Alliance & Leicester Reviews

I recently closed an account with Alliance & Leicester and even that was a painfully process. I originally opened an account Alliance & Leicester when they were offering a £100 incentive if you switched to them. Even though I met all the criteria I never received the £100 although disappointing I thought never mind live and ...  Read the complete review

I also had an Alliance & Leicester account (for 20 years) and am saddened by what has now happened to them since the takeover. Santander has the rudest, most arrogant customer service phone staff I have ever come across. They are apt to block your internet account for spurious "security" reasons, then you have to fight like the devil to get your account back. And all the while they act like THEY'RE doing YOU a favour by allowing you to bank with them. Advice: AVOID.

One of my key business objectives is to spend as little time as possible maintaining accounts and tax returns. I want to focus on developing software and my business. Running my business requires I be able to download clear, unambiguous records of my activity for VAT and other purposes. Alliance & Leicester at every turn utterly ...  Read the complete review

One of my key business objectives is to spend as little time as possible maintaining accounts and tax returns. I want to focus on developing software and my business. Running my business requires I be able to download clear, unambiguous records of my activity for VAT and other purposes. Alliance & Leicester at every turn utterly ...  Read the complete review

I can honestly say that although I was dismayed at the thought of Alliance and Leicester changing into one of the worst banks in history, so far, I have not had a problem. When I had to cancel a couple of direct debits, they did so. When my debit card got eaten by a faulty cash machine, I got a replacement within 2 weeks. When my weekly ...  Read the complete review

In March 2010 we visited the Salisbury Branch as we wished to transfer 3 ISAs each to benefit from their 5.5% offer. To do this we had to see a so-called 'advisor' who turned out to be incompetent and living a world he has created for himself. At the beginning of the meeting we emphasised to him that we had completely separate ...  Read the complete review

Both my husband and I have on line accounts with them, we were unable to see the details for MONTHS after the transfer to Santander - I can now see my account details but my husband is still unable to view his. Have telephoned, written by post and by e mail and had letters back saying they would compensate us with cheques - that's a laugh, we are still waiting and really don't expect to ever see them. I would not recommend this shambolic organisation to my worst enemy.

A week ago I received a letter from Santander informing me the PlusSaver account I opened with the Alliance and Leicester in June 2008 was overdrawn by £159.23 and I was required to repay this amount plus any pending charges within 9 days or action would be taken. Having not used my account since August 2009 when I needed to ...  Read the complete review

After 6 months of being messed about I made the switch to another bank this morning. A&L / Santander shouldn't be allowed to say they are part of the faster payments scheme - even with the lowest cap of £300 (the majority of the other banks have £10,000!!!) in my experience they haven't been able to make a faster payment ...  Read the complete review

I opened an account when they were still A&L, offering £100 to switch, they incorrectly transferred my Direct Debits, (all ones I didn't want them to have!), and neglected to sent me half the things I needed for online banking - also the most confusing thing ever, HSBC's system is so much easier! - after several phone calls and ...  Read the complete review

Applied for finance and gave all the paperwork they asked for. 2 days later was called and ask for a bill of my previous address which obviously i told them could not get. Anyway i paid deposit on the car i wanted, before all this, because they said i'd get the loan and was kept on hold and never called unless i called to find out what's going on. In the end after waisting 3 weeks of my time, i cancelled the application and they gave away my money and didn't even bother to let me know about it. I had to call them and the dealer and found out the hard way that i am not getting it back. DON'T DEAL WITH THEM. I FOUND OUT THE HARD WAY!!!!

Changed over to them 6 months ago. Address wrong (cannot cope with a flat number in a house of road numbers). 7 phone calls and one letter of complaint later address changed- still wrong but at least it doesn't get addressed to neighbour. Offered goodwill gesture of £25..  Direct debits incorrectly changed over multiple times ...  Read the complete review

So incompetent they even managed to screw up the resololution of the complaint at final level eg.. "I have refunded 40 today and added a further goodwill credit of 25.."Actually they refunded 40 but forgot to add the goodwill credit, Ombudsman next as that didnt even address the entire complaint anyway, worst bank in the world.

I used to be entirely happy with Alliance & Leicester (online account, but with a friendly, cluefull UK based call centre), however since the takeover by Santander, things have nosedived sharply. I have now been waiting for over a week for a reply to an online secure message, when in the past I would receive a reply usually within 24 ...  Read the complete review

I no longer trust the alliance & Leicester bank to get things right, ever since they were taken over by Santander. They used to be a good bank. I have just finally closed the account after six weeks of phone calls and letters. I had a letter come through from Santander telling me my agreed over draft was being canceled and I had to ...  Read the complete review

I opened an account with Alliance and Leicester in January 2010. Firstly they sent me letters, each quoting a different customer ID. When telephoning to find out which was my 'real' ID, I was told two different stories by two different customer services representatives (both of whom I found pretty confrontational, even within ...  Read the complete review

I have accounts with all the major high street banks so I know a little of what to expect from a customer's perspective. My Alliance and Leicester account was opened because of the cash bonus plus a good published interest rate on savings. I don't either have the time or inclination to go to branches so I will only use banks that have ...  Read the complete review

As of today....I'm no longer a A&L customer. Final straw - the loan dept 'misplacing' my original bank statment. It has taken 3 weeks and 3 phone calls, each time being told that a 'back' office function is responsible and they can not answer the phone!!! The truth is obviously that this has been sent to somebody else breaching ...  Read the complete review

Laughably bad if it didn't involve so much money. If you ever want your money back, don't trust these people. Shifted cash in a savings account to 0.1% rate at end of fixed term then refused to process account closure on line in view of sum involved (about 30k). Insisted on branch attendance although an internet account. Money going back to source account so no possible money laundering/fraud issues. In response to complaint claimed (in mid August) to have arranged transfer of money. As of 14th September still not received by my bank. Further letter of complaint a week ago has received no response whatsoever. Assume they must be desperate to hang on to the cash. Don't give them any more.

Had my online account locked out because I transferred 2000£ to another external account. They called me once (I couldn't take the call then) and asked me to call back to their premium 0844 number, which I had to do since I was entirely locked out and couldn't get access to my money. Once I called they told me the money had been ...  Read the complete review