A&L Charges put me overdrawn

[wobbles]

I opened an account with Alliance & Leicester in january when I satrted to reclaim my charges from my Nationwide account, just in case the nationwide closed my account.

 

I had asked Allaince & Liecester on numerous occasions over the period Jan 07 to May 07 to upgrade the cards on the account from electron to Visa debit cards they refused each time, I had over £10,000 go through the account over the 5 months and decieded before I went on holiday to stop using the account because I was unsure if the electron card would work abroad. I cancelled all my direct debits online from the account on the 28th May 07 and changed my income to going back into the Nationwide account as they had not closed my account after refunding my charges.

 

I went on holiday from 2nd june till 25th june.

 

this morning I recieved statement from alliance & leicester showing the following charges

 

7th June unath OD Charge £25-00

7th june failed chq charge £34-00

12th june failed chq charge £34-00

12th June failed chq charge £34-00

13th june failed chq charge £34-00

14th june failed DD charge £34-00

15th June failed DD charge £34-00

15th June failed chq charge £34-00

18th june failed chq charge £34-00

 

21st june current statement balance £293.34 OD

 

The charges come to £297-00

 

Then lower down on the statemnet it says

Advance notification of charges to be applied to your account on the dates shown

7th july interest 22 may- 20 june £1-05

7th july Unauth OD charge 22may- 20june day 1 £25-00

7th july unauth OD charge 22may-20 june day 5 £25-00

 

Can I put the account in disput to stop the charges being added?

 

Do I send the normal prelim letter to ask for the charges to be refunded to the account?

[squarebob]

Hello Wobbles.

 

Seems like A&L are slapping on charges with a vengeance, and of course deserve all the retribution they get.

 

I thought at first that it was A&L's policy to keep slapping charges on for the least transgression (phew). It's not; it's their computer, there is no Manual Intervention or even common sense anymore. If there were, you, me and the rest of the world would not be sitting here pulling our hair out. When I incurred charges, I had to borrow money to avoid the charges spiralling out of control. One account with A&L is not used, the small overdraft on it consists of bank charges, the other week a 'lost' cheque from February was presented, rather than pay the £14.98 for the cheque, they took out £25 for the 1 day unauthorised overdraft charge from last month, then charged me £34 for not paying the cheque, then when I looked at my statement, they are charging me another £25 for going overdrawn! And if any of that makes sense I'll eat my hat.

 

I'm off to take the cat for a walk.

[jansus]

I dont think you can put account in dispute?

 

but you have to decide whether to go court route or FOS. Both long winded I think. read other threads here.

 

Is this your first post on A&L or do you have another thread?

 

Jansus:)

[wobbles]

first post on alliance and leciester thread.

 

thanks for the help.

 

think I will go the court route I managed to get charges back from nationwide.

[younganfree]

You may want to seriously consider paying in money to cover the overdraught to stop it spiralling even further out of control, then closing the account as you no longer seem to need/want it.

 

Remember that the longer the account remains o/d the more charges they're going to slap on! The sooner you take action on it, therefore, the better.

[wobbles]

If I had a spare £300 i would put it in to cover the charges, unfortunatly I havent got £300 spare to put in the account.

 

I will ask my mum to lend me some money towards it next week when she gets back of her holidays, in the mean time im going to ring them and see what agreement they will come to, ie freezing the charges and interest

[wobbles]

update

 

My Mum couldnt afford to lend me the money. I have sent numerous letters to them asking for the charges to be refunded to the account and for them to close the account, they have not replied to one of my letters to date all my letters where sent recorded delivery and i have checked royal mail website thay have all been signed for.

Account is now £501 overdrawn, I have also stated in letters to them the social security act and tax credits act as all moneis to go in the account where tax credits and family allowance,

still they dont respond should I start the court procceddings or get intouch with the FSA im confused and geeting more and more worried about the charges piling on,

[jansus]

I expect you have read that there are stays on all claims at the moment - However the banks at the instructions of the FSA are supposed to be filtering through all hardship cases. there is an announcement on the internet you could print up.

 

If you have done all the standard letters you are now going to have to follow it through - but if you file at court then there will be a fee. You will have to fill in a form to see if you are exempt.

 

Or I suggest you go direct to FOS and plead that you should be exempt from the stay.

 

I think you need more help than I can give you as you dont want the overdraft getting any bigger.

 

If you look at step by step instructions under FAQ what stage have you got to - did you do LBA?

 

POst a few more details and I will see what else I can find

 

 

Jan

[wobbles]

i did 7 letters in all i even wrote to them everytime the sent me a letter about the over drawn amount, every time they wrote about the overdraft they said i should ring them to discuss it i never rang them just wrote them another letter, yeah ive done LBA that was about 10 days ago now

[jansus]

Well the advice on here is to carry on - use the new POC above for A&L and you must file at local court not on line.

 

Then you will be in line if the waiver is lifted.

 

Are you exempt from fees?

 

Jan OFT Test claim: What this means for you

~~##new A& L Poc##~~

[jansus]

Also see my thread - the FSA statement is posted there if you want to try the financial hardship angle I would copy it off the internet and quote in your POC?

Maybe ask a moderator for help

 

Jan:)