I am considering moving to Alliance and leicester from my HSBC account, just wondered if anyone uses them and are there any pitfalls to moving banks?

 

I have just made the very same move - no problems at all.... very smooth transfer... they take care of as much or as little as you want - move direct debits, switch your pay over, close old account if you want...

1 important point - PAYPAL doesn't like the direct debit transfer - your bank details will be wiped from paypal and the dd cancelled. you need to register the new bank details with them...

 

Anyone that wants to move from HSBC I say

Bunch of tossers IMO. I banked with them since 1997, but got sick of dealing with foreigners and getting bounced around for simple requests.

Now with Natwest and the service is great.

 

is a building society better than a bank, if so why? as im thinking about leaving clydesdale bank

 

alliance & leicester is about the best current account you can get at the moment....

take a look on www.moneysavingexpert.com for top tips on bank accounts...

 

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.

 

cheers for that ben, TBH I have been trying to find peoples opinions of A&L and have struggled. I have also read that first Direct are good, but they dont have any branches so I cant work out how you pay cheques into them??

 

I think you'll find they have no choice about reimbursing you if you play the unlawful bank charges card.... they have no control over the time to clear checks etc as its an automatic process - but if you dispute the charges you will get them back and (as per my recent success with HSBC) will guarantee you don't get any more in the future...

 

gwynny - you can pay cheques in at post office or by post (as a last resort) - I'm taking it you deal with cheques on a regular basis...

btw did you get my PM?

 

I claimed my charges back with HSBC but i still get charged now, I dont understand how you avoid getting them in the future?

 

hmmm - don't really know - was just part of their offer.

 

First direct are a part of the HSBC group mate so is it worth moving to them?

 

HSBC are excellent, one of the best banks in the world!

 

so which branch of HSBC do you work for then ???

 

[quote="pattozs"]Ah cheers mate didnt realise that.

 

My main bank is HSBC n ive never had a problem. Get the odd scottish call centre person but thats about it. Managed to claim my charges back with them, Alliance & Leicester wouldnt pay out and kept referring me to the small print which I signed to. That stated that they would charge £35 for any infringements etc and because I signed to it I basically accepted it.

First direct cheques can also be paid in at HSBC, the missus is with them. Basically HSBC is your local bank for that but everything else is online.

 

first direct will give me £100 to join em, and its basically the same service is what your saying?

***EDIT***
They charge £10 a month if you dont pay in £1500 and I am about £40 chort of that lol.

 

I wouldn't be put off by the small print mate - work out the charges and send them the default letter from www.moneysavingexpert.com - seriously the line about you signing up to the charges is BS... this is the big argument behind the charges issue - just because all the banks do it and include it in the T&Cs doesn't make it legal - and thats why they are having to pay out....

 

Gwynny - Withdraw say £100 and put the £40 back in say couple of days later. Im sure that works round that as I dont think you have to pay it in all in 1 go. I think the missus was given £50 for over £1000 or something like that.

sp00ky - Thats the letters I sent. To be honest it was just over £100 they got me for so I couldnt be bothered chasing them, but the shear unhelpfulness of A&L when I did get charged is why I changed.

I once had a cheque arrive late and knew it wouldnt clear for my d/d. I asked for a £50 o/d to cover it for 24hrs they said no and promptly charged me £70 becuase the 2 direct debits sent it over. This was an account that had around £2500 a month go in and out of it.

 

fair enough like - i'm a relentless tw*t when it comes to banks so I would probably have hounded them day and night until they paid up

 

BEN - I get you, so as long as there are payments into the account totalling 1500 I am fine? I like your style.

 

I believe thats the general idea. Just vary the amount u take out to amount u put in etc each month. For sake of £40 I dont think they will pull u up on it