The Alliance and Leicester is a UK bank. It was formed in 1977 by the floatation of the former Alliance Leicester Building society on the London Stock Exchange.
I wanted to take advantage of the offer of free worldwide annual travel insurance and the £25 me and my friend would get if he ... Read review
Advantages: Good rates Disadvantages: Hurrendous service and efficiency
The Alliance and Leicester is a UK bank. It was formed in 1977 by the floatation of the former Alliance Leicester Building society on the London Stock Exchange.
I wanted to take advantage of the offer of free worldwide annual travel insurance and the £25 me and my friend would get if he reffered me as a new customer. Switching banks is a thing most people think is troublesome and complicated. It simply is not, and most banks now have ... ...
Like most banks, Alliance offer mortgages, savings accounts, bank accounts for all ages, loans, credit cards, so on and so forth.
They tend to, like most ex-building societies, namely Halifax and Abbey National, offer much higher interest rates than the big four banks, HSBC, RBS/Natwest, Lloyds TSB and Barclays.
I obviously cannot comment on all products/services offered, but I will comment on my experiences ... more
The Alliance and Leicester is a UK bank. It was formed in 1977 by the floatation of the former Alliance Leicester Building society on the London Stock Exchange.
I wanted to take advantage of the offer of free worldwide annual travel insurance and the £25 me and my friend would get if he reffered me as a new customer. Switching banks is a thing most people think is troublesome and complicated. It simply is not, and most banks now have a switcher service where they do all the work for you and you don't have to lift a finger.
I was formerly with the Abbey. The Abbey had done nothing inparticular to offend or upset me as a customer, but for a higher interest rate and the above mentione offers, I thought I might as well make the shift to A&L.
~Products and Services~
Like most banks, Alliance offer mortgages, savings accounts, bank accounts for all ages, loans, credit cards, so on and so forth.
They tend to, like most ex-building societies, namely Halifax and Abbey National, offer much higher interest rates than the big four banks, HSBC, RBS/Natwest, Lloyds TSB and Barclays.
I obviously cannot comment on all products/services offered, but I will comment on my experiences with the products I have had or still have with this bank.
Current Account:
Compared to when I switched from Natwest to Abbey many years ago, Alliance and Leicester were very slow. From initially requesting an account transfer to Alliance, it was at least 14 days until I heard anything, which, eventually turned up in the form of a letter. The transfer was finally completed a couple of months later. They cocked up my wages. They were supposed to contact my employer, Tesco, to request my pay be payed into the new account. When I noticed that my wages were still being payed to Abbey National, I asked my wage clerk why, and found out that she had not been contacted by A&L at all. I had to give the new account details in myself.
The current account is not as easily serviced as they make out. Many banks promote their internet banking and telephone facility as being convenient, but their branch facilities are normally good too. With Alliance however, there's not much you CAN do at the branch. Balance enquiries must be done by telephone. You can ask at the counter if the cashier can give you a balance (which IS physically possible, but they will ask you to use the branch telephone). You may not withdraw more than £500 at the counter, and you may only withdraw from the counter if you are taking out less than £500, and more than £300. If you want less than £300, you have to use the ATM. They will unwillingly make a withdrawal for you at the counter under the £300 limit if you are awaiting a new PIN/card only.
I was very dissapointed with the service, or lack of service should I say.
I will not comment on interest rates which are good, as they change so often and I would not like to give out the wrong information.
Credit Card:
I have had an Alliance Mastercard for a long time before I opened my current account. I do not like a bank's credit card if it is run by MBNA Europe Bank Ltd, which Alliance's credit cards are.
It might seem lazy of me, but when you pay your bill by cheque, they like to be awkward and write your card numer on the payee lime as well as MBNA EBL and state your name and adress on the back. It takes no real effort but its just one of those niggling little things that I begrudge doing.
They also started charging me interest while I was still on my 0% interest on purchases period. Although this was quickly resolved without argument- over the phone of course!
