We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide
Got bank charges due to BACS glitch? Ring up and ask for them back.
MSE_Martin
Posts: 8,268 Money Saving Expert
What's this about?
Last Friday, the BACS payroll system experienced problems, meaning around 400,000 people didn't get paid on the day they expected to be. If you were one of these, and because the money wasn't in your account, got charged a fee for exceeding your overdraft limit or missing a Direct Debit payment just ring up and ask for a refund.
No need to be militant
This shouldn't be approached like Bank Charges Reclaiming (which you should do for past charges) as there's no need to be militant. Just call up your bank, politely explain that you were affected by this BACS glitch, and ask them to refund the charge to your account. In the vast majority of cases, the banks have said this should be sufficient.
What is BACS?
BACS, which stands for Bankers Automated Clearing Services, is the way in which most of us are paid by our employer. It eliminates the need for cheques or cash to be handed over; your salary is automatically transfered to your bank account on payday. Sadly though it means when there's a glitch, as there was last week, masses of workers didn't receive their wages in their bank account on Friday as expected.
Martin
Last Friday, the BACS payroll system experienced problems, meaning around 400,000 people didn't get paid on the day they expected to be. If you were one of these, and because the money wasn't in your account, got charged a fee for exceeding your overdraft limit or missing a Direct Debit payment just ring up and ask for a refund.
No need to be militant
This shouldn't be approached like Bank Charges Reclaiming (which you should do for past charges) as there's no need to be militant. Just call up your bank, politely explain that you were affected by this BACS glitch, and ask them to refund the charge to your account. In the vast majority of cases, the banks have said this should be sufficient.
What is BACS?
BACS, which stands for Bankers Automated Clearing Services, is the way in which most of us are paid by our employer. It eliminates the need for cheques or cash to be handed over; your salary is automatically transfered to your bank account on payday. Sadly though it means when there's a glitch, as there was last week, masses of workers didn't receive their wages in their bank account on Friday as expected.
Martin
Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
Don't miss out on urgent MoneySaving, get my weekly e-mail at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips.
Debt-Free Wannabee Official Nerd Club: (Honorary) Members number 000
0
Comments
-
So last Friday BACS collapsed (or at least slowed down) Just happened to be last Friday of the month, last Friday of March (which for some was end financial year).
How many people possibly could not get cash out over weekend?
How many people refused at retail outlets because of insufficient funds in their account?
How many people try to manage their finances well by arranging for direct debits/standing orders etc to be taken out when they assume they will be in credit?
This also happens the same week at TK Max is compromised, the garage chip and pin scam is revealed not to be a minor problem but potentially huge and
who introduced chip and pin last year to reduce fraud?
And the banks wonder why we don't trust them?0 -
Has nobody else wondered why we are still using BACS, a system introduced in the 60s?
When are these "faster payments" under some new system meant to be coming, that we heard so much about for a month last year then it all died down?0 -
The BACS system is actually pretty new - the infrastructure was replaced last year. Faster Payments is due to come in from November this year.....0
-
Just to confirm that BACS didn't actually have the problem on Friday it was Wednesday that they had the problem. BACS processing cycle is three working days.
The faster payments thing will be coming in, all banks are working on it at the moment so it's just a case of seeing who gets it in first.0 -
yup, wednesday was fun! (knock-on effect is still being dealt with!)
It was a system problem rather than any bank.
The problem was it was simply a busy-busy-busy day (one of the busiest processing days in a long time) there may have been something which tipped the balance as well but it just basicallly fell over & died about 2 on Wednesday.
A massive action was taken by all banks to rectify this & to be fair it worked quite well considering the enormous number of payments that go throguh the system!
Banks are being sympathetic to people affected so as Martin says just mention the problem, that it would have been ok otherwise & they should be fine with you
W00t!0 -
oily_boots wrote: »the garage chip and pin scam is revealed not to be a minor problem but potentially huge and
who introduced chip and pin last year to reduce fraud?
James, why the subterfuge?
:laugh:Ethical moneysaver0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 354.5K Banking & Borrowing
- 254.4K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 455.5K Spending & Discounts
- 247.4K Work, Benefits & Business
- 604.2K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 178.5K Life & Family
- 261.7K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards