Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to you today with reference to an issue I am experiencing with my Alliance & Leicester current account numbered *********. As it partially relates to bank charges, I realise that the Financial Ombudsman Service may wish to await a ruling in the High Court Test Case, before issuing a decision on this matter. There are however other issues in relation to this dispute.
For your convenience I will outline the issues I am experiencing before I give a more detailed description of the events so far in this dispute.
The original cause of this issue is charges relating to an 'Unauthorised Overdraft', I believe that special circumstances apply to this particular case, however Alliance & Leicester wish to await the outcome of the High Court Test Case. I have now notified them twice that I am happy to do this, but only so long as certain conditions are met. It is their compliance with these conditions that cause me to write to you today. Alliance & Leicester thus far seem unwilling to comply with the request I have made, and I believe that I may need you to intervene on my behalf to ensure the fairness of their complaints system.
The conditions are simple, because I cannot physically afford to pay these charges in the meantime, and also because I do not see why I should 'take the risk' in this dispute I have asked that Alliance & Leicester do not levy any further charges, and do not levy debit interest on the outstanding charges themselves. As the money for the charges was never dispensed to myself, Alliance & Leicester will not have had to borrow money from any source to fund the alleged lending. Therefore as Alliance & Leicester are not, in fact, paying any interest on the amount they claim I owe, I believe that my requestn is perfectly fair and to the benefit of both parties.
I have informed Alliance & Leicester that they may however charge their standard rate of debit interest on the nine pounds sixty-seven pence that my last statement shows as in debit. I have in fact received a statement from after the date of the statement I referenced, and I believe that were in not for the charges levied my account would be in credit. However despite this I am willing to stand by my original offer and allow interest to be levied on the outstanding nine pounds and sixty-seven pence.
Despite informing me that I will receive no further letters, Alliance & Leicester is still sending me letters notifying me that my account is in debit, and that I need to place funds into the account by a certain date. If Alliance & Leicester wish to await the outcome of the case, then I believe that they should ensure fairness by freezing all further activity on the account until this issue is resolved. I have stated to them that I do not intend to withdraw or deposit any funds until this matter is resolved, upon resolution I will deposit the necessary funds to bring my account back into credit.
For your information I will now give an accurate description of the events thus far in this dispute.
I changed my address some two years ago, but despite repeated request my address details were never updated. This has now been resolved having contacted Alliance & Leicester by phone with respect to the following;
Several months ago my debit card appeared to be blocked, I contacted the Ipswich branch of Alliance & Leicester by phone to query this and they explained to me that there was an issue with the Link system so any ATM machines were unlikely to accept it. They explained that they had only found out that day, but that I could come into branch to make a withdrawal if necessary.
As I had another debit card I did not take up this offer, a month or so later my card was still not working so I visited the Ipswich branch of Alliance & Leicester to make a withdrawal over the counter. When the cashier swiped the card she told me that it had been blocked, and then explained that it was probably because Visa Electron cards were being phased out. She phoned their customer service line having checked my Identification (Drivers License) and they authorised the withdrawal. For whatever reason I was unable to find out the balance of the account, which seemed somewhat strange. I knew roughly how much should be in there and so withdrew Twenty pounds short of that amount.
When my father dropped in the post he had been receiving at his address, to my horror I saw that not only had I miscalculated the balance of the account, but Alliance & Leicester had been charging me Twenty Five Pounds every five days. By this time the charges had been mounting up for approximately six weeks, I contacted Alliance & Leicester straight away to inform them of the issues I had experienced with their service. I also reminded them that I had changed address, I received nothing back. I have since had some post delivered by my father again and it appears the change of address notification went to my fathers address.
In the first batch of post that my father delivered to me were also two letters informing me that my account was in debit, and that I must clear the amount by a specific date. I would like to mention at this point, that given the planned postal strikes, I felt that Alliance & Leicester were giving me an insufficient amount of time to deposit funds.
I then visited the Bury st Edmunds branch to discuss my concerns, I was told that it was not something they could deal with in branch, but that there was a customer service telephone I could use. I used this, and the advisor was very helpful. He updated my address details, and I have since received post at the correct address from Alliance & Leicester. He explained to me that my previous letter had been received and that my accounts notes showed "spreadsheet updated." He then went on to explain that because of the High Court test case all charges and complaints regarding them had been suspended pending a ruling in the case. I explained that I was still receiving letters with regard to my account being in debit, and he said that there should be no more.
Upon arriving home, a concern that Alliance & Leicester is not involved in the Test Case grew, so I contacted them by letter to gain some clarification. I explained that I had spoken to one of their advisors earlier in the day, and that I wanted to clarify some issues. I then explained that to my knowledge Alliance & Leicester are not involved in the High Court Test Case and so are not party to the waiver issued by the Financial Services. I explained that I am happy to await a ruling so long as the conditions I have already outlined to you are adhered to. In response I received a standard template giving information about the test case, and no signal as to whether or not Alliance & Leicester are willing to abide by the terms I have set out. It is my belief that my letter was not read properly, and so I was sent a template by default.
In the last few days I have received another reminder about my account being in debit, so I have once again contacted Alliance & Leicester by post to state the issue I have been experiencing, and the conditions I would like met should we wait for a ruling from the Test Case.
I believe it is unfair of Alliance & Leicester to expect me to pay charges that they are currently unwilling to investigate. If they wish to await a ruling, then I also would like to see clarification of the law. But not, however, at the expense of my credit rating. I am in a tight financial situation and simply cannot afford to pay these extortionate charges, especially after Alliance & Leicester were unwilling to state my balance to me, despite the fact that a withdrawal had been authorised. If Alliance & Leicester had at least updated my address when I requested it previously then I would have at least learned about the charges before they reached such a high level.
I recognise that the Financial Services Ombudsman may wish to await further clarification of the law, and as I have stated I am more than willing to do so, however I do not feel it is fair that the consumer should be the one to take the financial risk involved. I am not asking Alliance & Leicester to write off the charges before the law is clarified, but simply to freeze the account and levy debit interest on the nine pounds sixty-seven pence that I believe I owe. I am concerned that this dispute could progress to the point where debt collection agencies are involved, which is why I have contacted the Financial Services Ombudsman somewhat earlier than I would normally like to.
I have copies of all correspondence between myself and Alliance & Leicester which I can supply in either electronic or paper format if necessary. I have today issued a data protection disclosure request to Alliance & Leicester in order to obtain a copy of a telephone call between myself and one of their advisors. This call will substantiate the fact that although Alliance & Leicesters Customer Service Advisors are informing me that no further letters will be sent with regard to the alleged debt, the department responsible for this is either not being informed or is simply ignoring the information given to them.
I would also like to note that although Alliance & Leicester have now updated my address, it would appear that they have not done so for my linked savings account. I feel this highlights the issues I have been experiencing over the past two years trying to get my address updated. Had my address been updated when I first asked, then this issue would not have occurred.
Many thanks for your time, please feel free to contact me for further information. I can be contacted by post or email, I am unable to answer the phone when working but check my email regularly, my email address is *******@****.com
Thanks again
Yours sincerely
Ben Tasker
I await a reply.
