Help - A&L have conned me!!

Fender-girl

Hi, I'm a newbie looking for some advice.

I've never been one for using credit card cheques, but Alliance & Leicester have been sending me them for some time now, and I received some at the end of March which proclaimed to be 0% until December, 2008 if they were used before 1st May, 2008. As I have been doing a lot of home improvements, I decided I would use these cheques to, in effect, get interest free credit for a few months before paying it off. This has turned out to be a HUGE mistake.

I have today received my bill from Alliance & Leicester. The cheques, all of which were used in April, have been applied to my account with charges of up to £65 PER CHEQUE. They have also applied an ADDITIONAL £52 in interest - for why?? This is the first bill I have received since using them, and my last bill was cleared in full!

Surely this cannot be right - over £160 in charges on one bill, for using credit card cheques I didn't ask for, and after being told that they were 0% until December 2008!

Can anyone shed any light on this for me?

Thanks

tanith

Have you not phoned A & L and asked what they are playing at? Ring and ask for a full explanation... I always shred the cheques as soon as I receive them , are you sure it said they were interest free?

Welcome to the site by the way

eslick

cheques are normally the same as balance transfers and cash advances and have a handling charge of around 3% so this may be why you were charged. might be best to give them a call.

kazwookie

Ring them and ask what is happening and why.

Moggles_2

How did you use the cheques? Were they written in favour of a builder/fitter who wouldn't accept credit card payments, a supplier who charges a premium for credit card use or did you pay the cheques into your bank account?

Fender-girl

Thanks for all the advice. Not rang A&L as yet - trying to calm down before giving them a call. The cheques definitely said 0% on them, as I normally shred them myself but these stood out, hence why I used them. I checked with the retailer that they accepted these cheques prior to using them, and they confirmed that they did. Will be contacting A&L tomorrow but wanted to get some opinions etc first.

Thanks guys

MarkyMarkD

They will almost definitely have had a 3% handling charge, which will have been stated on the letter with the cheques. It's easy enough to check what the amount is compared to the amount of the advance - in fact, IIRC they show the handling charge separately on your statement.

Rather than making us guess maybe you could be clearer about what your statement shows?

The operator of your A&L credit card is MBNA not A&L, so it's MBNA you will be speaking to and who you should be speaking about.

PBA

Another thought, what date did the cheques go through? Even if you wrote them in April, if the merchant didn't bank them until May then they wouldn't count for the May 1 deadline.

maytaurus

You might like to have a look through this thread to see about A&L

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=304752&highlight=ALLIANCE+LEICESTER

GillzD_2

ok im new to this site too but i dont think there is any need to be sarcastic to this person. just because they are not as clued up on money matters as you "financial experts" does not give you the right to slag her off a belittle her. she is asking for advice because as far as she was lead to believe she was conned! if you have to slag people off to make your self feel better why not go to another site where people are genuinely not asking for help or advice. i dont think that is why martin set this site up!

MABLE

GillzD wrote: »

ok im new to this site too but i dont think there is any need to be sarcastic to this person. just because they are not as clued up on money matters as you "financial experts" does not give you the right to slag her off a belittle her. she is asking for advice because as far as she was lead to believe she was conned! if you have to slag people off to make your self feel better why not go to another site where people are genuinely not asking for help or advice. i dont think that is why martin set this site up!

Is the OP not slagging the credit card company off. We do not always do nice on this board but I like to think we do honesty.