Barclays Bank - Watch Out!

chambta

danjames20 wrote: »

i logged a complaint also, we'll see i guess, annoyingly if i had an arranged overdraft facility on it, the interest charge would have been less!

Knowing that why did you not arrange an overdraft facility?

YorkshireBoy

Head-Out-Of-Sand wrote: »

WE have to accept that normal banking services aren't available over Christmas period, it would be nice if these things worked both ways

In this case though, the OP has (or rather could have) benefited from the Xmas period.

Their "5 days for £22" has become 9 days because the reserve fee covers 5 bank working days, not a straight 5 days.

At the end of the day, had they been paying closer attention to their finances (rather than waiting to be told they was overdrawn), they had an extra 4 days to "find the money" to bring the account to order.

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Due to the Christmas break he did not receive the letter until the 30th. So he didn't really gain time at all. He's already been charged once, but to essentially give him one day's notice before slapping a further £22 on?

Seems excessive to me. Bah humbug!

YorkshireBoy

Head-Out-Of-Sand wrote: »

Due to the Christmas break he did not receive the letter until the 30th. So he didn't really gain time at all. He's already been charged once, but to essentially give him one day's notice before slapping a further £22 on?

But we don't know if there was an e-mail sent first (perhaps another Barclays customer can confirm the process?), and the letter was simply 'belt and braces' do we?

The fact remains that...

1. The OP took their eye off the ball, and

2. The same thing may happen again at Easter (ie the next time we have two public holidays, one either side of a weekend), or whenever, if their finances don't receive closer attention.

On the plus side though, once bitten...!

TotallyBroke

Maybe the computer did know it was Christmas. But considering the 20th December was the last day for guaranteed 1st class post it was never going to be delivered in time. That's not Barclays fault that is Royal Mail for you.

The letter was created and dated 23rd. Would've gone to sorting office either late 23rd or first thing 24th. It would then have sat in the sorting office before being delivered after the holidays.

As I said before. Would you have prefered it if on the 18th December the computer had looked and printed off a letter saying words to the affect of "There could be a possibility that you will use your reserve in the next 3days and therefore we will be charging you £22. Please put some money in your account now."

No, you would be writing on here, "How dare Barclays presume what I am going to do with my money. How dare they think I am going to go overdrawn. I'm a great customer and have never gone overdrawn in the six years I've had the account blah blah blah"

staffie1

It's a lesson confirming that banks are just money-making machines like any other business. Yes, they are run by people but we all know when Christmas is - we don't need a bank to manage our lives...do we?

At the end of the day it's our responsibility to manage our finances. Banks have and always will make their millions out of people who "don't have time" or who "forgot" or who "can't be bothered".

An idea prevent these horrendous charges in future (apart from just being more diligent) is to switch your banking to First Direct. With them you can set your account up to send you a text message to your phone to tell you when your account balance drops to a pre-determined level set by you, giving you the time to do something about it before going O/D.

It's also a kick in the teeth for your current bank who are ripping you off.

But we have to take control if we're going to be better off.

Calchas

BarclaysManager wrote: »

Let me guess: you didn't read the mailings we sent out in June and July, in advance of Personal Reserve coming in?

The status quo should have prevailed.

It didn't and now you have the nerve to criticise people who had their terms and conditions unilaterally altered, their only option being (should they have been lucky enough to differentuate that particular mail from the normal junk received) to opt out of something they never even requested in the first instance!

If I wasn't , I'd be

CLAPTON

Calchas wrote: »

The status quo should have prevailed.

It didn't and now you have the nerve to criticise people who had their terms and conditions unilaterally altered, their only option being (should they have been lucky enough to differentuate that particular mail from the normal junk received) to opt out of something they never even requested in the first instance!

If I wasn't , I'd be

Terms and conditions are routinely changed by most organisations.
In this case many/most banks are changing their OD type arranges because of the impact of the potentially illegal penalty clauses...
It would seem to me that the new arrangemtns are much more costly that the previous ones... I guess we can all be grateful to Martin for that... but that's just my unresearched view.


the OP had/has several options

-arrange an OD
-take the time to watch his a/c balance
-always leave a reserve in the bank so this never happens
-transfer to a 'better' bank


the previous system would have bounced the transaction...... would he have been happy with that?

Calchas

Please feel free to make as many points as you wish CLAPTON.

May I respectfully request that you do not do so after quoting a singular point I make that you subsequently pay scant attention to and, judging from your remarks, show little understanding of!

Happy New Year:hello:

custardy

TotallyBroke wrote: »

Maybe the computer did know it was Christmas. But considering the 20th December was the last day for guaranteed 1st class post it was never going to be delivered in time. That's not Barclays fault that is Royal Mail for you.

The letter was created and dated 23rd. Would've gone to sorting office either late 23rd or first thing 24th. It would then have sat in the sorting office before being delivered after the holidays.

As I said before. Would you have prefered it if on the 18th December the computer had looked and printed off a letter saying words to the affect of "There could be a possibility that you will use your reserve in the next 3days and therefore we will be charging you £22. Please put some money in your account now."

No, you would be writing on here, "How dare Barclays presume what I am going to do with my money. How dare they think I am going to go overdrawn. I'm a great customer and have never gone overdrawn in the six years I've had the account blah blah blah"

so why isnt that Barclays fault?
the last posting dates are there for a reason
from the 24th to yesterday we have had 2 bank holidays and a Sunday
so in real terms 3-4 working days
given the time of year i would have thought keying in working days to their 5 days notice would have made more sense