Alliance & Leicester (A&L) real monthly minimum?

StarX_2

Hi all,


I have just been accepted as a new A&L customer for a Premier Plus account. I have received a letter stating that I have to put in £1700 every month to avoid charges. I suspect that is because I declared my monthly income to be that amount on the application form.

On the other hand I read the minimum required should be just £1000, but I am not sure about that anymore after having read the above letter.



Thanks

StarX

SammyD_2

I have had the same problem - the required minimum is substantially more than the £1000 minimum and I think this is because I too stated that as my monthly income. This month due to my maternity pay being paid four weekly rather than monthly I will fall short - I will wait and see what happens, but will be very grumpy if they decide to impose charges. It is very annoying because otherwise I would have stated a lower income had I known they were going to impose this ridiculous condition.

HugoRune_2

they pay a good rate of interest up to a certain amount, then its pants, and if you dont keep paying in they charge you.
Oh and their customer service is a disgrace.
Take the free sign up money and close the account now is my advice

MarkyMarkD

If your minimum is more than the £1000, it is normally associated with the amount of the overdraft limit they've offered you. If you declare £x, and get an overdraft limit (at 0%) based on that, it's fair enough that you should pay in £x.

If your actual income is not always what you've declared, I should speak to them about it and get the overdraft limit reduced so that it ceases to be a problem.

Milarky

As I understand, this higher figure is only required to enjoy 0% on the overdraft - otherwise it goes back to the 7.9 ear [or thereabouts].

This won't be a problem if you are keeping an in-credit balance [for the attractive 5% AER gross rate] but must be adhered to if you want to be able to take the 12 months free overdraft and put it somewhere else.

So, for months 1 to 12 either:
- pay in £1000 and keep in-credit balance throughout - for no charges, or
- pay in £X and then withdraw most to keep overdrawn at 0%

Thereafter it's down to £1000 per month for as long as you wish to keep the account going.

M_Thomson

Hi there the answer to the question is that the figure of £1700 is the amount you must pay in to keep the overdraft amount that you have been offered. Just as Marky Mark D says.

skintchick

But what overdrafts have people been offered? My salary in is £1272, overdraft offered £600 (currently £1000 at lloyds TSB). Would be interesting to compare.

captainsensible_3

I opened a Premier account and have been bunging £700 a month into it and despite me asking for £500 they only gave me £200 overdraft on it. Now after 7 emails of correspondance they are not paying me the £50 referral money so me thinks it is time to pull the plug. What a poxy set up.

M_Thomson

skintchick wrote:

But what overdrafts have people been offered? My salary in is £1272, overdraft offered £600 (currently £1000 at lloyds TSB). Would be interesting to compare.

If you send them copies of your last 3 months bank statements they should match your existing overdraft with your bank. They did that for me.

MarkyMarkD

I believe that the general rule is 50% of your monthly credit, which fits in with what skintchick was offered.

dawny10

Presumably you would lose the free travel insurance (for those who have it)as well if you don't credit the minimum monthly amount?

The minimum I have to pay in is the amount I quoted on my application - I suspected they would set the amount at that so I said it would be £1000.