I have not managed to actualy open an account with Alliance and Leicester. I completed the application on line and then all correspondance came to my husband who is the company secretary. They said that I must have filled the form our wrongly! Despite asking for my details to be updated they still wrote to my husband and refused to speak to me. They also asked for lots of forms as proof of id that we had never heard of and made it really complicated. As this was a business start up account I expected more support than this. I will be cancelling the application and going with someone else.

We are a very small business but I was given application forms for turnover of in excess of £1m by the local branch! We requested internet banking, they did not set this up, we were issued with Visa Electron cards despite the impression we were getting "full" debit cards (we were told that this would last for 6 months to see how we handled our account). I pointed out that my partner has had a personal account with them for decades and never been overdrawn and what is the point in asking for our other bank account details as they could credit check us to see how we handled our finances. No, apparently they don't do this. Why then ask for our other account details. They then applied bank charges when our free period came to an end despite having banked the requisite £1000 for that month. I had a hell of a battle to get the charges reimbursed - very surly and unhelpful customer service. I am now bombarded with junk mail from them stating they can offer a far better deal than my current bank!

Look around the market place. Yeah, they initial give you a good interest rate if your account is in credit but that soon goes after a year.
The staff are vague at times, make you feel if your taking to someone thats just come-in off the street - sorry guys!