Alliance and Leicester

emc

rm84 wrote: »

I did write to A&L to complain about the £25 charge that was applied to my account, when my available balance indicated that I had sufficient funds to make the payment, but the transactions were subsequently reordered so it appeared that there weren't. when I logged on to internet banking today, I found that the charge had been refunded!
So I would definitely encourage anyone with similar problems to stand their ground.

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

Good luck to everyone taking their cases re A&L to the FOS - I did and won, A&L backed down very quickly, and they had a right rollocking off the FOS as well!!
But according to A&L, they dont get fined for being investigated.... thats a laugh as well!
But be careful if your account is still with them - after FOS ruled in my favour they threatened to close my account because I went a few pounds overdrawn by accident!! (Part of the judgement was regarding the fact they had put so much untrue information/made so many unauthorised searches on my credit file I was unable to get even a basic account elsewhere so they were well aware if they closed this account I would be left with no banking facilities AT ALL)

Well done, both of you.

rm84 - Alliance & Leicester have at least refunded the incorrect charge caused by their dreadful method of reordering transactions, but they should be compensating you for the time and trouble caused by having to complain about their error.

Mrs Ryan - When the FOS investigate a case, they charge the firm, in this case Alliance & Leicester, a fee of £500 regardless of the outcome, but there would not be any fine on top. A&L like Nationwide tend to close the account of anyone who takes a complaint to the FOS. Therefore, having won a case against them, you should get them to correct and clean up your credit record so that you can open an account elsewhere to get away from them as soon as possible.

Mrs_Ryan

ah now thats interesting.

A&L flatly denied it had anything to do with the FOS complaint and both the FOS and A&L themselves said they would not be allowed to do that and the FOS added if they did try to let them know as A&L would then be in very serious trouble. I actually do now have an EasyCash account with Halifax and I sent my stuff off to the Co-Op last week and that looks good so as soon as I have the card from them I will be stopping using the account. But my A&L account is still operational and I havent really had any more problems since then.
Sorry, thats what I meant, the fee, not a fine.

emc

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

ah now thats interesting.

A&L flatly denied it had anything to do with the FOS complaint and both the FOS and A&L themselves said they would not be allowed to do that and the FOS added if they did try to let them know as A&L would then be in very serious trouble. I actually do now have an EasyCash account with Halifax and I sent my stuff off to the Co-Op last week and that looks good so as soon as I have the card from them I will be stopping using the account. But my A&L account is still operational and I havent really had any more problems since then.
Sorry, thats what I meant, the fee, not a fine.

Alliance & Leicester and Nationwide have both been fined by the FOS for their retaliatory action against customers who make complaints to the FOS. See reports in the Guardian, BBC and Consumer Action Group.

It's good you can move your main banking away from Alliance & Leicester, but keep the A&L account open for a reasonable time as a dormant account, after first ensuring that your A&L account is the basic current account that does not have a minimum funding requirement.

Mrs_Ryan

I've downgraded now from a Premier account to a standard current account that has no minimum monthly funding requirement.
As it happens it will still be funded with a very small amount each month as mum sends me money each month (usually in the region of 15-20 quid) she is only able to go out once a week and she has a Premier 50 account with A&L, so she finds it easiest to just ring telephone banking and transfer the money straight to my A&L account - so im not actually going to close it.