I was charged for a late payment after they had returned a cheque I had sent in the post, as it was dated incorrectly. After looking at the cheque they returned, I realised it was not dated wrong at all and sent it back to them with a letter explaining. I hasd them reverse the charge, but this late fee was of course reflected in my Experian report.
These ar the only products I have had from this bank. I would not get any more with them after these experiences. But the next 'clash' I had with Alliance & Leicester takes the biscuit.
~Quality of Service~
I payed a visit to a branch of this bank in Chester City Centre.
I had no telephone banking pass-codes (as I never received any) I did not, at the time, know my internet banking codes. I also did not have a PIN number for my card, as I had simply forgotten it after reverting back to the use of my Abbey account.
I enquired about the balance of my account with a member of staff on the customer service desk. I was not greeted with any welcoming smile, or a 'hello'. She just looked at me. She was red-faced and looked stressed. Although god knows why, it was like a morgue in there. ''No'' she snapped, ''we don't do that in ere', you need to use that phone over there''. I explained I had no passcodes, no PIN Number and no other means of finding out my balance. ''Have you got your card or cheque book?'' she asked with a sigh. Yes, I said. Well you have your account number on that, they will ask you a few questions''.
So I just got back in the queue with my friend who was paying in cash. There was an old woman being served by the 1 cashier who was serving. That's all that was in the queue, just her, and us. Next thing you know, the woman off the customer service desk flies over, physically pushes my friend back by about a metre and said ''this woman is VERY OLD.....and these days you just don't know if young lads like you are going to bop someone on the head and mug them''.
Well, I was FUMING big style. God knows how the old woman felt being branded loudly as Very Old! My friend said there should be a line on the floor explaining that you might want to stand away from the person being served, for safety purposes. ''There's a sign'' we heard. The cashier had actually bothered to lift her head, raise her arm and point to an ill-placed tacky sign, printed on a peice of up-side-down A&L headed A4 paper, Sellotaped to the wall.
We didn't bother any more, we just thought we'd had enough. The service we received that day was absolutely abismal, and we were disgusted. We didn't bother complaining.
What we actually did was walk across to the Halifax (where I'd held an account after working for them for a while) and my friend then switched his account to them, giving him a much better rate of interest and £100 for switching.
That was my experience in the Chester branch. Staff at my local branch in Liverpool City Centre have been very polite, although useless due to limitations on services available imposed on them corporately. It's not their fault.
~Branch Locations~
You're lucky to find a branch on your local high-street. Most Alliance branches are city-centre based. However they do offer telephone based banking and internet banking, and you can pay in at you local Post Office (not that there'll be many of them soon either!).
Well I hope I have warned most of you of the sheer inefficiency and the lack of easy banking with this company. Hehehehe.
In my experience, Halifax is a much better bank (and no, I'm not just saying that because of the brief employment I had with them) and the Abbey is also a much better bank.
However do not be put off switching banks, you should always get a better deal in every aspect of finance if you can. The big four banks should give you a good interest rate, especially as they are the biggest banks, but, disgracefully, they generally offer some of the poorest credit interest rates on the market, and some of the highest interest rates on borrowing.
Advantages: Excellent APR 5.35 Disadvantages: slow service
...accounts, I was shown that Alliance leicester is offering the best rate of interest or 5.35% AER for the online saver account. So I proceeded to fill in the application and started the process of opening the account with them. Remember I had also recently opened an account with First Direct.com. The website is cluttered with banners and I did not like the look of the website. The application process was similar to all the banks and had to fill out ... ...move money online into my alliance account. The next thing which I had to do was to register online with my account details. This process was to create a customer ID and a PIN number. I had to again wait for this to come in post which took another 5 days. As usual the Customer ID number comes in a post and the PIN number comes in a different post for the security reasons. So finally I was able to login for the first time today into my alliance online ...
bpg2504 11.02.2005 (21.05.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Alliance & Leicester
Advantages: Excellent service, good interest rates, no real hassle Disadvantages: Few branches, odd overdraft criteria and fees
...a lot of run up... Alliance and Leicester.
