hassle I had transferring, I dearly wanted to tell them where to go and find someone better, but that would have been cutting off my nose to spite my face. Now I'm transferred I conduct my account online so thankfully no need to ever call them, and once the 0% rate is ended I will be off finding a better bank!

roger56

Try Smile the internet bank. http://www.smile.co.uk

They are very reliable and offer consistently sensible rates ie 3.3% on current a/c and 4.25% on savings a/c if you also have their current a/c. Obviously for long term savings there are better rates but on a monthly basis, getting 4.25% with the knowledge your Smile savings can get to your Smile current a/c instantly means you can maximise interest without the 3/4 day transfer uncertainty between banks and resulting interest loss.
Currently they offer £25 to you and £25 to a friend who is a Smile bank account holder if they introduce you.

stormCat99

My fiance and I have a joint Smile account, and have certainly found them to be very good and I would recommend to anyone. They don't have such a large interest free overdraft though ;-)

But next year when we're all sorted, I think we may move our main accounts over to Smile.

DilbertJones

why dont you just manually transfer your DD's???

that way you know it will be ok, with no problems

You can only trust yourself

stormCat99

Hindsight is a wonderful thing :-)

Obviously if I'd known it would take 6 months and many !!!! ups for the supposedly 'quick and hassle free' account transfer team to do their job, I would definitely have sat down one day and transferred them myself. Even though I've got about 30, it would have been

a) quicker
b) done correctly
c) avoided the frustrating process I went through.

I've already decided that in future, I will always transfer manually just in case. It's funny, the last 3 current account transfers have always gone fine, so I didn't have any reason to expect problems. But then, I never know how wrong it could all go......