Help please.

swayze

Just come back from holiday and found three letters from Alliance & Leicester basically indicating I have gone over my £400 interest free overdraft.
This confused me as I haven't used the card for ages.
I then found I had gone over the limit due to and under funding fee. It seems they wanted a mimimum of £500 a month payable to the account. However when I first took out the account they advised I had to pay £500 in the first month in order to receive a £50 incentive bonus but did not mention having to pay £500 each month.
I didn't use the account for a while and nothing happened. Then on my return from holiday I noticed the charges have started hitting my account since February. When I took the account out they also said it had the interest free overdraft for a year.
Basically I would have paid straight away when I received the first letter but due to being on holiday I haven't seen these letter till today.
Is there anything I can do?

PROLIANT

swayze wrote: »

Just come back from holiday and found three letters from Alliance & Leicester basically indicating I have gone over my £400 interest free overdraft.
This confused me as I haven't used the card for ages.
I then found I had gone over the limit due to and under funding fee. It seems they wanted a mimimum of £500 a month payable to the account. However when I first took out the account they advised I had to pay £500 in the first month in order to receive a £50 incentive bonus but did not mention having to pay £500 each month.
I didn't use the account for a while and nothing happened. Then on my return from holiday I noticed the charges have started hitting my account since February. When I took the account out they also said it had the interest free overdraft for a year.
Basically I would have paid straight away when I received the first letter but due to being on holiday I haven't seen these letter till today.
Is there anything I can do?

Did you read the terms and conditions of the account?

BruceyBonus

It seems very clear from their website that you will be charged £5/month if you don't provide at least £500 funding every month.

Meltdown_2

Not everyone looks up the account details on the bank website of course before opening an account.
Some people still actually go into a branch and speak to a member of the bank staff. :shocked:

swayze states that :

when I first took out the account they advised I had to pay £500 in the first month in order to receive a £50 incentive bonus but did not mention having to pay £500 each month.

I guess that many of us reading this forum would have realised that didn't sound right, but that doesn't mean that everyone should automatically be expected to.
If you are told something by a bank employee (regarding an account you are discussing) you have a right to expect that information to be accurate. Clearly what was said to swayze (or at least what was understood from what was said) is incorrect. I strongly suspect, though, if it is put to the bank, that they will simply deny that swayze was told this.

It is my understanding that some A&L customers have had the "underfunding" charges cancelled (on the grounds that it was a genuine mistake) but that is a commercial decision for the bank (depending on whether they want to lose the customer's business). There would seem no harm in you writing to A&L, swayze, explaining the position and asking them to do this - but don't get your hopes up ...