Are these bank charges right?

juno_first

juno_first

juno_first

Soldato
Joined
18 Apr 2003
Posts
2,684
Location
England
My bank has changed the way it does things.
Last year when I became overdrawn I got a letter the next day to advise me to put money into my account, but now I get a letter 8 days after becoming overdrawn to advise id been overdrawn for more than 5 days.
This change in customer service which has now introduced a delay in advising the customer of being overdrawn, appears to be so more daily charges can be applied & so is a deterioration of the banks responsibility to look after their customer & cause them further hardship.
Plus im being charged another £15 for the privilege of being overdrawn as well as the daily charges. Is this legal?

22nd = wages paid & no longer overdrawn
14th = become overdrawn £13 from a Tesco shop debit 2 days before
13th = checked balance at cashpoint & only £2 available so stopped using card
12th = £15 Tesco shop debit payment allowed to push overdrawn (unknown to me)

Whats annoying is I had £13 cash available on the 12th & so did not have to become overdrawn or could have paid the money into my account soon after, if I was notified (as used to be the case).

I guess the bank will use the excuse of: im a bad account user & so deserve to be charged... as my local bank manager told me in person last year!
The thing is Im already paying £17/month for a better account which reduces overdraft interest charges + £13 for overdraft interest charges.

Ive decided that because my bank has become too greedy at the expense of customer service, Im going to:
*stop using the debit card for shop payments, as its irresponsible of a bank to expect jo bloggs to know how much is in his account on a daily basis (this will mean removing all available cash from account for shop payments rather than leaving in the bank over the month)
*pay off my overdraft over the next 6 months
*when overdraft is cleared I will stop £17 charge for a better account & return to a regular account

Its a shame, as I found using the debit card for shop payments useful, but now I cant trust my bank Im going to use real money.

Last year I fell foul of the way the bank applied charges after regular DD's had been paid.
This meant that even though there was enough money to cover DD's, the bank charges were applied two hours before the DD's, which forced the account into being overdrawn again, so effectively the bank charges created other bank charges. If the charges were applied after the DD's, it would have been ok.
This lasted for months as I just took a cut in pay at the time & had to borrow money from friends to clear the bank charges of hundreds, purely for being overdrawn for a very little amount, like above.
I guess this was my fault for not checking there was enough money to cover bank charges, but an electric prepay meter will still supply power even if the debt on the meter has not been paid that week, so I guess todays banks will never become part of our necessary lives & always be viewed with scorn & disgust.

P.s. Ive already stopped the banks home Insurance which was charging 430/yr rather than 100/yr from most other places.
--A good tip if you have not checked yours yet.
 
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juno_first said:
*stop using the debit card for shop payments, as its irresponsible of a bank to expect jo bloggs to know how much is in his account on a daily basis (this will mean removing all available cash from account for shop payments rather than leaving in the bank over the month)
Click to expand...


Why should it be the banks responsibility to let you know when your account balance is low? It's YOUR account and you should make sure that you have funds available before buying anything. I keep very little in my current account and because of this I check my balance online every few days.
 
try working out how much u have spend on ur debit card before using it then you wont go overdrawn, or if your bank has real time updates use the online service. If you go over your overdraft limit prepare to bend over after the banks bribed the high court in that massive case against them!
 
juno_first said:
its irresponsible of a bank to expect jo bloggs to know how much is in his account on a daily basis
Click to expand...

Are you for real? Why should the bank monitor your account? Do you expect your local petrol station to let you know when you're about to run out of fuel?

juno_first said:
Plus im being charged another £15 for the privilege of being overdrawn as well as the daily charges. Is this legal?
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Yes, yes it is.

The fact that you are running so close to your OD limit suggests that you should absolutely check your balance regularly! You seem to have posted this message on a forum, so you can spend an extra 10mins logging into your online banking.

Christ.
 
Is it normal to still be able use a Debit card for a shop payment even if there are insufficient funds in the account?

My gripe was mainly the bank has stopped advising people the next day that they're overdrawn & I didnt know this.
Plus if the bank applied charges after the DD's have been paid rather than 2 hours before, then bank charges would not create further bank charges... a never ending cycle of making money at your expense!

I know paying more attention to the amount available in a bank account is necessary & its my fault it happened, but the bank just makes it worse than it could be.
 
juno_first said:
Is it normal to still be able use a Debit card for a shop payment even if there are insufficient funds in the account?

My gripe was mainly the bank has stopped advising people the next day that they're overdrawn & I didnt know this.
Plus if the bank applied charges after the DD's have been paid rather than 2 hours before, then bank charges would not create further bank charges... a never ending cycle of making money at your expense!

