With the recent Credit Crunch, and now, the recession, interest rates have sky dived along with the Bank of England base rate. This is the sole reason for my opening an Alliance and LeicesterPremier Direct Current account, which, at the time, was offering a nice and high 8.5% Gross interest on money in the current account but this is limited to the first £2,500 and will only last a year from the date of opening the account. Any amount above £2,500 only earns the usual 0.1% in line with many other banks and the rate will drop to right down to 1% below base rate after one year. They've dropped this offer down to 6.5% now but there's also an offering giving you £100 for switching over to them but with a much lower interest rate and you can potentially get another £50 if you open your account via a
cashback site.
Despite the £2,500 limit, I thought that was good enough for me as 8.5% of £2,500 earns around £170 a year. To open and to retain this account with the generous in-credit rate, there is a requirement and that is for me to pay in at least £500 a month, which for me isn't a problem. Furthermore, you can always pay money in and transfer it straight out again into another account.
OPENING THE ACCOUNT
Opening the account was very easy and I did it all online. Simply filled in my personal details, and gave them extra information such as employment, earnings, residential status, etc and how much I intended to pay in each month. A few days later, I received a confirmation letter through the post, followed by many separate mailings from A&L for the other bits included with the Current account such as the debit card, PIN, cheque/giro book and savings account details. They automatically opened a Plus Saver savings account for me, which only gives about 2% interest, but still better than the 0.1% with most current accounts. Any money in excess, I tend to shift to the savings account until I need to use it.
They also offered to match my overdraft facility with the one I currently hold with my existing current account (with NatWest), which is good but I didn't bother as I needed to switch all my direct debits over for this and provide proof of the existing overdraft facility. A&L automatically gave me an £500 overdraft, which is interest free for the first year. All in all, the opening process was very straight forward.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
A week after I applied for the account, I noticed they'd dropped the rate to 6.5% following the BoE base rate cut. I wanted to know if I would still receive the 8.5% as I was still in the early stages of opening the account and had not received all my documents yet, so I called up to ask. Did not get put on hold and got a quick answer from the lady on the other end of the line so no problems. I've not experienced any problems with the account so not had any reason to contact customer services.
BRANCHES
There are not as many A&L branches as there are with other banks, however, you are also able to pay in cash and cheques at Post Offices, which makes sort of makes up for it, despite the many Post Office closures around the country. Money may take a day extra to be credited and cheques an extra day to clear though.
With actual A&L branches, the inside is usually quite clean and I've never seen any queues, which for me is a good thing. One small complaint with the branches is that they told me that I can't pay my bills at their branches. I had a Barclaycard bill to pay, so I wrote an A&L cheque for it. Tried to pay it in at an A&L branch and was told that they don't process them there and to take it to Barclays. Barclays was only down the road but I thought that was pretty bizarre as I thought all banks dealt with these things, especially if the cheque is from the same bank.
INTERNET BANKING
The Internet banking facility is important to me as I always transfer money between accounts online. I don't like telephone banking (also available) as using the Internet just seems quicker and more convenient. A&L's website does have the facility and it is quite easy to set up. They assign you a unique Internet banking customer ID, and a unique picture. When registering for the service, I add my own phrase to match up with the picture and this shows up every time I log in along with my phrase. I also set up a five digit PIN number to log in. Most other Internet banking sites seem to have a more longwinded login process so I find A&L's quite straight forward. I believe their site is also very secure as it does seem to time out if idle, a lot quicker than other Internet banking sites and when signing in from work, it does ask an extra security question before allowing me to log in.
The web site has always been fast and has worked without problems. The site is very easy to use and lets you do everything you would expect to be able to do such as make payments, manage standing orders and direct debits, as well as manage security details, request PIN, etc. When transferring money from my NatWest to my A&L account, it arrives in minutes. However, when transfer from A&L to NatWest, it takes about 3 working days, which is slightly annoying. This is to do with how A&L are signed up to the Faster Payments thing so their Internet banking site is not to blame.
VERDICT
I do recommend A&L as I've personally not had any problems with them. The lack of branches isn't a problem because of the Post Office facilities and I would recommend them even at 6.5% or even just to take advantage of their £100 signup bonus. A&L are part of the Santander banking group that Abbey are part of so they seem to be quite a safe bank to bank with.
Thanks for reading.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Feb 20th, 2009
very helpful by (100%):
