Banks cheated me into paying interest.

esbo

I paid in a check and waited untill it showed up in my account then I transfered
some money into my savings account.
It later transpired that the check had not yet cleared even though the money
showed in my account so I had to pay interest charges.

How can banks justify showing false balances to decieve people into going
overdrawn?

I wonder how they will react when I tell them that they either refund he interest
or I take my accounts, both current and saving else where?

The bank in question is HSBC.

I will also expect them to refund my telephone charges for calling them as the interest
was only 22p. It must have cost them that to send out the letter.

Tough decision for the bank in the credit crunch

natweststaffmember

The cheque showed as on your balance and you transferred money to another account, correct?
Did you have an overdraft on the account you transferred money from?

Morty_007

I hate to say it but I don't think threatening to leave will bother them!

I gave First direct the same ultimatum when they wanted to charge me £25 to review my overdraft and not change it at all (?! how they get away with this I don't know) We have 2 savings, cleared credit card and 3 current accounts with them and were talking to them about transferring over the mortgage too....Accounts in perfect standing for about 6 years. They said if we wanted to leave that was fine.

They shouldn't have let you move the money if it wasn't really there, agreed.

YorkshireBoy

esbo wrote: »

How can banks justify showing false balances to decieve people into going overdrawn?

Most banks' online interfaces show two balances...'balance' and 'available balance'. The former includes any uncleared items, and the latter excludes uncleared items but includes any overdraft facility.

Is it possible you either didn't know/understand this, or you simply misread the information in front of you.

Also, cheques are cleared on the 4th working day after they are presented. How does this fit with your timescale?

I wonder how they will react when I tell them that they either refund he interest or I take my accounts, both current and saving else where?

Tough decision for the bank in the credit crunch

I think they'll refund the 22p...not because they have to, but because it'll cost more than that to investigate.

But you'll have to go into branch to get it.

zx2011

Every bank account has 3 balances and usually they only show you two on-line.

1. Your statement balance. Includes all items that have appeared or are about to appeared on your statement.
2. Your available balance. Includes all available cleared funds plus the your overdraft limit.
3. Your actual balance which is the same as #2 but does not include your overdraft.

It's the #3 balance which is the one you need to keep track off.

Morty_007

If the money wasn't cleared, they shouldn't have let him move it, irrespective of the balance being shown.

However, if the account had an overdraft, they are within their rights to send him into his overdraft and they SHOULD have let him move it (like they did). The more I think of it the more it seem this is probably what happened. If there was no arranged overdraft, I can't help thinking the OP would be complaining a LOT louder about the charge for an unauthorised overdraft fee.

stugib

I complained to Halfiax about the same thing a couple of years ago.

Classic case of bad design IMHO, using the banks terminology and not something customers readily understand.

Don't see why there isn't a 'pending transactions' section of online banking showing in-process/uncleared deposits/outgoings. The banks know they're in the system, they've just chosen to muddy the waters by merging them in with cleared funds.

esbo

I did have an overdraft facility (which I never asked for).
Point is if it had not cleared they should not show it on my account. They only show
these fake balances to cause people to unwittingly go overdrawn.
It is effectively fraud.
I will look into finding another bank, or at least removing my savings and keeping the balance to an unprofitable (for them balance).
It will certainly cost them more than the 22p they swindled out of me, several hundred pounds in the long run I would imagine.

But it is the principle really, do I really want to bank my money with a bunch of crooks? That's not a good place to put your money is it? I am sure they have numerous little scams like this on other products.

Only problem will be finding a more honest bank.

It's not 'bad design' is is 'designed to be bad'.

When I ask them to refund me the 22p + the cost of the phone call I will ask them to
estimate the cost to them of me withdrawing my money over a period of say 10 years. I would estimate it will cost them several hunded pound minumum.

I am sure some of their ailing competitors would bite my hand off if I asked to
open a saving account. And of course I wil be transfering over my pension fund too.
So that 22p will end up costing them thousands.

Lokolo

You mis understand the point. Its there. It shows you what you balance is and available balance is. These will be different. The one you want to look at is Available balance, simple as. Your fault, not the banks.

ShelfStacker_3

22p?

You're angry and changing banks over a 22p interest payment? Which you incurred because you don't understand how to work Internet Banking? Because you don't know what an Available Balance is, like everyone else?

Jesus christ. Mountain out of a molehill, writ large. You REALLY need to sort your attitude out - you'd think they'd nicked all the money out of your account and then some more by the way you're going on.

agsnu

Cheques are simple: 2-4-6.