Hi All,
During April 2007 I sucessfully claimed back bank charges of £2840 from Alliance and leicester! Hurrah! However, i am beginning to wish I hadn't! I got the usual "we will be closing your account" letter as a punitive retaliatory measure, with the date of closure of 21st May 2007. I begged them to keep the account open and they point blank refused, so I opened another account, a basic account with Abbey, and withdrew my remaining cash from alliance and leicester. I then moved house, about 3 weeks later, and when I checked my credit file in november 2007 I saw that there were 90day late payments being marked on an "Active" alliance and leicester account! Now this i believed was due to the £100 overdraft I had, so I worte to them asking them to send me details of what was owed and I would arrange payment... no response. I worte again several times during early 2008 and still got no response, other than a letter in September 2008 thanking me for my change of address letter?! Anyway, to cut a long story short, they have not once, in the 2+ years since I started trying to contact them, ever written to me asking for any money, or even told me I owed any money. Have been on electoral role since september 2007 and have written numerous letters saying I would like to know hwat was owed and the balance etc. I have had not one single letter saying I owe a penny. And after contacting my MP, the ball has started rolling. I went into teh local branch and after a long ordeal managed to get them to override their system so that I could pay in £100 to my old account. I contacted A&L and requested the 90 day late payments (which are still being added each month) to be removed, as I had tried to resolve this for over two years. They initially worte saying because I did not tell them my change of address at the time, it had gone to a recovery agency. Now I am well aware that had it gone to a debt collector in 2007, they would have found me on the electoral register - and if not, I would probably have a CCJ showing. I have tried and tried to get this payed / resolved for nearly two years and all I am asking now is that they remove the 24+ late payments from my file as I have being trying to sort this for over two years etc. Anyway, this is the last letter I sent to them, and copied my MP, the CEO of A&L, the chairman of A&L etc.
Dear Mr Powell,
First of all, may I thank you for your speedy response with regards to my complaint. I have enclosed my telephone number should you wish to discuss this in person.
I fully appreciate the time taken to contact me with regards to this distressing matter, however I am still unhappy with the response I have received and I hope to explain my concerns below.
On paragraph three of your letter, dated 22nd September 2009, you state that you “have been unable to find any copy of correspondence in which Alliance and Leicester advised you that your current account would be closed on 21 May 2007. In addition, I can see that you continued to authorise payments on this account beyond this date, and without sufficient funds to cover them”.
I enclose a copy of a letter from Jackie McGuirk of Alliance and Leicester, dated 18th April 2007. You will note the last paragraph states “As it is clear that you do not accept the terms and conditions for the operation of your account we will shortly be contacting you to discuss its future operation”.
A few days after receipt of this letter, I received another letter stating that my account would be closed on 21st May 2007 as I did not accept the terms and conditions of the account. My biggest regret being I do not have a copy of this letter as it was lost during my subsequent house move. Upon receipt of this letter I immediately telephoned Alliance and Leicester Customer Services to request that they would keep my account open as I needed to be able to have my salary deposited. I was categorically informed that under no circumstance would my account be left open, and even when I asked to open another basic Cash Card account to have my wages paid into I was told, and I quote “under no circumstance will we allow you to continue to bank with us now or in the future”. I questioned this and was told “this is Alliance and Leicester’s stand point when you claim back bank charges”.
I urge you to consider the above information and note that the correspondence I received, along with the lengthy telephone call, leads me to fully believe that the account in question would be closed, no questions asked. Therefore I did not knowingly allow any transactions to take place on this account, as I was totally unaware that the account would in fact be left open.
In fact I then opened a Basic Abbey Account and began using this account to have my salary paid into and pay all my direct debits etc.
I did move home in June 2007 and did not feel the need to inform Alliance and Leicester of this, because, as far as I was concerned I had no active accounts with Alliance and Leicester, mitigating the need to inform you of my address changes. However, I have been fully registered on the electoral register since September 2007. Your letter also states that you issued “Debt Recovery Action” against me in November 2007, of which I was also unaware. However, through research and talking to colleagues / friends who have been through debt recovery, it seems unusual that I was not “found” by the debt recovery agency as I was on the electoral register and also that even after my numerous letters to Alliance and Leicester, I received no correspondence requesting / suggesting that I owed any money. In fact I found this information on my credit file and contacted yourselves in 2008 many times asking for you to let me know what was owing and a breakdown of this so I could arrange payment. I refer you to the letter dated 3rd September 2008. This letter suggest I wrote to inform you of a change of address, when in fact, although I had a new address, the letter I wrote prior, was asking for information on any monies owing and offering to pay.
Since September 2008 I have had no correspondence requesting any payments, even though I have repeatedly tried to contact yourselves in writing regarding this.
In desperation I went into my local branch and paid £100, which was a lengthy affair as the account was “inactive”. And have subsequently contacted my Local MP, Mr Henry Bellingham to ask for help as I am becoming further and further mentally and emotionally distressed.
Due to the negative entries on my credit file, which I feel are through no deliberate fault of my own, I cannot open a current account, I cannot get a loan, and worst of all a mortgage. I have been trying to resolve this for over 2 years now and it has taken action from my local MP, for which I am extremely grateful, to even get responses regarding these affairs. My credit file is being damaged as you have been reporting defamatory information, which I believe to be unjust, based upon the above details, and this will now continue to be held against me for the next seven years which I believe is wholly unfair and unjustified, bearing in mind the lengths I have gone to for the past two years to try and sort this out. If you wish to obtain a copy of my credit report, you will see that I have operated all my other credit accounts impeccably over the past two years and realise that I would have actioned this as a matter of urgency had I had any correspondence previously.
As a gesture of good will, please would you remove any negative entries on my credit file, and help us all move on from this situation. I am getting increasingly distressed and depressed but I will continue to escalate this matter, to the Financial Services Ombudsman and beyond if necessary.
I hope that we can reach an agreement.
Now... They have just written to me saying that they can find no record of ever telling me my account would be closed - which is BS, and unfortunately I do not have a copy. Also they say that it is my fault for not telling tthem my address change - which I did in 2007 after seeing my credit file.
I really need these marks removed, I can't get a current account, or mortgage or anything with these marks on my file. All my other dredit agreements, my one credit card, my mail order catalogue and my car finance agreement have been paid on time for the entire length of the accounts. Not one missed or late payment at all... Please does anyone know what else I can do, they are ruining my life! I have heard people taking it to the financial ombudsman but recently I hear they are ruling on favour of the banks.... please any advice would be great.
