hi all, hope your all winning against those ******!. Ok got my list of charges for my premier account (3yrs worth)thru last night and went thru them and i have only got £200 which i got over the last 4months. They had already given me a goodwill gesture payment of £100 (which would have put the charges up to £300 total). I have copied the prelim letter and edited in the relevant account details/names etc and have also printed out the spreadsheet for a list of charges (8 charges of £25).I did bother to add any of the contractual overdraft interest for the period as it was more hassle than it was worth,I hope this was ok ? The main thing i want to ask is I had been getting charged £5 per month for several months because I was not crediting the account with the £500 minimum funding. After looking at all my statements I found there was one month where I had credited £490 (in small credits) to my account and still received a £5 under funding fee . I am also putting this £5 fee on my list of re-claimable charges as I also received two unauthorised O/D charges (of £25 each)for that month which I feel I could have been used to credit my account beyond the £490 that I had already credited. Does anyone think that was a bad move ?. I did consider trying to reclaim 5 lots of these £5 charges going back to when they first charged me an unauthorised O/D (£25) charge , because i could argue that the £25 they stole from me could have been constantly reinvested in £25 sums up to the £500 minimum funding limit .If anyone feels this would still be legitimate please let me know as I wont send my letter off till 7pm tonight. Sorry for the rush guys

Im glad that im not the only one thats had big problems with A&L and that others here have faced the same problems , i was begining to worry that it was personal. I agree with the previous posts that all banks are basically the same and out to make as much money as possible from you in as easier way as they can, but i can only say that so far First Direct has been fine to me(over 3yrs in which i have struggled finacially at times), have repayed 2 charges to me when i didnt really ask them too,plus there customer service is good(so far!).keep fighting guys

You go for it ,im in very similar situation having been ill and signed off work and they have offered me £100 after i asked for my data about charges.Im awaiting my data to see how much ive been charged over the years but even if it ends up being £101 i will fight them all the way for that extra pound they are a diabolical bank and do severe damage to people who happen to be struggling through life. Good luck

Hi ,i thoroughly recomend that you DONT go with A&L .There customer service is appalling (put phone down on me 2 times , leave you on hold for ages)and as for the £2500 overdraft just beware that they almost certainly wont give you the whole amount. I was paying in between £1500 and £2000 a week and always in credit and i got £350 limit . My mum got £300 and has perfect credit score (better than mine)and good wages coming in. She asked for an increase in the limit but was still only given £2000. I have had a First Direct account for @3years and can certainly recommend thier customer service.I just happened to enquire (via their online banking message system)if they could explain to me how their O/D fees were levied and within 2days they had refunded my two previous charges without me even asking for them to be refunded. They did actually lower my credit card limit about year ago but you could say thats a good thing !!?.But all in all banks are banks and anyway they can make money out of you they will try(look at their profits ) .Good luck

Thanks again 'youngandfree' just saw your second reply RE: funding acc. i will write a seperate letter to A&L to ask for it back ,just to make them work and give me a reply. it would never be big money at £5 month but im going to get that back many times over with the enjoyment of hassling them. im sure i paid some which i shouldnt cause i had totalled £500 in the month!. sorry to come across so antagonistic towards them but they really have treated me terribly . thanks for advice

thanks for such quick reply youngandfree ,you must be reading my mind cauxs i did call them today and said i had already paid £10 and would send there form but not another £10 and also said that i was counting the day that they recieved and cashed my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request)/cheque(2 days apart )as the first of the 40 days they have to respond to my request. i felt bit sorry for guy on phone hes just the monkey in the system and i assured him it was nothing personel to him. .They have already closed my account (30 day warning!)so i have nothing to loose on that count. As for going abroad i dont think i can fwd mail to South Africa (find out next week)via royal mail, but am going to try,if not i think i may just have to take a risk of things changing(i think they will-so much publicity now). thanks for your help will leave post here on any updates

