If you’re starting a business you’ll expect everyone to pull out all the stops on your behalf. Staff, suppliers and most importantly your business bank. That’s why it’s essential you don’t fall for the first high street bank you see and think wisely about your long-term needs.
Fortunately, at Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank, we’ve got your interests at heart and offer you real value for money from the start.
Our award winning Business Builder Current Account offers 2 years free banking to ensure your new venture gets off to the best possible start.
Award winning my arse. I like t know who the hell is giving these awards out!! I joined the Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank (or tried to) back in June 2005.
1. It took 4 months to finally get an account open. This involved them losing forms. Me going into Alliance & Leicester and getting them to photocopy and sign the docs, which once recieve they said were illegible (even though they took and sent the copies) and just a them generally not having a clue what they are doing. every time you phone you have to go through the whole process again. When i finally did get the account open I didn’t get a card so I could withdraw money.
2. After phoning and asking for a card they said they would send one in the post. I asked if it would be recorded delivery as I would be out the country (at Spark Europe). They said no it would be normal delivery. I get back and have a note saying i wasn’t in for a recorded delivery. I phone up Alliance & Leicester and tell them i don’t have the card and I have a recorded delivery slip. They guarentee me that it won’t be their card, they cancelled the card and sent another out, again making it clear it won’t be recorded delivery. I go a collect my missed letter a couple of days later and its the bloody cancelled card. A week after that i finally get another card delivered and again it was recorded delivery.
3. After the months of getting this sorted I still didn’t have any Internet access to the account. I ask for this in November 2005 and am told to fill out a new form. I then get a phone call 2 weeks later saying that I can’t get an Internet account until the beginning of February 2006. Have i heard anything?
4. I now try and book the flight on my card and behold they don’t accept Visa Electron. I phone Alliance & Leicester and apparently they don’t trust me enough to let me have a proper card until i’ve been with them at least 6 months although the account is way in credit.
These guys are idiots. I would highly suggest you avoid the Alliance & Leicester at all costs and they will cost you so much time, which as we all know means money.
If anyone has got any recommendations for business accounts or accountants please leave a comment
I hear you mate. They’re all sharks but this sounds so bad you’d be silly not to go elsewhere.
I have a personal account at Natwest with abismal interest rates, I am just too lazy to switch it.
But I do all my business banking through HSBC. I didn’t go for their business account (it costs money), I simply set up another ‘normal’ current account and use that strictly for business. It helps me keep things organised. I also use their instant savings account and move any money that the Revenue will eventually get into there to generate some interest – might as well.
I got to say I am happy with HSBC so far. Account setup was fairly straight forward, I got a switch and visa card and after a few months they very happily increase my overdraft and credit limit. I started with no overdraft on the switch but that was fine by me. As I said they quickly increase that once you have a bit of history with them. Right now I’d recommend giving them a try. Phones are always answered right away by a real person which is good.
Stefan
I’d take a walk up the high street, ask to speak to someone in each and see which bank you get on with best. Make sure you can get a direct dial number to the bank and at least a couple of names of people that can deal with business matters. I did this and out of some 8 of the well known banks I only got to speak to someone at Bank of Scotland and HSBC, even after a week i’d only heard back from one of the others. We’re now with HSBC and their Internet banking is pretty sufficiant, can call them directly and haven’t had any major problems.
As Stefan says they’re all sharks, guess its just a case of finding the best of a bad bunch!
Dan
Thanks guys, you advice is much appreciated.
The bit i don’t get is ‘walk up a high street’. Can’t remember when I last had time out to do that!
I can only think of one way to sum up this
post….Awesome.
What’s interesting to me is the more I read the more
I find this blog (post) so helpful, but thats only
my opinion. Each to there own thing I say…..
I wholeheartedly agree. I set up an account, they changed my address after a couple of letters, so it is now wrong and when I told them they sent a confirmation letter of the changes to the wrong address; they sent me someone else’s overdraft agreement; they haven’t sent an internet password or a debit card, so although I’ve put money in, I can’t get it out; they set up a second account in error and sent me a final statement; I requested a manager’s call back and haven’t had one…….
What a load of idiots!
Greetings.
