Like others here, I was attracted to A&L by the promise of high interest rates, only to discover within weeks of joining what an awful bank they are. I realised very early on that A&L is completely incapable of responding to customers on any kind of individualised basis. The women (they always seem to be women) in the call centres can only ever spout the rules, though they're certainly not averse to throwing a little homespun cheek in with this.

Like a previous poster, I thought that a payment I had attempted online from my current account had not gone through, so I made it again. Eventually BOTH payments left my current account (though they've yet to arrive at their intended destination), making me 20p overdrawn. This immediately attracted a £25 'payment review fee'. I called them and was told that all they could do, as this was the first time, was pass the charge for review, a process which would take about a week. My experience with other banks has been that in such a circumstance, they would be able to cancel the charge immediately - at A&L, however, there's no discretion, and no common sense. They really are the computer says no bank!

Fortunately, I am not relying on A&L for my primary current account - if I were, I think I'd be tearing my hair out by now!

Posted by Writertype on the 30th June 2008

I was looking around for savers account and i must admit that A&L has the best rates but after reading all that there is no way im going with A&L. I prefere to go with lower rate but at least have my money when and where i expect them to be.

Posted by Agata on the 29th June 2008

have had an account with a & l for a year the high interest attracted me. all was going well till i was charged for a failed direct debit the charges grew despite funds going in to clear it ended up paying over 300 quid and they closed the account after they got the charges paid, didn,t bother to tell me and money going into the account was being sent back to sender, caused a lot of problems. even wrote to them have had no response. regret moving to them, shoud have stayed with my original bank. don,t deserve the 1 rating.

Posted by squirrel on the 28th June 2008

I am in agreement with all the opinions here. If they get the opportunity to snatch a few quid they will. In my opinion the difference between them and a back street moneylender is shrinking almost daily. They are happy to talk to you on the phone where they have the advantage of rehearsal and a recording machine, so be careful what you say to them. You could email the CEO on richard.pym@alliance-leicester.co.uk but don't expect much help from him either. Frankly I don't think anyone at Alliance Leister gives a Tinkers Curse about customers or customer relations! I am not happy about having to give them one star when they don't deserve any at all.

Posted by Stephen on the 22nd June 2008

Slow decrepit internet banking system, takes 1 day to transfer money from A&L accounts, i though my transfer had not worked so did it again and now have two £25 charges.

Posted by ferg on the 9th June 2008

Sad to say that I've had a similar experience to most people here. If only I'd been aware before.

I've been running their online current account for a couple of years with no major problems other than one or two telephone/password access issues.

Decided to open a new isa with them again no problem but when I tried to transfer in ISA from anoth bank is where problems started.

Two months in money still hasn't been credited to my account (despite confirmation letter from previous provider saying cheque has been sent to them)

Have had many frustrating e-mail communications with customer service team which have lead nowhere. They are now basically admitting that they have no idea where the money is or when / if it will be paid into the account. They have now suggested that I call a member of their specialist investigation team on a premium rate number - yeah right!!

Don't know what else to do - was thinking of visiting local branch office, writing to head office, chief exec etc. but having seen other experiences here can't really see the point.

I've called the banking ombudsman service but they too seem to be as much use as a chocolate teapot. Apparently they can only take on a complaint 90 days after a formal complaint to A&L has been made.

A&L customer service / support is a complete joke - the only thing I can say is that they have so far, been excruciatingly polite!

Posted by Lefty Mate on the 6th June 2008

My husband has been trying to get a pin number for their new system since March. He has been unable to access the account - they say they have sent it and then several long, long phone calls later they realise they haven't. We found out, purely by luck, that they sent his old customer ID, his new customer ID and his pin number to our old address where we hadn't lived for nearly 2 years. They have been corresponding at our new address all that time. We have been promised calls from managers which never happen. 2 days ago we asked for the pin and a new ID to be sent urgently and 'signed for'. We were again promised a call re this but no call we rang again today (another 40mins at our expense) and were told the pin had been sent 2 days ago (Wednesday) and we would get it on Monday!! Why the hell don't they use Royal Mail instead of this UK mail place they seem to insist on using and which takes ages to get anywhere? UNFORTUNATELY I BELIEVE I HAVE TO LEAVE A RATING BUT WOULD PREFER NOT TO!!

Posted by G Hutchinson on the 30th May 2008

I thought it was just me?!! but am now really regretting transfering my ISA to alliance and leicester, THEY ARE USELESS, I have trouble with their website and logging on to it. I have received strange and irrelevant letters and most annoyingly my ISA has still not been set up after nearly 8 weeks, the FSA say it should take maximum of 30 days. I would strongly advise anyone to think twice about using the alliance and leceister for anything. by the way I have NEVER bothered to leave anything on this sort of website before.NEVER.