THE MAIN REVIEWY BIT OF THE REVIEW
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So, after trying all the other banks, I plumped for Alliance and Leicester. A relative has an account with them, and never seemed to have any problems, so gave them a go. I applied for one of their Premier 21 current accounts, which as of writing offers a Visa debit card (no Solo, sorry NatWest), a 10% AER interest ... ...compared to most banks.
Alliance and Leicester also offer a Premier Switching Service, which offers to take all your direct debits, standing orders and such from your old current account as quickly as possible. In the event, I ended up kicking myself for not using this, especially since one company (AXA) only conducts Direct Debit changes through post and were exceptionally slow to send the forms out.
Overall the account opening took about three ...
ShelfStacker 20.01.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Alliance & Leicester
Advantages: Extremely cheap business banking Disadvantages: Slow, slow service
Alliance & Leicester (formerly Girobank) launched a huge advertisng and marketing campaign in recent months to draw in new and small businesses to their business banking product.
I am sure that like many new or early years businesses I was horrified at the charges imposed on businesses (from the four big banks) for basic transactions, hence the £10 per month standard charge for all basic transactions offered by Alliance and Leicester was a great ... ...then post it on to Alliance & Leicester! It may take four or five days just for your cheque to reach your account, a further four days is then required for clearing. This aspect of poor cash flow is extremely difficult for a small business to handle. Furthermore the process isn't any different when handling cash. If you ring and ask how you can get funds into the account quicker they do not have any speed option (even for a fee) to offer. If you ...
gerryjohnson 21.03.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Alliance & Leicester
Advantages: Good terms & conditions Disadvantages: Too inefficient; never managed to contact their customer service
I considered switching from HSBC to A&L as I was attracted by the high interest on the current account (for balances up to £ 2,500).
I submitted my application online, it was approved, and got a letter after about 10 days (why that long if I received the approval instantaneously online?). Anyway, the details in the letter were wrong: they misspelt my last name (adding a hyphen) and the flat number was wrong (I only received the letter because my ... ...I type them in their website is beyond me.
Anyway, I call their customer service to complain, they tell me they fixed it. I call again in 2 days (not trusting them), they tell me nothing had been changed and that I need to supply legal proof of my change of name. I protest, because I never changed my name, but they say that that's the procedure. I fill in their form, attaching a copy of the passport and specifying that I never changed my name: they ...
UKAnonymous2007 14.11.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Alliance & Leicester
Advantages: Internet banking very easy to use Disadvantages: Loyalty not necessarily rewarded
...once been in arrears, so Alliance Leicester surely lost out there.
So why do I stay with them? Partly because I find their internet banking service so easy and convenient to use. As I have an Apple Mac without Internet Explorer (I use Safari), I am afraid that if I switch banks I might not be able to use the website. I have a business account with the Co-op Bank, and have not been able to use their internet banking service at all.
Internet Banking ... ...an Online Saver account with Alliance Leicester that does pay a relatively decent rate of interest. Both my sons have joint Alliance Leicester Easysaver accounts with me, and by registering them online I can make instant transfers between my current account and these savings accounts. When one of my sons was away from home and flat broke, he was able to ring me and ask me to make an instant transfer so that he could withdraw right away from a cash ...
denella 01.10.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Alliance & Leicester
Staff courtesy
Promptness of service
Efficiency of service
Competitiveness of char...
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Alliance & Leicester Premier Current Account
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I was attracted to the Alliance and Leicester's 'Online Saver' account because of the relatively high interest rate offered. Today when I checked, the interest rate is 5.35% which is higher than most of the mainstream competition.
I applied for this account online via their website. I find their home page almost assaults the eye; it's as though they want to shout about every link on there and ultimately it's just too much and in my opinion it looks 'cheap'. It didn't take too long to complete the application form and about seven days later the account was set up.
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