Alliance & Leicester have finally sent me a proper reply, it may not say exactly what I would like it to, but the fact that it has been written by a person rather than generated by a computer makes me feel that we are making headway. The fact that this letter comes from a customer service centre based at their head office also adds to this feeling, so far all correspondence has been with a centre in Merseyside, but this one has come from Leicestershire.

OK, I won't hold you in suspense any longer, they wrote;

Dear Mr Tasker,

Account Number: *********

Thank you for your letter in response to my previous correspondence regarding the status of your request for a refund of charges.

While I appreciate your comments, our position remains unchanged in that we are unable to progress your request until the outcome of the test court case is known.

Alliance & Leicester, in line with other financial service providers, have asked the Financial Services Authority ("FSA") to suspend the normal timetable for dealing with complaints in relation to charges for unauthorised overdrafts. The FSA have agreed to this request.

Although we do not know how long the case will take, I can assure you that once the legal proceedings are completed we will resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. If at that stage you do not agree with our conclusions you will of course be able to refer your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service or to the courts.

You can find more information on the 'test case' through the following:

The Financial Services Authority - www.fsa.gov.uk
The Office of Fair Trading - www.oft.gov.uk
The Financial Ombudsman Service - www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Once again I can only apologise for the inconvenience that this has caused and I can assure you that once the test case has come to a conclusion we will advise you of the outcome.

Your sincerely

***** ****
Group Customer Relations

Any typos or spelling mistakes are mine, the grammar is theirs.

This letter was written on the 6th November 2007 which given that my most recent one was posted on the 5th suggests that this is a reply to the letter prior to that. Especially as it makes no mention of my Data Protection Request. Having said that, quite some time passed between that and my previous letter, so I am not 100% sure which letter he is replying to.

I cannot help but feel that they have misunderstood my request. Whilst I would like to see them deal with my complaint now, they are determined to wait. All I am requesting is that they do nto put me at a disadvantage whilst we wait, Alliance & Leicesters charges are levied on a weekly basis, so as I cannot afford to pay of these charges (and why should I?) to bring the account back into credit, the charges are just going to build and build. Not to mention that Alliance & Leicester are already chasing me for the money they say I owe. If the banks should win the test case, then it would pose a serious risk for me.

To clarify this I have today sent them a letter (recorded delivery of course), read it below;


Dear Sir/Madam,

Account Number: *********

Thank you for your letter in response to my previous correspondence, however I do feel that Alliance & Leicester may have misunderstood the requests laid out therein. Whilst I would, of course, like to see this issue dealt with immediately, I can appreciate that Alliance & Leicester wishes to await further clarification of the law.

As I have stated previously I do however have some concerns regarding this. I cannot afford to pay the charges that have been levied, and therefore cannot deposit the money required to bring the account back into credit. Neither do I believe that I should be required to, given that the Bank Charges being levied do have a legal question mark over them.

Were Alliance & Leicester to levy their charges on a per transaction basis, this would pose far less of an issue, however given that the charges are levied on a weekly basis, waiting for the outcome of the test case could lead to my owing Alliance & Leicester a vast sum of money.

I do not believe that the charges are legal, and I believe that the 'test case' will find that the Banks have been acting contrary to the law, however if I were to be mistaken then the current situation poses a significant financial risk to me. I have stated that I will not use the account until this issue is resolved, and my previous requests were not in relation to Alliance & Leicester progressing my complaint, but rather a request for them to temporarily 'freeze' the account. The purpose for this suspension of the account is to prevent any further charges being levied in the period of time between now and the issue being resolved.

As I have stated previously, I will allow Alliance & Leicester to keep track of the debit interest accrued by the Nine Pounds Sixty Seven that was outstanding on the statement dated 8^th September 2007. As I have since received statements from my fathers address prior to this, showing that my account would in fact be in credit were it not for Alliance & Leicesters charges, I believe this to be a very generous offer. If Alliance & Leicester wishes to also charge debit interest on the alleged debt, then they need to state to me, in writing, the level of interest being charged. Once a ruling is made in the test case, I will then calculate the interest that Alliance & Leicester has charged me, and add that amount to my claim.

As my letter of the 6^th of November 2007 will have notified you, I have now contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service in regard to this matter. Whilst I still hope that between us we can resolve this matter to the satisfaction of both parties, I feel we appear to be approaching something of a deadlock.

I have been informed several times that I would receive no further letters about the alleged debt on my account, yet Alliance & Leicester has sent me several letters trying to reclaim the money that it alleges I owe. The letters have become more intimidating, which is why I felt I had no choice but to pursue further action against Alliance & Leicester.

For the record, I wish to state that for the duration of this complaint, I explicitly do not give Alliance & Leicester permission to pass my details to any outside parties, including credit reference agencies, without my most express prior permission in writing. If the Financial Ombudsman Service requests that Alliance & Leicester pass them information relating to this issue, then Alliance & Leicester are permitted to pass the relevant information. If any information is passed without my prior written authorisation, I will treat it as a breach of the Data Protection Act.

If Alliance & Leicester does not wish to progress my complaint until the outcome of the test case, then the progression of all other issues, including reclaiming the alleged debt, should also be suspended. If necessary I am more than willing to ask a court of law to issue an order, to ensure that Alliance & Leicester complies with this basic request.

Once again, many thanks for your time

Yours sincerely

Ben Tasker

Once again I get to play the waiting game. Hopefully the next reply will be a little more clear as to which letter it is replying to.