Posted by Tony Pettit on the 30th May 2008

iam trying to view my accounts. why can i not loggon as before

Posted by j&e taylor on the 24th May 2008

I opened an account with A & L simply to deposit a cheque so it would not get eaten into in my other account, I filled a form out stating I did not want any direct debts transferring from my other account. Tthe very next moth I find all my dd from 1st account had been transfered by my wages had not, my cheque was immediately eaten up, and after many calls eventually had some charges refunded. After 3 months of this I lost my rag and asked them to transfer all dd back to original bank. The people in the branch instructed me they could not do this and that I had to do it on their prehistoric online banking service. I have now been sent a default letter threatening legal action for being 98 pounds overdrawn through more charges. Still not as bad as my dad's treatment. He informed them 6 times he had terminal cancer and had problems with funds; day after he died they sent a solicitors letter, they never even bothered to reply to him! Definitely the worst bank I'ive ever had the misfortune of using and I thought Halifax were parasites!

Posted by rob newton on the 8th April 2008

Alliance and Leicester are rubbish, they just mess people around with money. I had to put the same request in 6 times before they stopped charging me for the same thing which nearly came to £190; I would have been overdrawn. It's stupid trust me do yourself a favour and stay away from them; they are nothing but trouble, not even 1 star rating.

Posted by david on the 5th April 2008

I have been with Alliance & Leicester for about 8 years. When I first started banking with them they were fine, their customer service was quite good, but over the years I find it ridiculous. I have had more bank charges than ever; this month alone I have had £350.00 in charges. I informed them that I had been in a car accident last year and that I had been out of work; there attitude to this was 'well it's not my problem'. On top of the charges that they had already charged me, I was then charged again for being overdrawn. The Alliance & Leicester say they are a cheaper bank and offer better interest rates; no wonder with all the charges they bang on you. I am now in the process of claiming all of my bank charges back and I would urge anyone who has encountered this problem to do the same. I am going to give them 5 stars for being this country's worst bank ever; it should be shut down.

Posted by michelle on the 2nd April 2008

Firstly as an existing customer (I also bank with Lloyds), it took 3 weeks to open an esaver account with A & L after I was attracted by the 6.5% rate. After several emails it was eventually opened.
I initially transferred 1 pound it went through fine and then followed it with 100 pounds. Everything was fine for about 2 weeks. Then all of a sudden I notice both payments bounced... 18th of March the 1 pound bounced... as of the 1st of April (and this is no April Fool) neither amount has been returned to my Lloyds Tsb account. To add to my impending misery I have just transferred 1000 pounds to the same account and am looking at going 999 pounds overdrawn (because I transferred 999 into the A & L account trying to salvage the money before it too disappeared). Nobody seems to be able to help me as A&L are blaming the Lloyds Tsb account, which I, nor Lloyds believe to be true... My only hope is to be kept on hold on a rip off premium rate number costing me money in the hope to speak to another miserable call centre representative (who cannot call me back) at a premium rate... One word of advice, do as I am going to do... save yourself the grief... terminate your account! 0 Star Rating for customer service.

Posted by Gazza on the 1st April 2008

Their pretence at listening is woeful as I rang to ask about a £12 late charge to my account. Having informed them before I left for my 5-week holiday and returning to find this charge, I was most annoyed that I was not informed that I ought to have paid a small outstanding credit before I left. Anyway, I suppose times are hard for A & L and they insisted that I owe the late charge. I will pay it and take my custom to away and incidentally, I've been with them for 10 years. They are OK when things are OK but when not, they really don't want to know. Shame on them!

Posted by Sharon Wong on the 25th March 2008

Is anyone having problems with on line access for the A&L credit card which is run by MBNA? It's seems to be always down. I would say 8 times out of 10 I can never get onto the service.


Maybe MBNA and A&L are having issues due to the credit crunch

Posted by mike plackett on the 18th March 2008

Banked with them for 18 years, totally disagree with the new Banking Charges imposed, telephoned them to ask about the new overdraft charges, and was told that it was a fairer system, and that I was the only person to complain about them!, Right. Customer service was appalling, their response to us wanting to close the account was, do as you like, I can close it for you now if you want! So after some thought, and opening a bank account with a proper bank, we called back to close the account, and was put through to retention, where they offer to refund the last two month charges, if we kept the account open, which we declined to do. There response was to advise that the due to the fact we wanted to close the account, we now owed them an overdraft fee for the current month. In my opinion it was worth paying to close the account, would never bank with them again. No Star Rating. Maybe the only hope for Alliance Leicester is they get bought out by a proper bank.