Alliance & Leicester accused me wrongly, both orally and in writing of the theft of a substantial sum.As aresult I lost my employment and my professional reputation was destroyed. Now after continuous pressure the bank’s slimey Company secretary, Simon Lloyd is considering, after four and a half years pressure,issuing a letter of indemnity clearing my name. However, as any sane person can imagine, aftre all this time its too late and I have no employment prospects and have considerable indebtedness.
Any thoughts out there has to how I can fight this one?
Yes definitely avoid Alliance and Leicester even for personal banking. I tried to switch from Barclays as they were offering an interest free overdraft but the amount of hassle and time it has cost me I really don’t think it is worth it.
My debit card was sent by courier but I wasn’t around to sign for it. I then receive a card from royal mail telling me that I have to pay 1.24 to collect my debit card as the courier had obviously just slung it in the nearest pillar box for royal mail to deliver. When I phoned Alliance & Leicester to complain about this they seemed to suggest that this was standard practice. Well that’s certainly reassured me that my money is safe hands then.
Sent a old Tessa in to be cashed with pass book, birth cerficate, marriage certificate, letter, etc etc the list goes on.
A& L wrote back & said they couldnt trace the account !!!
This was after 4 telephone messages left without reply to the local branch & my wife having finally to walk down that high st & into the branch asked where to send it, what to send it in with & weather the account was live & also why i never had a follow up call after leaving message after message the guy shrugged his shoulders & said no staff .
He then gave my wife where to send it which is were i came in on this blogg.
Thank god i photo copied it all
I’ve been trying to open an Alliance and Leicester esaver account for three months.
Opened it online then received a letter asking for ID. Took that to the nearest branch which took two hours there and back. Heard nothing after a month so rang and was told the item had been lost. Went to the branch again assuming this to be a fluke. Manager in local branch said it was happening all the time. This time they gave me a copy of the transmission sheet to their HQ.
Another two months heard nothing so rang enquiry line today making several attempts hanging on for ages without a reply. They then say when I finally get through they can’t check my application as system is down. Try again tomorrow.
Are these people complete jokers?
The RBS Record loses of 24Billion UK pounds and Fred Goodwin still gets 650k pension every year. That is just unbelievable! They should strip him of his pension.
I recently applied for an Alliance and Leicester current account and nearly 2 weeks later I am still waiting for a debit card.
When I called to find out why there was a delay, they told me that the company that dispatches the cards had run out of plastic.
After a very long silence I hung up in total disbelief.
I have been charged nearly 300.00 for being overdrawn i dont even have an overdraft when i applied for one they stated that i was not eligible for one, i was on with the call centre who refunded 25.00 as a good will payment, i was also promised that i would recieve a managers call back that was on saturday the 8th May and the policy is that they should contact you within 48 hours it is now thursday and there is still nothing from them. I am going to contiune with court procedings as i am sick this has been going on for almost a year. If anyone is going to or thinking about opening acount with these crowd of total cowboys i would advise agaist it. They are the worst bank in the nation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i can agree that alliance are absolutely useless i tried switching from account with overdraft they took the account but decided not to give me an overdraft ???
why would someone switch from an account with an overdraft to an account without …for the fun of it lol
what dickheads alliance are and a complete waste of time
i even cleared my old overdraft to sit there requests only to be told i still could not have one
wake up people our money is being looked after by dumb idiots it seems
Are their any other sites we can blog against Alliance and Leicester?
Rating them as ‘Appalling’ is giving them too much credit. They are the worst ‘bank’ I have ever dealt with. Well, to be honest, they never made it as a banking operation, and probably never will. They have a bunch of high street shops with confused or misguided staff who don’t understand their Head office guidelines and instructions. So to do anything you phone Head Office. Response is incredibly slow and costly for the customer as they make money on every call, and they know this!
It took them 2 months to close our joint account. No excuses A&L, they couldn’t even post out the correct forms to transfer it into a single name in a reasonable time. Only option was to close the account down and refuse to pay anymore money into it. No-one in A&L even cares about how successful their business is. They still owe us the closing balance. Different information about how to get our money back is given out by their Head office each time.
Funnily enough I’m still with A&L although I made this post over 4 years ago.
I lost my cards and A&L were the only company that could arrange to send me a new card when I cancelled the old one, I had to phone another number the following day. I’ve now spoke to them over the phone 5 times requesting a card, and 5 months later I still don’t have one. If I go into a branch they tell me they can’t do anything and that I have to phone. CRAZY!