no help from A&L - more fees instead !!!!

[becky75]

hi all,

 

the hubby lost his job a couple months ago so for a few weeks he was struggling to put mney in to A and L account

 

He calleed them to explain and in mean time some debits came as unpaid and he was charged. this took him over o/draft. When he called to explain job situ they kindly explained that instead of helping in any way they would slap a £5 chaarge on his account every day ! bearing in moind they knew he is capable of putting a decent amount in the account every month. He is back on his feet again but the trouble is he cant pay in to that account every week because a............the first weeks wage would be gone and we have 3 kids to feed plus i'm on maternity and b............they have kndly closed his account for him!!!!! cheek!

 

he has received a letter yesterday saying they withdraw his banking facilities send your cheque book back and you are overdrawn by £***.**. we will add overdraft fees and show them on your next statement. This will also include any fees you have previously been tld about which have not yet been taken from your account !

 

He has never ever received a paper statement for this account - it was a premier so i expect they assumed he used the internet - he cant even use a mouse so thats no good to him !

 

i really think he has been treated badly over this what do you suggest guys???????

 

thanx

[becky75]

??? anyone ????

[ukaviator]

This happens all the time Becky so you are not alone. I assume you have a new account elsewhere now so make sure you pay everything into that.

 

The next thing is write to A&L and explain to them your situation and that you can payback xx per month of the overdraft. Ask them to freeze any interest and stop charging their fees daily. This has now become a damage limitation exercise, so keep everything in writing to keep a paper trail.

 

If they won't refund the charges then complain to the Financial Ombudsman about the way you have been treated. Do you have credit cards you are having trouble with, any charges there you could claim back?

[becky75]

thanks!!!

 

 

arrrghhh! today they have sent a letter again - he has had double last weeks charges added !!! nearly in four figures now!

[philhaley]

I have had a similar situation...I originally took the account because Martin lewis (who I can't fault) told me via his email that I could get a 0% overdraft etc and some cash for taking the account.

 

I didn't get any cash and they only gave me a £250 overdraft which meant that I couldn't change from HSBC without leaving my other overdraft which was around £1000. This happened because I didn't read the small print which said that I had to use their service which automatically changed my direct debits to A&L in order to get the matched ODraft.

 

As i tried to tried to change the DDs manually I inevitably took my time and lost track of which DD was coming out of what account and as a result of which got charged.

 

I received no communication for almost two months and the first time I heard of the £5 charge was when I was told that I owed them nearly £200 for only being overdrawn for only a few days by about £30 and settled the account.

 

Stupidly one of the two direct debits that I actually set up with them I forgot about and ended up going overdrawn with. I settled it after three days and got charged £5 per day. I then was hit with a daily charge for the days overdrawn and although I paid the money I was a couple of day late I got charged £5 a day again.

 

This happened many times over a period of nearly a year mainly due to me feeling that I didn't owe the money and being busy with working during the day. In total I went overdrawn accidentally by £30 when I took the account for around 45 days and £30 the second time for around a week.

 

I complained about the charges just after the stay and received a letter stating that my account would be frozen and that they would get back to me once the high court (or other) had made. To date I have not received any correspondence.

 

I am sure that we can still claim the charges back but would highly appreciate any advice.

 

Thanks

 

Phil