Alliance & leicester

kitten73

Yes maybe they do the best overdraft deals etc but they hate giving you an overdraft, have rubbish customer service and their internet banking statements are all over the place.

I asked to up my overdraft for one month by £50 to £450(I also asked for £100 as they said I couldn't have multiple of £50) they said no but I could have a loan if I wanted???

The second time I had run ins with them to cut a long story short, their internet statement fooled me into thinking a transfer to another bank had been refused so I put it through again, then it went out twice. They weren't prepared to help and give me an interim overdraft if I went overdrawn while I got the second amount back and into my account.

Thier staff were really curt with me and offered no help.

That is why they can give cheap deals, because they are cheap and won't give out overdrafts. The Abbey were cool I could ring them up and change from one month to the next and they gave me more money.

I also think that charging 50p a day up to £5 regardless of what you owe is a con. I pay as much in o/d fees as someone with £1000 how is that fair.

headcoat

Totally agree with you, I will be leaving them very shortly due to extremely poor service.

IE new DD set up by them and paid to the wrong person, took me about 4 months to sort it out, then eventually got it sorted in one day by someone in the head office that seemed to care and actually looked into what i was saying instead of saying it will be sorted out.

On line Statements, never tally, and can take over 24 hours for transaction to appear making it hard to work out whats actually going on.

Still trying to sort out and Overpayment Review fee of £25 that was to 'apparantly' check a DD could be paid. This fee has took me £24.25 over my overdraft limit so my argument is that if they didnt charge the £25 i wouldnt be over my limit. My first call I got standard letter back saying that they are not paying fees back due to the court case. Second call they eventually agreed with me and would put it through as there mistake to the claims dept, still not had a refund. I have now gone slightly over again about £15 so my next task is to get that back once I get the other one back.

Its like a full time job dealing with them. dont use there recomend a friend service or you will have an enemy

dangeroussports

4500 over draft which has been free for 12 months and only in the last two months have they started to charge me a staggering whopping £5 per month for maxing out my over draft into a savings account!

APR of 1.2% not bad at all me thinks


thumbs upto Alliance and Leicester....hip hip ......hip hip....

antsean

I totally sympathise with anyone who has had the misfortune of dealing with Alliance & leicester. There online statements are an absolute joke, with 3 differnet balances showing, so you never seem to know what has gone out and what has'nt-I'm sure they do this to lull you into a false sense of security and you then go overdrawn or a bill does'nt get paid, so they can whack a £25 charge on. They also have a lovely habit of swapping transactions around-I am disabled and have to budget very carefully with my weekly disability allowance-which they are fully aware of. When my money goes in every wednesday, I always check that it has cleared before I go to the cashpoint later that day to draw some out. The following day, when I check my online statement the transactions have been swapped around, thus making it look like I have been to the atm first and drawn money out before my benefits have gone in! This has then given the appearance that I am overdrawn and they have slapped charges on!!
Luckily I have managed to get all the charges refunded but they still continue to try it on. I am now in the process of closing the account and going back to my old bank-it may offer a lower rate of interest, but I value a good nights, worry-free sleep at the end of the day!
When I questioned A & L about the transactions fiasco their reply was: "We always show debits on the account before credits".
Mmmm.....Now I wonder why that is.......
My advice-steer well clear of these money grabbers-they may well offer a good rate of interest-but they can afford to can't they as they make it back ten-fold in the charges they merrily slap on your account.

phileast67

Like so many other people that I've just been reading about it seems that I'm not alone on the issue of the Alliance and Leicesters abyssmal customer service and Account switching service...
I've only had the account 4 months and so far have had the following
1. Mortgage (also with A&L) DD moved one month before salary was paid into the account - despite their assurances it would not be.
2. Another DD which was on the list they sent to me for checking just not moved at all...so I had to do this manually - I only found out when the payee rang up to say the DD was cancelled !!
3. Suspected fraud in the first month - I set up an online payment and was shocked to see it had not been processed - Rang customer services to ask why and was told there had been "something swiped on my card" which had taken me to a point where there was insufficient funds - yet 5 days after the transfer was initially scheduled the balances before and after setting up the payment were still the same. A&L could give no indication of where my card had been swiped so I was forced to cancel the card - leaving me no access to my funds for 10 days.
4. Along with other customers I have noticed the inconsistencies of the balance system on their online service - Payments and credits are moved about in a bid to pay you less interest than you should get - I've had up to 3 changes in the order of items per day - I now download the files twice daily. Also there are three balances shown - none of which reflect reality.
5. Ignorance of letters of complaint - letters not responded to thus far. At this point I don't care about the interest - I want to be with a bank I can trust to manage my money well.

Sorry to say Martin but on this occassion I was wrong to take your advice !!! (saved me loads on other stuff though so overall still listening)

Also heard from Parents this evening they are suffering same issues as everyone else in respect to A&L poor service

Fred_Bear_2

I've had the same current account for 18 years and yesterday received a letter from A&L to inform me they were removing my £1500 overdraft facility and that I had 30 days to repay my overdraft. No reason given. I telephoned customer service to find out what was going on. They said the reason was that I had moved without telling them! Apparently the computer says that a letter they sent me last February had been returned to them as "Gone away". When I explained that I had NOT moved they said that in that case they would reinstate my overdraft and remove the stop on my debit card. BTW I don't have an overdraft - if I had I would have been shocked and worried by the abrupt tone of this letter.

x_raphael_xx

I'm shocked, as I've never had a problem with A&L. I moved to them after countless problems with Abbey N.
I only have a £250 overdraft which I was offered when signing up, and haven't asked for an extension (maybe that's why I've not had a problem?!)

maytaurus

Have a look at some other posts about Alliance & leicester here;

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=304752&page=53&highlight=Alliance+%26amp%3B+leicester+problem