Alliance & Leicester - Blocked card without notification.

[Surfer01]

We switched from Nationwide to A & L as Martin Lewis recommended it on numerous occasions. We opted for the Plus account which is Internet based. Unfortunately what we are not advised is that the technology used on their website is light years behind and ancient. With my Nationwide account, if I went to draw money from an ATM the amount drawn was reflected immediately, if I paid an account through the website, i.e. credit card the amount paid was reflected instantly. When my salary was paid in, it was available for withdrawal just after midnight if required. The A & L account, takes 24 hours to update that cash has been drawn. If money is paid in via BACS, i.e. salary, for that whole day it shows that you have exceeded your limit or have exceeded your overdraft although we don't have one.

More annoying is that you log into the account and then start writing a secure message to send, it then logs you out stating that you have not done anything on the account for 5 minutes although you have been writing a secure message. You then lose your message and have to start all over again. Their solution was for us to acccess Word to write the message and then access the account which is difficult if you are querying transactions etc and need access to the account for details while writing the message.

This is a big disappointment for us and we are already considering changing to another Internet based bank although we have only been with A & L for a month.

Has any one else experienced this or is it just us. Interest rate may be good but antiquated software is annoying!

[Sparklez30]

if i draw money it shows on my available balance not on the itemised listing the same with if i've been paid.

 

I've had other issues where I have transferred from my linked savings account. It immediately shows in the available balance and then let me draw the money an hour later but the next day the statement showed the transactions going the other way round and charged me for going over my limit!! Problem is they are all as bad as each other!!!!

[Surfer01]

I was beginning to think it was just us with this type of problem. Swindled me out of £10 due to the amateurish way their website is managed as we went over our limit by £3.45. Won't happen again.

[Surfer01]

Luckilly for us today I went to the ATM and tried to draw £10 but the card was refused at two different ATMs. I then assumed it was because I had requested a new card because mine had split. Just to be on the safe side I told the wife to use her card to draw money instead of using the card to pay for the fuel. She then found that she was unable to draw money also.

I then contacted A & L who informed me that the card had been blocked because I had attempted to pay for an advertisement on Autotrader. Autotrader is registered as a fraudalent site on their systems and they they would not authorise any transactions with the company whether it was over the Internet or not.

The annoying part is that they did not bother to update us that the cards had been blocked. What if my wife had filled up the car or had a meal and then the card was rejected. This would have caused her a great deal of embarassment never mind the hassles associated with it. The cards have now had the block removed.

I appreciate that we need to be on our guard about fraud but one wouold expect your card provider to notify you one way or the other.

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

I too have an A&L account guess what they did exactly the same, it appears a bank statement was returned to sender, after being delivered to the wrong address.

 

Andy