Posted by N Burden & A Spikings on the 14th March 2008

Completely fraudulent and a disgrace to the banking community. They have taken thousands of pounds from me in illegal charges. Stay well clear! ZERO rating on here from 20 reviews! Disgusting. SAY NO to ALLIANCE LEICESTER!

Posted by J. Smith on the 10th March 2008

As bad as banking can get. Why am I obliged to give them any stars at all? If you want charges, more charges, staff who are so ashamed of their jobs that they will not identify themselves, long waits on premium-rate telephone lines, errors, lazy incompetence, and yet more charges, the A&L is the bank for you. If you want a clean and efficient online banking service, look elsewhere. Don't even open an account to try for yourself - they'll never let you close it and you'll have charges, more charges and even more charges for not using it.

Posted by Paul Chappell on the 8th February 2008

On Wednesday I tried to transfer £150 from one of my current accounts to the other. Internet banking did not confirm that this had been done so I did it again and again. The crux of the matter is they charged my £75 as I had insufficient funds for all the transactions. I transferred some of it back the next day, but 24 hours later it is still in limbo and I cannot use my £400 it is not usable funds in either account. I need to pay a bill. They will not admit that they are depriving me of my money. I wish I had read some of the adverse comment before I opened my account last year, then I would not be having to change yet again. Can anyone recommend an honest reliable bank that puts customers first? No stars!!!!!!!!

Posted by S Walding on the 7th February 2008

The worst bank ever, they are hopeless. I would recommend keeping your money in a shoe box under your bed then use Alliance Leicester. Can never get hold of anyone on the phone; when you do, they are useless. I could not remember my pass code when I did get hold of someone after 55 mins on hold, they said they could not sort it and would have to go in to a branch, which I told them I physically couldn't, so they said well they could not help and hung up. STAY AWAY !!!

Posted by C. Duggan on the 23rd January 2008

I have switched my mortgage from my bank (RBS) to Alliance Leicester just 2 months ago, I wish I had read these comments before. First month they have taken mortgage payments twice and before Christmas left me with nothing... and than told me to wait 7 days... After long arguments they have eventually credit me back... When i thought that's it, no more problems, this months DD has not been collected for my mortgage payment, and I received a letter stating they will contact credit reference agencies for my default on my mortgage. Thing is they have taken dd 15 days later than they should of and I have no idea about it. Money sits in my account waiting to be collected, they don't take the payment and than they do and now I will be defaulted...cant wait to call them in the morning... Can you believe this??? I have been with RBS 8 years, no problem at all and this... Plz avoid dealing with this Bank...

Posted by Nicola Elliott on the 18th January 2008

I'm close to closing my account! I've been with the A&L since I was a kid, and on the rare occasions I pop into the city to pay a cheque in, EVERY time I do, the machine does not give out envelopes. I don't even know why I waste my time trying, coz I'm always proved correct, i.e. I always presume I'll fail and I usually do. You would have thought that with only the odd trip to the machine, I'd strike lucky more often than not... but quite the opposite. The website encourages you to contact the branch and gives no customer service on-line either. Pathetic and immensely annoying. You'll get a smarter investor at the Alliance & Leicester? Yes... I'm smart alright... I'm changing banks... Grrr

Posted by I Perry on the 18th December 2007

Appalled at having to give them any rating at all to be honest - a fat negative in real terms. I became fed up with Barclays and having seen an ad online offering a seemingly 'painless' bank account transition by the Alliance & Leicester I decided to go for it. In short A&L the transition did not go smoothly - claims were still being made on the Barclays account when the money was with A&L. I withdrew funds from A&L to cover the Barclays overdraft and fees and then guess what, yep by the time the direct debits etc. pitched up at A&L I was already some £200 down in fees. A&L rejected something like 10 DD requests over a period of a few days and charged me £350 for the privilege; I contacted them there and then asking for some kind of suspension of account charges as I was battling to get the account back into credit - no chance, they continued to charge me for being overdrawn. I wrote to them officially requesting the account be closed so that I would not incur further charges; that letter was dated the 6th of July. I have followed up with many phone calls and further letters, they ignored me for three months then wrote to me in October saying the matter was being investigated. Last week I got a letter from them stating they are accepting no liability. They have closed my account and issued me with a default notice and a claim for £280 being the remaining charges sum - all in all they have charged me around £1,000 but I will be fighting to get that money back. As a quick fix I cancelled all DD's with them but unfortunately having lost so much money in charges I couldn't pay the various providers and as a result we had two mobile phones cut off, my wife has lost three life insurance policies (which I am trying to get reinstated), our electrical goods warranties DD's weren't paid and were cancelled as a result. I am utterly speechless at their disregard for customers. I saw someone mention the Northern Rock debacle - when that happened the A&L share price crashed though it quickly recovered, how I'd love to see a flurry of short sales in A&L and see them driven into the ground. Ironically my mortgage is with NR and I've never had any trouble with them at all - brilliant service provider in fact. I'll keep you posted re getting my money back.