hi all ,thanks to you guys who replied with advice. the £5 fees were levied on me for not putting inthe minimum £500 funding,but no problem just that i want to cause them as much hassle as possible for treating me like they have. i have recieved a response from A&L in answer to my SAR letter which i sent to there head office and despite them CASHING my £10 cheque they have sent me an SAR letter/form of their own asking me to fill in what accounts i own and where i do the transaction for the acc!!.Is this a delaying tactic on their behalf?.i have to send their form back to different address in Wilmslow and also another £10 which they have asked for!!! cheeky sods. they have given me £100 goodwill gesture which i am going to cash today but im going to write back to say i only accept as part payment against my full claim is this ok?. lasly i have been given a holiday to South Africa for few months with good friend will it matter if i put claim on hold and not give them claim for the full amount ,i was wondering if it would be worth writing giving my intentions though?. I think it would be too complicated doing it via the internet in S.Africa. once again guys thanks and keep fighting the sods

Hi all,Great site,So good to see 'people power' triumph over the (normally)powerful !!.Anyway i am so angry with A&L my pen is starting to smoke ,so lets get started. Have been an A&L savings account holder for @17years+ with @£15,000 credit at times and I have also held a 'premier account' for +4yrs with £1000-£2000 funding per week,until I became very ill @2yrs ago and have been regularly exceeding my £350 O/D limit by a few pennies or pounds which gives me £25 day 1 & £25 day 5 charge.Had been 'happy ?/resigned' to accept these in the past and put them down to my own bad financial management.But when i became ill and signed off sick by my doctor and ended up on income support those charges really do hurt and compound hardship & stress.There was many a time when i was rushing about trying to get a few pennies into my account before they closed to avoid a charge.All this did nothing to help my illness. But this was still accepted by me untill quite suddenly without warning A&L told me they were closing my account(30 days notice) and demanded my @£550 O/D repaid within that time!!!. They did say that they had sent letters Blah,blah,blah, but they didnt ,and just days before the only letters i recieved was them trying to advertise other services to me!!!,even on my last statement it just had usual itemised unauthorised O/D charges (I had changed my address so expect they were sending to old address-great efficency!).Tried customer services to explain my situation and (the truth)that i was awaiting a share certificate and a lost dividend-due to change of address(A&L shares!!!) which i was going to use to clear the whole O/D but they were very dissmisive and restated that they would close the account. This has caused me real pain but I sent a cheque (borrowed from credit card! )for the full amount and enclosed covering SAR letter(template from the Martin Lewis money saver site)and £10 cheque.They have wrote back offering 'goodwill gesture' of £100 (all i asked for was the data !!- do they fear my actions?),but still insisted on closing account as not unlawful blah ,blah.they stated my charges could be found on statements or online(if my account is closed can i still check online ?).Have phoned them and said i still would like the info i requested and they should be aware that i was keeping check on the time limit.They tried to tell me it was 60 day time limit and when i said no 40 days they tried to say well thats from the date they cash the cheque!!.Anyway i see they have cashed the cheque 09-02-07 so im on my way. Now it may seem a bit petty but its the principle, when does the 40 day limit start from?, they have acknowledged my SAR request letter (maybe inadvertantly) by their return letter dated 07-02-07 does it go from then or 09-02-07 when the cheque was banked.?.I just want them to give them as much hassle and work to do with my case as possible and am determined to go as far as possible with the most inconvieneice to them.Its not so much the money Also can anyone tell me why there seems to be so many different chargings tariffs for different people. i get charged £25 on day 1 & £25 on day 5 for exceeding my O/D is everybody on this rate for the premier account?. Finally can anyone explain how the £5 per month 'under funding' system works on the account and if they could be reclaimed.Did i have to put in £500 per month and be in credit by £500 or could i have paid in( lots of small money totalling) £500 per month and taken it out regularly which would leave my account O/D but within my O/D limit of £350?. I use to try Putting in £100 and taking it out a day or to later (repeatedly )but always seemed to get charged the £5 under fund charge (was this be cause i was in my authorised O/D?). havent got any details of how this worked any info really appreciated(again im working on the hassle factor to them here). Sorry for long post but im on a real mission now and want to gain as much info as poss,been constantly reading the post for 2 days.The funny thing is i would have been 'happy' to have kept on paying out the charge had they treated me right,especially closing account with minimal notice .. thanks to a great site and good luck to all.