A&L Premier / Premier Plus accounts (Merged Threads)

laurat

I'd like to open an A&L Premier Plus account for its in credit interest rate, overdraft, etc. but understand the account has a condition that £1000 must be paid in every month. As I'm currently between jobs and money is a bit tighter than usual, I'm considering opening just the Premier account instead, which I believe you only have to pay £500 into a month. I'd really like to do this soon because of all the sign-up and 'reccommend a friend' incentives they're running at the mo!!

A couple of questions though:

1) In terms of account benefits, am I right in thinking the only real difference between the accounts is that the Premier's credit interest rate is lower than Premier Plus' 5%?

2) If I do open a Premier account, does anyone know if later down the line (ie. when I hopefully get a job!) it is possible to 'upgrade' to the Premier Plus account (so as to benefit from 5% interest)? Or would I have to close the account and open a completely new one? I have had a look at the T&Cs on their website but can't see anything regarding this.

If any A&L customers know anymore on these matters, I'd be very grateful!

Thanks,

Laura

cadboll

Hi.

I switched over to A&L a number of months ago. I opened up a Premier Account because of all the benefits you have listed. I had this account for about 1 month, phoned up their customer service department and asked to be upgraded. The advisor then told me the upgrade was completed and I would receive confirmation shortly which I did.

The main reason for switching to the Premier Plus Account was the fact of 5.00% Gross/AER as opposed to the 2.10% Gross/AER available on the Premier Account.

So the answer in short is - Yes you can upgrade at a later stage and you don't have to close/open accounts to upgrade.

P.S. Note Martins article on A&L Referrals - worth reading.

m13

i've just opened the a&l premier account and i know that i have to pay in £1000 a month to get the referral money. now, because i don't want to use this as my main current account (as you probably guessed already) i want to transfer from my a&l online saver £1000 each month which then should go via standing order to my derbyshire regular saver.

am i right in that i just have to pay in the money and that it doesn't have to actually stay in there for longer than a day? how long would i have to leave the £1000 in there before i can go out via S/O? can this happen on the same day?

could there be a problem in that the money comes from the online saver and not my employer?

thanks for any help

phoebe03cat

We've had our current account at LLoyds for around 30 years(sad I know). We are usually overdrawn and pay for their platinum account.We don't use the airport lounge benefits or mobile insurance. Hope to get cleared this month and use sbt on credit cards instead, and hack away. Martin's tips yesterday has made me question whether we may get more from A&L credit a/c. Must have paid a fortune in bank charges over the years. Does a change of bank effect your credit scoring and is anyone in a position to compare the two accounts please. Would be really grateful for any help as we are just getting started on this!

grumbler

m13 wrote:

am i right in that i just have to pay in the money and that it doesn't have to actually stay in there for longer than a day? how long would i have to leave the £1000 in there before i can go out via S/O? can this happen on the same day?

I think the same day is OK, but I'd wait at least one day. You lose almost nothing because this account pays 5%.

could there be a problem in that the money comes from the online saver and not my employer?

Yes, it could:

Terms & Conditions :

32.2 You must pay the minimum monthly credit into Your Account each month, which We will notify, to You. Credit transfers to the Account from other Alliance & Leicester accounts will not count towards the minimum monthly credit.

However, money can come from some other bank.

m13

thanks for that, grumbler! i wouldn't have noticed this myself...
well, i'll set up a S/O from my lloyds current account then. that should work. ta.

dbuk44

As i`m sure its been posted, dont forget that you dont have to transfer the full £1k at once or keep it there for any length of time.

I put in £500, withdrew it later that day, and paid it in again.

A little silly... but it works!

BTW, i`m obviously happy to be a referrer (I would get £50, you would get £50).

jonesMUFCforever

If you are continually o/d with LTSB then presumably you will be still o/d with A&L.How much do each charge for an authorised overdraft?
Bear in mind LTSB is a proper bank where you can pay bills over the counter if need be and you can change unlimited coin bags and they do not have an unrealistic low maximum cash holdings in the event that you will want to cash a cheque.
Please check if this is relevent to you that A&L also do this.
Eric

MarkyMarkD

ejones999 wrote:

Bear in mind LTSB is a proper bank where you can pay bills over the counter if need be and you can change unlimited coin bags and they do not have an unrealistic low maximum cash holdings in the event that you will want to cash a cheque.
Please check if this is relevent to you that A&L also do this.
Eric

Pay bills over counter - NO but why would you EVER need to do this when you can do it equally quickly by BACS online.
Coin bags - NO but again, why does a normal customer accumulate huge amounts of coins?
Cash holdings - I know what you mean, but why do you need large amounts of cash? If you want to buy a car (most people's main reason for cash) pay by CHAPS/BACS or get a banker's draft which is far safer than carrying around £5k in used £5 notes.

If you want to choose your bank on the basis of exceptional transactions being slightly less convenient, then A&L isn't going to be your choice. If you choose on the basis of good value for everyday transactions, it may be.

MarkyMarkD

You definitely can upgrade, as cadboll says, if you meant the P+ requirements at a later stage.

As well as the difference in interest rate, P+ is online based, so you only get online statements. You also can't do as many transactions through branches with P+ as with P. So the higher interest rate is partly to reflect the online servicing focus, and partly to reflect the higher funding requirement.

phoebe03cat

Thanks Marky Mark - but will it affect our credit rating? After 30 years with same bank we must be seen as pretty stable and have never been refused credit! Have now been accepted by Virgin (hoorah!)for sbt so should be able to transfer with more or less zero bank balance, but 2 fairly good incomes coming in. PS Wish I'd starting thinking like this 20 years ago - its addictive! Family now on diet of beans and reduced products, all standbys turned off etc etc.