Posted by Ricky Maloney on the 14th December 2007

Once overdrawn I paid in some money to clear the balance. Month later a letter comes saying I am overdrawn again - because they charged me for being overdrawn in the first place. They can never tell you how much or when they will take the charges, so you have to guess and overbid their next charge if you want break free from this vicious circle. Last time I paid in £150 into my account and still that was not enough - they charged me £150 on top of outstanding balance and made me overdrawn yet again! Six month on and with no other outgoings from the account but their own fines, A&L had charged me the hefty £300! Nice little earner! I warn you to stay away from them! P.S. Customer Service is appalling.

Posted by Lilia on the 29th November 2007

(...) I thought I might warn everyone to take any "advice" given with a pinch of salt, based on my experience.

At my local branch I saw a financial adviser to see about getting a further loan of £25,000 to use with my very in credit flexible mortgage to buy some land. My mortgage is due to be paid off in about 7 years and I am single with no dependents. But they advised me to take mortgage payment protection even though I have adequate protection through my employment for up to 5 years. OK I said I would have to check on the protection my employment provided before I got back to the adviser, but still she insisted that she thought it was a good idea to take out additional cover. This was even after I said I would sell the land and increase the term of my already small mortgage is something bad actually happened. Anyway, I got away by saying I would consider the offer and then spoke with my independent fee based financial adviser who deals with all my other finances. He agreed it was ridiculous and that I should not have been advised to take on cover as I would not be at risk of not paying off my mortgage even if I fell ill in the next two years. He also said there was little point in trying to complain as the rules regarding those that are allowed to give such advice would be changing in the next two years i.e. One has to be qualified to give such advice. Currently they are not.

Saying all that, now I know not to trust them and get any advice from my branch checked independently. I am happy with the preferential interest rates and flexibility of my mortgage that I can transfer every two years at minimal cost onto the next best rate.

Posted by Fiona Tait on the 6th November 2007

My experience with Alliance & Leicester indicates that the back office staff don't have much of a clue. After 6 months of relatively hassle free banking with them I thought I would transfer my Barclays accounts to them. I have good sized overdraft facility with Barclays, and even though I rarely use it I like to know its there if needed. So I asked A&L for an overdraft half the size of the Barclays one, expecting no problems and preparing to shift banks. A&L's reply was that my credit score was not high enough for them to grant an overdraft, and I should reapply in 3 or 4 months by which time my rating may have improved. As I have had an Experian credit rating of 999 for about 8 years I think there is little chance of my rating improving much in the next 3 or 4 decades, therefore I will be abandoning A&L shortly in favour of a bank which actually bothers to check their customers credit status properly.

Posted by J. Samuel on the 5th November 2007

I was very stressed last month when my nephew died. As a result I forget to keep tabs on my bank balance. A payment was taken from my A&L account which resulted in an unauthorised overdraft. The day I went overdrawn I set up an overdraft facility and paid cash into my account. Obviously this wasn't quick enough, they charged me £25 to review the payment and £25 for the unauthorised overdraft, plus 1p interest. £50.01 for being overdrawn seems extremely expensive. I am considering changing my bank, can anyone recommend a good one? I've been with the A&L since about 1975. Why isn't there a zero star rating?

Posted by H C on the 1st November 2007

I've been with A & L 6 months and am so angry about their charges. I just logged onto my a/c and see they've reversed a direct debit of £46.00 for the 26th and charged me £34 for the privilege!! I had £34 in my a/c the morning of the 26th and dashed to my branch at lunch to deposit £30 extra cash to cover it, my statement actually reads that on 26th I had a balance of £64, but on the same day they take out d-debit, paid it back and then took £34 in charges! Incredible!

Posted by Shona Wade on the 27th September 2007

This is my main bank, but I don't know why. Good interest rates are its only redeeming feature. You can provide good interest rates without behaving in the following manner though:

-- When I called them about a letter they sent out which made no sense because it was not dated, I got abuse from the customer service rep who simply would not accept what was printed on the paper in front of me.

