Don't Panic (just yet)

Go to Reclaim Unfair Charges from banks & credit card companies!

Where everything will become clearer.

It's just another one of their 'Standard' delaying tactics. Just carry on with your claim as we all are, hopefully, we will all get there in the end, be much nicer if they just paid up straightaway instead of putting us through this emotional wringer of theirs.

I seemed to have heard this before but could not put my finger on it as my current account statement, providing I kept to my agreed (tiny) overdraft, just said £5 Monthly OD Charge, which seemed fairly acceptable! On their new Premier account a £5 charge was imposed if you paid less than £1,000.00 per month into the account. Thankfully this has never happened to me, probably because they got an earful off of me regarding who has that sort of money to throw around each month. I believe the Halifax have an account with similar terms.

£5 is the normal overdraft charge.

On the back of the monthly statement it says the following;

Monthly overdraft fees;

Day 1, No Charge. Day 2, £25 Charge. Days 3 & 4, No Charge. Day 5, £25.00.

If you have an Unauthorised Overdraft for any 2 days* in a monthly charging period you will be charged £25. If you have an unauthorised overdraft for a further 3 days in a monthly charging period you will be charged £25*. Unauthorised overdraft charges are capped at £50 per calendar month. * Days in total not necessarily consecutive.

What usually happens is that if you go over the £50, they carry it over to the next month, it usually tells you what, if any, future charges you are going to get, at the bottom of your statement.

Other charges; Paid Items, £25. Failed transaction due to insufficient funds, £34.

And finally, if you want to add contractual interest. It is 7.63% Premier Account. 17.08% Current Account.

Hope this points you in the right direction.

Can anyone let me know whether Contractual Interest is applied to the charges which have accrued from the Alliance & Leicester?

If Contractual Interest is applied, is it applied to each charge or just the Total amount?

Finally if Contractual Interest is to be applied, then what rate of interest should be used?

Cheers

Hi Rooster,

According to my last telephone conversation with the friendly! staff at A&L, it is working days, in their case this also includes the Saturday.

Hope that helps

Squarebob

It has only been 18 days (not counting Sundays) since I sent off my D.P.A. request to the A&L, but as I had not heard anything from them and had no nails left, I decided to give their customer centre a call. Having heard of the way some people had been dealt with by the A&L, (me included in my past dealings with them), I was prepared for the worst. It never happened. I was spoken to politely; I made my enquiry, and was given a polite answer in return, 40 working days from receipt of request etc. Then I thought that I would really push the boat out and ask if my request had been received etc. Asked for my account number(s)! I was asked to wait (not long), while it was being checked. Returning shortly,an apology was given for keeping me waiting and I was told that the department that deals with these requests had received mine on the 16th of March, (where it had been since the 10th, I know not), and that it had a deadline for completion by the 25th of April. It was nice to receive this positive (and friendly) response from them, no doubt this will change once we move onto the next stage, but for now, thank you A&L for putting the customer first. I will keep forum members posted if and when further developments occur.

P.S. It has been through reading the forum letters (and answers) and realising that there are other people out there either in the same boat, or worse off than me that has given me the incentive to making the First move towards 'Financial Freedom'.

Join the club. The last time I tried to speak to the 'faceless' ones at A&L was back at the beginning of February after they had just hammered me for four lots of £34.00. and that was on the same day as I paid in. Same thing happened this Saturday, money in to pay the phone bill, thankyou very much customer we have just charged you another £50 for paying two direct debits that I had cancelled!

I sent my first letter requesting my statements etc for the past 6 years to their customer centre in Bootle (recorded) on the 9th of March and then a copy to someone called Mal Boyes again at Bootle(Special delivery) on the 19th. And not a peep from them. All I want is just a bit of old fashioned courtesy, a little letter saying my request has been received and will be dealt with a.s.a.p.

Everybody says be patient. Look at your case, when you finally do get to ask them the magic question, they just say, sorry, we have not received antything, so more time is wasted.

Anway good luck with your case and I'll let you know how I get on.

P.S.

Have just heard of some one who contacted A&L by normal mail, received an acknowledgement within 2 days and received all their statement within 10 days! If they can do it for one customer, why can't they treat all their customers the same way!

As a new member to the forum I say hello to all the forum members.

At the moment I have sent two letters to the A&L requesting a list of all default charges incurred in the past six years and enclosing the £10 fee. One letter was sent by recorded delivery and delivered on the 10th of March. A copy of the first letter was also sent by Special Delivery and delivered on the 20th of March. The first letter was sent to the Customer Centre in Bootle, the 2nd letter was addressed to Mal Boyes, A&L, Business Development, TCA3 2ndOps, Bridle Road, Bootle etc.

No reply or acknowledgement received so far.

Were either of these the correct places to send these letters? I did ask in the local branch of A&L if I could send a letter via their internal post, but was informed that they no longer had an internal postal system and that their mail was sent via the post office so I should do the same with mine!

Are we obliged to wait 40 days for our requested information. Or should we just keep bombarding the A&L with letters until something happens?

Who actually deals with our requests? Or is it just shuffled about from one desk to another?

Thanks for any light that you can throw my way.

Squarebob