Review of A&L (Alliance & Leicester)

Member Name: mdhughes03

Product:	Alliance & Leicester
Date:	04/10/09 (106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good internet banking site

Disadvantages: some advantages of accounts are short-lived

I currently have a joint current account and two joint savings accounts with Alliance and Leicester and I am fairly pleased with the service I receive from them.

We joined this bank when we were looking around for a joint account, as we were moving in together. We chose the Premier Direct Current Account due to the overdraft facility and the fact that the offer at the time was a decent interest rate on any credit balance on the account. The account came with a linked savings account which we didn't really need at the time but have used since. After about a year using the bank we have now opened another savings account with a higher interest rate.

What I love about this bank is its Internet banking service. Unless I have a cheque to pay in, this is the only way I conduct my banking. My Fiancé and I were given separate login IDs for the Internet banking and although it s secure, I can ask the computer to remember my ID and just type in the password each time. The first screen is a summary showing the names of your accounts (which can be changed to anything-ours are "joint account", "wedding" and "savings for stuff"!) and the corresponding available balances. You can then click on each account and see a full statement and be given available tasks for that account-e.g. payments, request pin etc. What I love about this is that you can instantly transfer money between your accounts. I am a very visual person so being able to press transfer and see money from our account "Pop" over into the wedding fund is fab!

The bank basically leaves us alone to manage our accounts, occasionally sending us messages on the internet banking site about offers available to us but the junk mail factor is very small.

My only complain with this bank is that we were originally rejected for our account due to the applications being processed by a computer rather than a real person: my fiancé didn't pass the credit check as he wasn't on the electoral roll at his previous address. After writing and explaining that he had only lived there for 5 months and never registered, the application was quickly reconsidered and we were accepted. Also the overdraft which was such an advertised advantage to the account has a ridiculous usage fee of 50p per day now that we are out of our first year of using it. This is capped at £5 but I still find it a little misleading, though I'm sure it was in the small print somewhere!!

Summary: A good all-rounder