Beware of transfering foreign money into the Alliance and Leicester

Southend_Claimer

We have just sold a timeshare interest that we had in Florida, and obviously the money was wired into our account by the agent in the US.

We wrongly assumed that we would get the mid-market rate of USD to GBP (About 1.985 at the time), bearing in mind it was an electronic wire transfer.

However the A&L decided to steal our money by using an exchange rate on the day of 2.035 costing us about £100.

I phoned a couple of other banks and they had rates 1 or 2 cents above the mid market rate, which is reasonable.

How can they justify using an exchange rate, so far away from the actual rate?

Has anyone else had experience of this, and please beware if you are going through the same experience and have an A&L account.

jonesMUFCforever

There are always 2 rates - buying and selling.
At the moment the dollar is weak so going to US is cheap but getting money from there is dear.
A&L have not stolen your money - if the rate was that important to you then you should have insisted that the American end send you sterling proceeds not USD. You would have had a long wait.

Southend_Claimer

I know there are 2 rates, I am not stupid. The mid market rate on the day was 1.985 and the rates at every other bank I checked were at only 1.5-2 cents different either way (i.e. at worst 2.005) and not 5 cents like the A&L rate.

I just wanted to point out that this is yet another example of a bank making up the rules as they go along to get as much money out of people as they can, where they know we can't fight back.

dunstonh

However the A&L decided to steal our money by using an exchange rate on the day of 2.035 costing us about £100.

A&L publish their exchange rates so you cannot accuse them of stealing. The information was there for you if you wanted to ask them.

How can they justify using an exchange rate, so far away from the actual rate?

They dont have to justify it. They publish it and you can either use their service or not. You wouldnt expect A&L to be a market leader (or even close) in this field as its not what they are about.

Perhaps you should have checked A&L's rates as you were using them in addition to checking other banks. Rather than make assumptions.

RayWolfe

Southend_Claimer wrote: »

How can they justify using an exchange rate, so far away from the actual rate?

Because they are a domestic mortgage bank. Had you used an international trading bank, like HSBC, but there are many others, then you may have got a better rate. Would you go to a building society for a share trading or business banking account, or to Tesco for free range pork?
Anyway, for those that didn't know, I'm sure your post may be helpful, however the emotional tone will not be.

jonesMUFCforever

Southend_Claimer wrote: »

I know there are 2 rates, I am not stupid. The mid market rate on the day was 1.985 and the rates at every other bank I checked were at only 1.5-2 cents different either way (i.e. at worst 2.005) and not 5 cents like the A&L rate.

I just wanted to point out that this is yet another example of a bank making up the rules as they go along to get as much money out of people as they can, where they know we can't fight back.

Your opinion of yourself and my opinion of you don't match.