I went to A&L last year and just closed the account a month ago. You think HSBC are painful the customer service at A&L appeared none existant and they definately arent very helpful when you need them. I get a lot of payment by cheques which took 5 working days to clear, so waiting a week for money is no good for me. Also A&L charges are £35 for just about everything and they wont reimburse you. I was getting charged £35 for a d/d been taken at say 1pm n a cheque not clearing to cover it until 1.30pm on the same day. In some cases they bounced the d/d even if it only sent me over drawn by less than £50 when they knew the cheque was there.