First Direct Charges - Beware!!!

Is this national slate FD month?

Yogaman wrote:

Beware if you go over your agreed overdraft

That isn't the banks fault though, is it?

GSD4ME wrote:

... when he went over his overdraft limit they charged him £30 for the first day and £25 for each subsequent day or something like that.

Isn't he responsible for keeping track of his own expenditure though? Or, do you think that it's the banks responsibility to contact the customer if they are in danger of going over their limit? The blue highlighted point indicates that even now there is no clarity on your part over the financial situation. Surely someone in control of their financial status wouldn't be using a phrase such as "something like that" ?

Did either of you contact the bank as soon as you realised that you were in danger of going over *your* agreed limits?

I bank with FD and I have found them to be fantastic!!

Only once did we go overdrawn and yes, we were charged but, as that is all part of their T&C which we signed, ultimately, we only had ourselves to blame.

Yet, despite that, I phoned them, explained our position, blah blah blah, they refunded the charges because it was unusual for us to go overdrawn. I found them to be more than fair regarding the charges, which they refunded and which *we* incurred due to *our* budgeting errors.

kevin.philips wrote:

Aboslute pathetic response, Queenie ... .

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: And good day to you too kevin :hello:

kevin.philips wrote:

I'd like to see you go overdrawn again (Which obviously happens to us mere mortals as you have openely said you have done so yourself) and be happy to sit back and pay £150 worth of charges for say a £10 error in your calculations. In fact I'd really like to see them do that then maybe people like yourself would stop criticising people for human errors which happen in life, even the banks make mistakes, shame we can't hammer them with such ludicrous charges.

But :shhh: I have reduced the likelihood of that happening by being in control of my finances so therefore you are unlikely to see it. And the reason it occurred at all is a) the time *we* did, DH was in charge of the finances, plus, as with any and all 'mistakes'. we learned from it!

At which point did I say I was "happy" and at which point did I say I paid £150? The fact is, I didn't "sit back", I contacted the bank and spoke to them on an equal mature level to discuss the situation.

Did I critisize? :think: I think I was asking pertinent questions, or at least, I understood that adding a '?' to the end of a sentence was equal to asking a question.

westernpromise wrote:

Is there any level at which you'd consider bank charges were unreasonable? If, for example, all the banks all just happened to charge around £250 per bounced cheque, rather than the £25 - £35 they all just happen to charge today, would you be OK with that too?

How about £1,000?
If it's all in the T & Cs, it's fine, right?

No one forces you to choose a particular bank and when making the decision which bank to entrust your finances to, it's prudent surely to check the finer print?

Yes of course there is a limit where I would find the level of charges unreasonable, just as I find the amount charged for certain items in certain retail stores 'unreasonable' and I then vote with my feet and my wallet!

kevin.philips wrote:

Queenie wrote:

Isn't he responsible for keeping track of his own expenditure though?

My grumble is with this sentence, people can be in charge of their own expenses but still make mistakes, our setup has my wife and I each having a debit card on the same account, I work away every now and then and transactions take some time to get to the bank, we don't phone each other every time one of us uses the card to get Milk/Petrol/Bread etc and have a general reconcilliation when we can, we do use internet banking etc but at times it is impossbile to get a real balance.

Ok, now I see where you are coming from, it's my question you've taken exception to.
Given the way you and your wife handle your joint account then yes, it is vulnerable to mistakes/oversights occuring and in turn increases the potential for you incur charges for any mistakes. However, that potential could be reduced if you were to make a few simple changes to the way that you track your finances or even use your accounts.

As I said in my previous post, this only happened to us once. Clearly we were at fault and we had to find a way that reduced the potential for this to happen again.
Like you, we had a joint account which we both drew on. So, having sat down and written out a thorough budget, we then worked out how much money DH would need monthly for his working expenses and set up a dd from the joint account into a seperate account for him to draw on. He only had to be aware and track his own spending. No fuzzy grey areas. Likewise with myself. Yes, it's takes a certain discipline to be aware of and keep account of your spending (a notebook helped my dh from going off track) but a few minutes a day was deemed worth it rather than be in a position where we were paying out in bank charges.

I keep several "virtual" accounts for a whole variety of expenses - by "virtual" I mean that on paper it looks like several but in reality it isn't that many. I log as a monthly expenditure a sum into 'virtual' accounts for Christmas, Clothing, Freedom A/c, Annual expenses (ie, road tax, insurances, annual subscriptions) schooling (uniforms and trips) and so on and so forth.

Hopefully, the fact it has happened to you means that you are now looking at ways to plug any gaps highlighted and find a way that suits your wife and yourself to ensure that you have reduced the likelihood of it happening again. Wishing you luck with finding a method that suits you and your circumstances

Now that's interesting, newlywed! Had no idea about that facility, thanks for the tip, I hope it helps others too :T