Recommended Alliance & Leicester Bank Account - Warning

cpitman

:mad: I swapped my account from Lloyds to A & L as it was recommended as the best one for current accounts. I would like to post a warning that their customer service for their online banking is diabolical and I have changed back to Lloyds who have given me a comparable account but not quite as much interest. I am still having problems with A & L and I havent even used the account yet. The online banking locked me out of my account because the place of birth was wrong!!! When I phone up the customer service helpline I was passed from one operator to another who all said they couldnot deal with this. When I finally got the correct person (and by this time I was stressed) he kept asking me questions about my account until I made a mistake which I corrected but he said it was too late and that I would have to take id into a branch to get account unblocked. I was furious and said I would close the account and he said ok. I then rang back asking to close the acccount and another operator said I would have to contact each direct debit holder separately to cancel the direct debits set up on this new account as they would not do it. I went into A & L branch today and even the manager had trouble with the call centre. I still cannot access my account and still am being told that I have to cancel each direct debit separately. I have to wait now for another pin number to come through for this account. My warning is that just because they pay more interest doesnt mean better service. A lot of people dont like LLoyds but they have given me excellent service and I shall be staying with them.

olly300

Welcome to MSE but if you had a good look at this board you will notice there are lots of posts about banks not being perfect.

In addition your bank are just following procedures put in place to ensure your money is secure as possible. There are con artists out there who befriend people and when they have enought personal information about them steal their bank details.

If you want to cancel your direct debits write a letter to the A & L listing all the direct debits and state that you want them all cancelled. State at the end if they refuse to cancel any direct debits and money is taken out of the account which will be without your consent, then you will envoke the direct debit guarantee and you will not hesitate to take the matter further including to the financial ombudsman.
.

cpitman

Thanks for your reply. I wasnt complaining about the security measures just the bad service on the internet banking telephone customer service. I have written to them asking them to do just what you have suggested.

Cloudane

Mm, A&L sure don't get a great reputation on here! I just switched to them, and have to wonder if it was a good idea.

That said, I've been trying to arrange the direct debit for my HSBC personal loan (the bank I came from) which currently seems to be canceled an in limbo... and on the phone they're so incompetent it's like they don't want my money. That's all very well until they start charging late payment fees or whatever; basically it's up to me to fight for the ability to pay them! At least with A&L you talk to someone on this side of the planet who can understand English...

forcobblers

I too have just switched to A&L because of the high interest rate on their current account. They've (already) annoyed me in a different way.

I just called to activate my new debit card, got put through to a call centre (in York) and as well as activating the card, I got sucked into a horribly manipulative sales pitch.

Basically, the woman I got put through to said that A&L had asked her company to explain about identity theft and what it was and would I mind her explaining. Assuming it was some brief "public safety"-style announcement, I agreed. She then went on at some length about the dangers, about how you could be caught out by people using your identity to buy things on buy-now-pay-later schemes and that banks and the police are helpless in such circumstances. After more horror stories, she then said that there was a product monitors your Experian credit thing on a real time basis and warns you if someone has tried to get credit using your name.

It was only at this point (after several minutes) that I realised that she was attempting to sell something. I told her I wasn't interested.

Not only was this a waste of my time, it was, as I say, deeply scaremongering and manipulative. I can imagine that it is very effective and that some people will be scared into signing up.

Alliance & Leicester should be ashamed of using what should be a necessary mechanism (activating cards) as a vehicle for high-pressure sales.

Apologies if this is common knowledge (or has been mentioned elsewhere on these forums -- I did have a look).

olly300

@forcobblers

Barclays did that to me when I activated my Barclaycard.

The woman at the other end wasn't impressed when I told her:
1. I regularly check my credit report
2. I shred all my documents
3. I recently had a problem with a financial institution and sorted out myself

And finally when she persisted I told her I read a review that if you do all the things I do and have friends or family in the legal profession, then the product is useless.

I guess they are trained to scare people and if that doesn't work wear them down.

Cloudane

Has indeed been mentioned but it's interesting anyway that it's annoying people enough to write about it as a fresh post.

Maybe I was lucky, or just polite, but when it happened to me she took "no" for an answer first time and was friendly about it. Actually I said I'd compare it against my Capital One complementary cover and call back, and offered to take her name for the commission in case I decided to accept. Which is about as polite as "no" gets. As it turns out she said I wouldn't be able to ask for her specifically and made no fuss about it, so I guess they're not commission based.

I agree that scare mongering is wrong, but I really wouldn't call it high pressure, and of course it's a protection thing they're selling so what else can they do but point out the dangers it's supposed to protect.

No, you'd really know about it if it was true high pressure sales. The really high pressure types will often keep arguing and arguing and arguing with you, hoping to steer the conversation/argument to the 'logical conclusion' that you should buy the product/service.

I had this at work with someone trying to sell Search Engine Optimisation once... it went on for weeks of call-backs (she wouldn't accept the standard "don't call us we'll call you" or "call us in 6 months" brush-offs after 10 minutes of arguing each time - she'd insist on phoning back a day or two later to see if I'd 'come to my senses'). After about the 3rd week of this I ended up telling her to p*** off and slamming the phone down. It's probably best to deal with high-pressure sales that way immediately. Ever since then I don't really mind the majority of telephone sales, as like 99% of them are far more polite and accept a declination gracefully - they can never be as bad as (let's name and shame: FirstFound).

HaushinkaGreenDay

I'd like to second what cpitman said about Alliance and Leicester - my partner recently opened a Premier current account with them, primarily for the 0% interest overdraft, only to be told almost a month after the application was received, and over a fortnight since receiving his debit card/PIN/Chequebook, that they will not match his previous overdraft.

We are both fuming, as he now has to go through all the hassle of closing the A&L account and transferring all the direct debits, BACS credits etc back to his old account. A&L have said the overdraft refusal is because my partner has not been in credit for the last 2 months.

WHY then are they advertising the account on the merit of the 0% overdraft, and offering to match previous overdraft agreements when their intended 'ideal' customers are those in credit?!

What annoys us the most is that it has taken them so long to decide on the overdraft; if they had 'approved' it (or not) on the initial application, rather than waiting until everything was set up and switched over, then my partner would have looked elsewhere.

Seems to me like they 've done it this way just to rope in customers!

PS Although this is my first post, I've been a MSE devotee for ages, and think this site and the forums are brilliant

Green_Shoots

I've been with A&L for years and had my share of problems with them but I also have accounts with other banks and they are certainly no better; in fact suffice to say they are worse. A&L are far from perfect but they are - imho - the best of a bad bunch.

Zinfandel_2

I applied to move to A & L and was accepted. I received a Visa Card and Pin number etc, but after reading on here that they may not match my overdraft I rang them yesterday to check. What they said was that in order to receive the same overdraft as with my current Bank I would have to show that I was in credit for at least 15 days in the past month. If I'm not then I will not be given an overdraft facility at all!!! - Never mind matching it, I just won't get one! I have cancelled the switching of my Direct Debits etc, and I'll just sit tight till I know I have been in credit for 15 days, but even then I can't be sure they would match it.

I'mcomingbackasaman

Oh bu**ar had the afternoon off and changed my current bank to A & L. been emailed to say I've been accepted within the hour and been told paperwork on its way. Then read the horror stories above. I suppose with all the competition for our money these days they have to try and flog us all their services or they'll be out of a job. I'll ring up A & L when I get the paperwork to check the overdraft details, thanks for the warning!