Five years ago, myself and a friend who have since bought a house together, had a meeting with A&L to discuss a possible mortgage. Within five minutes, the woman at the Leicester branch simply said ‘well, as graduates, you need to get better jobs don’t you?’. We felt quite offended, and proceeded out of the building faster than you can say ‘it’s a joke’. On our way home, we noticed a large poster in the window of HSBC saying that they would give us mortgage… or Ã?£25 in cash. I quite fancied the idea of some free money after the fiasco with A&L, so we ventured inside. Two hours later, we’d been signed up to a HSBC mortgage, and on a great rate too. They bent over backwards to help us get on the property ladder and boy, did it pay off! However, every time I go into A&L now, they desperately try to pursuade me to switch to their ‘fabulous’ mortgage, saying that whoever told us to ‘get better jobs’ was not acting appropriately. Easy to say now eh? Oh, and suffice to say, the woman concerned isn’t working at A&L any more. Maybe she got a ‘better’ job.

What really got me mad was when I was reading though my last couple of years statements. Novemeber 2005 I was charged Ã?£25 even though I wasn’t overdrawn this is down to a adim mistake, as a result of this charge this made me overdrawn so I got charges the following month, again the following month and so on up to a figure of Ã?£250 beause of their admin error. I know i should noticed this straight away but as a young lad believed it was my own fault at the time. I phoned A&L to tell them about their mistake, the response I got was that I should of notcied striaght away and as a result of not noticing their mistake its very unlikely I will get my money back. This is still going on, and the feeling i get everytime is like im in the wrong for not noticing this??? how does this make sense???

Yesterday I came into another bank charges letter. I did what I was instructed to do I transferred the money between my two accounts the night before the DDR were due, I didn’t go overdrawn, yet still they charged me.

It seems the A&L seem to use the excuse of 24 hour access to your account that is why money needs to be in the night before, since DDR are taken just after midnight. Yet when you are crediting your account to avoid charges, they use the excuse of the old fashioned bank cut off time for having money in your account.

It seems the logic programmed into the computers at A&L isn’t the same as the information given to their staff and it addition it contradicts each other.

When you try and speak to someone, all they will do is lodge your complaint and refer it to the charges team, who then just send out one of those standard letters. That is if you get through in the first place, due to call waiting times and refusing to put you through if you don’t have your phone pin to hand.

I have only banked with the A&L since Feb this year; I am already moving my account. Never have I come across a useless unhelpful incompetent firm in all my life.

I had a payment due to go out on 17th Sept and was worried it might sned my A&L current account overdrawn, so logged in to check so I could transfer funds from my other A&L account to cover if needed. Was showing a positive balance, and a payment pending (ie presumably due to go out on 18th as was already 9pm on 17th). When I logged in on 18th the pending payment had been backdated to having being processed on 17th, before funds landed on 18th. ie I was not showing over-drawn when I check initially and was able to resolve, but once funds landed my account was showing as having gone overdrawn by less than Ã?£60 presumably for the period from 9pm on 17th to 9am on 18th. ALl of which has cost me Ã?£50-01 – Ã?£25 for paying DD when funds not available, Ã?£25 unauthorised overdraft fee, and 1p interest for period of being overdrawn.

This was my main current account, I have never been over-drawn before and always manage the account carefully, and I am furious!! Will wait the 7-10days to see outcome, but have already closed my other A&L savings account, and if not satisfied with outcome will be looking for new internet account – I hear Nationwide are better?!

I assume you’ve tried demanding a supervisor? Usually speaking to a supervisor yields someone with a bit more intellect.

The trick is, when making phone calls stay calm, be polite and friendly – if you get angry with them, they’ll give you crap back – if you’re nice, they’ll go out of their way to help you. Do not mention on the phone that you will be claiming your fees back because that puts them on the defensive and they will help even less.

If this fails then try the following:

The first thing I would do is create a separate account and move your bill payments (direct debits etc) to there, and start paying your pay into that account instead. Once that’s done, call up and speak to their collections department, explain the situation and ask for them to put your account on hold and a chance to pay back the fees. (perhaps ask for an overdraft facility so you can pay the fees with that and pay back the overdraft at your leisure).

Then pay back the fees as soon as possible and start the proceedings to get your fees back. It’ll take a couple of months but it’s worth it! Once you have the money back, cancel the account and deposit your money into your new account.

I know paying back the fees is tough, but it’s better than getting a CCJ on your name!

(PS – I’m no expert, I’m just talking from my experience as having been through this myself and also as someone who works as a call centre supervisor!).

Good luck with the baby!