I know paying more attention to the amount available in a bank account is necessary & its my fault it happened, but the bank just makes it worse than it could be.
Click to expand...

Most shops have a floor limit, anything less than £10 and your balance isnt checked at authorisation stage.

If the charges were taken before or after DD, it would make no difference:

-£50 Direct Debit
-£50 Charges

Is the same as

-£50 Charges
-£50 Direct Debit
 
The bank manager told me because the DD's put the account overdrawn then further charges would apply, but if the account becomes overdrawn because of charges then further charges dont apply.
What i didnt expect was the charges being applied 2 hrs before the DD's were taken. If the charges were taken 2 hrs afterwoods then further charges would not have applied.
 
Pez said:
Most shops have a floor limit, anything less than £10 and your balance isnt checked at authorisation stage.

If the charges were taken before or after DD, it would make no difference:

-£50 Direct Debit
-£50 Charges

Is the same as

-£50 Charges
-£50 Direct Debit
Click to expand...

It doesnt work like that

For card transaction the EPOS software will automatically request an authorisation code for the bank. There is no way to charge the customer without an authorisation code.

Its up to the bank whether to issue you with an authorisation code or not.

Halifax used to be ******s with me over this, they would always issue the code and let you go overdrawn, then charge you £35 for the priviledge of sending you an e-mail telling you that you'd gone overdrawn.

Alliance and leicester on the other hand NEVER issued an authorisation code when it would take me overdrawn, even when buying a £3.00 lunch from boots. One of my DD's had gone out early so i had to scrounge the £3 from my mates. Most embarassing !
 
juno_first said:
The bank manager told me because the DD's put the account overdrawn then further charges would apply, but if the account becomes overdrawn because of charges then further charges dont apply.
What i didnt expect was the charges being applied 2 hrs before the DD's were taken. If the charges were taken 2 hrs afterwoods then further charges would not have applied.
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what bank are you with mate ?

Halifax were terrible for this sort of ****

We left them and never looked back. Get yourself a decent bank like the Co-Op.

None of this stupid malarky. If you get a bank account without an overdraft, just like A&L we were with before (left when Santander took over, their computer systems "lost" £650 of our money at one point) , they wont issue an auth code that lets you get overdrawn. You will never have to pay overdraft fees as they dont let you get out of your overdraft.

And a very reasonable £19.50 if your DD gets returned.
 
I discovered years ago, that I could go up to the cheque guarantee limit on the back of my Debit card overdrawn before it was refused at the till. I went through the same cycle, but they would charge me charges for their charges taking me overdrawn, which made it even worse as I barely had enough cash for the first charge.
 
they did till Santander took over

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/ar...ltdown-customers-wave-bank-goodby-enough.html

Their computer system cant cope with the volume of transactions going through it now. It "lost" £650 of our money at some stage. Customer services were powerless to do anything other than explain they know about it and it will rectify itself eventually.

It did, but being without £650 for almost a week without recompense takes the wee wee !!

Get yourself with the Co-Op. They always do really well in the customer satisafaction surveys and you dont get any of this nonsense :)
 
tbh the issue you've had is that tescos don't take the money instantly
I've noticed that sainsburys to the same, recipt for 12th taken om 15th etc
 
Why do you need the bank to tell you you're overdrawn?

Are you not capable of controlling your finances?

its irresponsible of a bank to expect jo bloggs to know how much is in his account on a daily basis
Click to expand...

Ask me any day and any time how much is in my bank account and I'll be able to tell you.
 
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VeNT said:
tbh the issue you've had is that tescos don't take the money instantly
I've noticed that sainsburys to the same, recipt for 12th taken om 15th etc
Click to expand...

in theory once an authorisation code has been given by the bank, the money in your bank that was requested, should be moved out of your available balance.

It doesnt matter that it doesnt show up on your statement for 3 days later because the money has come out of your available balance, so any further requests that would take you overdrawn get refused.

No excuse for not doing that as even diabolical santander managed that with us.

Not halifax mind !
 
MrLOL said:
The other bank that does very well in the satisfaction surveys is First Direct

But whatever you do, stay clear of Santander (what used to be Abbey , Alliance & Leicester, and soon to include Natwest too -

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/n...west-account-being-sold-to-santander/0010006/)

Everybody is aware of the problems they're having

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/ar...s-following-Financial-Mail-investigation.html
Click to expand...

Will include natwest in scotland, RBS in england & wales, natwest are continuing to exist in E&W, whereas RBS is continuing in Scotland :)
 
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