A&L paid up on the first claim this morning
I have written an acknowledgement and asked them to waive the subsequent charges (as they have not actually applied them yet, merely notified me of them), stating that will simply start again should they refuse.
As regards retaliatory closure, I got the standard "no liabilty" letter which include the implied threat of closure, so my reply contains this paragraph:
You state in your letter that you will be contacting me to discuss the future operation of my account. I am well aware that this means you will wish to close my account. Bearing in mind the recent finding and sanction against Alliance & Leicester by the Financial Services Ombudsman, and the comments made within that adjudication, I will naturally be lodging a complaint with the FSO should you go ahead with closing my account. If this is your intention, it is clear that further correspondence will not alter your decision, and to go through your in-house complaints procedure will simply waste my time, and your resources. I therefore suggest that you directly provide me with a “Final Decision Letter” which I can forward to the FSO.