-- When I called using the "from abroad" number because I didn't see why they should profit from me calling at a premium rate (yes, 0870 is a premium rate) to deal with a problem of their making, they ticked me off and said they would put a mark on my record in case I called them that way again!

-- They try to make their complaints procedure as convoluted as possible, telling you to contact their local branch. What's a local branch? I've never visited one.

-- I had to follow their complaints procedure after they'd ignored (literally - no response to secure messages) my complaint about unclear information about charging for tax certificates. They only relented when I quoted the Banking Code at them! And their response was to make things worse by charging an obligatory £10 for a tax certificate on the current account where they didn't before!

I'm getting ready to leave...

-- The latest, and why I've been moved to make the comment today (and found this site) - Firefox. Firefox is a more secure browser than Microsoft Internet Explorer. Firefox adheres much more closely to open standards, the bedrock of the Web. Firefox runs on much more secure operating systems than Microsoft Windows. So you'd think they would encourage it. But no, they take the lazy Microsoft option and warn you in a pop-up that your browser is not supported. Normally the site is usable - the formatting is to pot but it works.

However, this morning they had put a huge animated Flash advert on their front page which obscured the link for the internet banking, forcing me to examine the source code in order to be able to log on to it! The silver lining: I have now installed the Flashblock extension for Firefox (another good reason to use Firefox!), saving me a lot of bandwidth and irritation, and depriving A&L of advertising opportunities. Doesn't allow me to get to the link though, as the browser still sees it as hidden under the area where the Flash drivel would appear.

Posted by N Regan on the 8th September 2007

I have to agree with all the above! Shame there isn't a 0 star rating. Please please don't make my mistake - I assumed high interest rates was the most important thing about a bank. I have been charged 2 times (£25 for each day) for a 3p overdraft, when the money was being transferred from my own Alliance & Leicester account (which took 2 days). They now insist I go into a branch to sort out the problem.

Other problems: customer service (slow and discourteous); website (doesn't work very well with Firefox); transfer of money (can't be done between some A&L accounts; other accounts takes 2 days) etc. Avoid at all costs.

Posted by Lydia Walding on the 23rd August 2007

I agree 100% that Alliance and Leicester are the worst bank going, they are inhumane when it comes to bank charges.

Posted by Patricia Anderson on the 22nd August 2007

What's good? Interest rates. But note A&L are masters at offering a promotional rate to hook you in and then lowering it as soon as a year is up. Existing customers can't apply for the best deals. The internet banking site works as least as well as other banks I have tried, but they don't correspond via email. You always have to phone.
What's really bad? Telephone customer service. They are giving the City of Liverpool a bad name. I have actually had real heated arguments with the staff on the phone and it takes quite a lot to get me annoyed.
A&L's charges are not fair and its customer service team's general attitude is quite combative and hostile to any questions about charges. I once asked them to justify their charges, as the OFT are doing now - £25 for going £10 overdrawn? Even if you put money in on the day? How much does it really cost them to administer an overdraft?
There's also no (well it's £5) overdraft "buffer zone". Some banks offer £30. They need to learn from the masters of banking customer service - Smile and First Direct.
So why stick with them? Interest rates are pretty good, particularly in overdraft. They also raised my overdraft limit which was quite pleasing.

Posted by S. Hill on the 29th July 2007

They didnt bother telling me that someone was drawing out hundreds of pounds fom my account in Canada. When I asked why they didnt contact m,e they said it was at night so they sent a letter!!!!!! I was told that the transactions had not been authorised but the next day it was all gone. They didnt refund me as they said they would. I am so fed up of doing theyre jobs for them. They charged me £68 for 2 failed direct debits and told me that as my funds cleared 3 minutes after the start of the working day I had insufficient funds. I CAN NOT WARN PEOPLE ENOUGH HOW BAD THIS BANK IS

Posted by Rich Soper on the 13th March 2007

this bank is the worst bank i have ever been with. the local branches have no idea what to do with customer queries. all tthey tell you to do is ring the number in your cheque book. head office is a waste of time as they are no help at all. they charge you extortianate amounts when you go overdrawn £34 for a returned direct debit. no leeway at all.

Posted by David Ripley on the 19th January 2007

This bank is the worst I have been involved
with ever they get direct debits wrong continually charge you and then charge you on top of charges.

Posted by Hazel Newton on the 23rd November 2006

AND they arent even worth one star! GRRR
Anyway, these guys tend to make MANY mistakes in all areas of admin. So check all paperwork, and if u have any doubts about something they did or didnt do....trust yourself - youre probably right!

Posted by S. Paddon on the 7th June 2006