Alliance & Leicester

moonrakerz

My wife has been locked out of her A & L ISA account. When she 'phoned to get her account unlocked she was asked, as a "security" question, how much was in the account - she said £3000 (one ISA). They then refused to open the account up for her because this was not the correct figure. She was trying to get into the account to see how much interest had been added.

She is now in the ludicrous position of being locked out of her account because she doesn't know how much is in there, but the only way she can find that out is to get into the account !!!!

Incidentally, the so-called "security question" was not even one of the numerous passwords and reminders she had to put in initially; Granny's birthday, favourite breed of dog, worst flavour of jam, favourite Morris dancing troupe, etc, etc

What a bunch of **************** !

IvanOpinion

To be fair there is a responsibility on each of us to remember our passwords and answers to security question ... which is why I keep all mine in a cryptic form in a pasword protected Word document (that is then zipped up and encrypted, axcrypt then encrypts it again and it resides on a truecrypt partition).

I am assuming that they must have given her an alternative means of gaining access to her account (providing proof of id etc.). On one hand we complain when we are inconvenienced by such things while on the other we would complain if somebody else gained access to our accounts .. personally I think the banks are right to err on the side of caution.

Ivan

moonrakerz

IvanOpinion wrote: »

To be fair there is a responsibility on each of us to remember our passwords and answers to security question ...

I am assuming that they must have given her an alternative means of gaining access to her account (providing proof of id etc.).

1. But they didn't ask any of those questions.

2. Yes, go 20 miles to the nearest branch.

Iamthesmartestmanalive

moonrakerz wrote: »

1. But they didn't ask any of those questions.

2. Yes, go 20 miles to the nearest branch.

These account specific questions are quite reasonable and are to avoid fraud, its not unreasonable to expect people to know their approximate balances, transaction history etc etc

Your wife didnt and therefore she has to prove her identity another way

If some random pakistani woman called up, failed the Id checks, got access anyway and spent your money im sure you wouldnt be happy

This board really should moderate better as half the threads in the vent forum are people blaming companies for their mistakes, stupidity or illegal actions

hollydays

,"I am the smartest man alive"......very dumb post...yes posts should be rated,not moderated, for stupidity...I give you 10 out of 10 for it.:rotfl:

Lavendyr

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

These account specific questions are quite reasonable and are to avoid fraud, its not unreasonable to expect people to know their approximate balances,

Sounds like it wasn't "approximate" balance, it was "exact" balance that was required, which she could hardly be expected to know if the interest had been paid. Was she not even allowed to try another question, OP?

karlos6

My experience of A&L backs up the original post here. The call centres for A&L have no feel to want to help - they just don't get it? they give the impression that they will tell you anything to get you off the phone even if it means saying I cannot help you - more like will not help you !!

Ivrytwr3

one of the reason the banks set up security questions is there is always someone who will lock themselves out of their accounts. I'm with the OP, why didn't they ask the security questions? It's highly unlikely a fraudster would know the OP's favourite dog, first pet, worst jam flavour etc!

I'd call back and hope you don't get the same numpty who answered the first call.

moonrakerz

hollydays wrote: »

,"I am the smartest man alive"......very dumb post...yes posts should be rated,not moderated, for stupidity...I give you 10 out of 10 for it.:rotfl:

Thank you for that comment, I have commented previously, on another thread, on this particular "nom de plume" , and the post quality !

PS: She did manage on another attempt to find someone with a modicum of common sense, who reset her access.
She said £3,000 to the first idiot, who said this was "incorrect", the actual balance was £3044.17 !!!!!!!!

Timmne

I live in Leicester and have been considering for some time, suing A&L for bringing the word Leicester into disrepute - they're ruddy pants, beyond words.

I had exactly the same conversation, pretty much word for word with them. They give you great rates on an "E-" account and therefore don't offer telephone/branch support (which is fine) but when they block your account for a small/silly reason, you're stuck!

Mine was blocked because I changed my login PIN on my A&L login, logged out and put the new details in my First Direct internet banking plus 'safe'. I then logged into FD and it locked my A&L account - the guy at A&L said I should have given their servers more time to update because "there are 500 servers you know"....

Timmne

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

If some random pakistani woman called up, failed the Id checks, got access anyway and spent your money im sure you wouldnt be happy

I'm not one for pointing the 'racist' finger usually but this comment's ridiculous! Why would it be a pakistani woman that would annoy the OP - surely if a white British woman accessed the OP's wife's account, she'd be just as angry?!!:rotfl: