Furious with Barclays Bank... (charges)

bendix

digitalphase wrote: »

I really don't see how anyone could take any enjoyment out of or being proud of having no money in the bank and having large debts?

You're completely missing my point.

Read the forum. Nearly every other thread is prefaced with the phrase 'Im useless with money' and thereafter follows a tale of woe about how they spent too much and didnt realise this, and never knew that, and didnt understand that and poor me, ain't I silly billy?

They use the phrase as an excuse; as a please be nice to me, I don't know what I'm doing.

The reality is this: Money is simple. If you spend more than you have, bad. If you spend less than you have, good. It's not rocket science. Anyone who can count can manage money, but they almost choose not too. It's as if they want to abnegate responsibility.

When they say they are 'bad with money' what they really mean is that they have no self discipline, that they can't stop spending money they dont have, that they want it all now and that - ultimately - they lack any sense of personal accountability for the situation they now find themselves in.

That is not being bad with money. It is being stupid.

BeenieCat

Well i rang them (NOT a good time of day to call, was waiting to get through for over 20 mins! :eek:)

Basically the complaint had not yet been dealt with, but i was put through to complaints who also said it was being looked at, however i did explain exactly what my complaint was as i get the feeling it wasn't clear, i think they thought i was complaining about the original 2 charges.

I explained how i'd used my card in Morrisons (on the 10th) and this was deducted from my available balance that day. It wasn't until the 12th that the £16 charges came out, taking me over my limit, so cannot understand why i'm being charged a GTF for Morrisons.

Basically he agreed with me, but couldn't give me a decision there and then about whether they'd write it off, he spent a while writing notes for whoever was dealing with the complaint and someone will apparently get back to me.

So, while nothing new has happened, i am glad to know he agreed it was wrong for me to be charged this new fee, being as it clearly was their charges that sent me over the limit.
I guess we'll see when they ring.

In the meantime he's sending me out new statements for me to forward onto DWP in the hope i can ask for some reimbursement on the £16 original charges.

BeenieCat

Bendix you're coming across as awfully snooty. Of course some people are bad at managing money, we can't all be good at everything. And whilst there are people bad with money management, the banks will continue to make lots of money from it!

I don't think many would purposely go out and spend money they know they don't have, but it's usually down to a mismanagement of timings - direct debits dates, paydays, unexpected outgoings, not realising the difference between cleared/available balance etc.

At least the MSE'ers you refer to have come to a good place to acknowledge their mistakes and gain support in correcting their wrongdoings.

bendix

BeenieCat wrote: »

Of course some people are bad at managing money, we can't all be good at everything. And whilst there are people bad with money management, the banks will continue to make lots of money from it!

.

Nonsense.

If you can count, you can manage money. If you can subtract, you can manage money. It's lack of effort, that's all.

I suggest you read David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Everything you need to learn about money management is contained therein.

digitalphase

bendix wrote: »

You're completely missing my point.

Read the forum. Nearly every other thread is prefaced with the phrase 'Im useless with money' and thereafter follows a tale of woe about how they spent too much and didnt realise this, and never knew that, and didnt understand that and poor me, ain't I silly billy?

They use the phrase as an excuse; as a please be nice to me, I don't know what I'm doing.

The reality is this: Money is simple. If you spend more than you have, bad. If you spend less than you have, good. It's not rocket science. Anyone who can count can manage money, but they almost choose not too. It's as if they want to abnegate responsibility.

When they say they are 'bad with money' what they really mean is that they have no self discipline, that they can't stop spending money they dont have, that they want it all now and that - ultimately - they lack any sense of personal accountability for the situation they now find themselves in.

That is not being bad with money. It is being stupid.

I take on board what you're saying, but don't think life nowadays can be that black and white. Unless of course you have consistently earned good wages and can live comfortably within your means. We earn little and are taxed lots. Everything costs more, so it does make it harder to budget, especially for those of us who aren't good with numbers. It may be as simple as "if you haven't got it, don't spend it", but that would also apply to mortgages as well, wouldn't it, if that were the case?

I do agree credit is made too easy, but that is why we're in a recession now and all paying the price for it.

bendix

digitalphase wrote: »

I take on board what you're saying, but don't think life nowadays can be that black and white. Unless of course you have consistently earned good wages and can live comfortably within your means. We earn little and are taxed lots. Everything costs more, so it does make it harder to budget, especially for those of us who aren't good with numbers. It may be as simple as "if you haven't got it, don't spend it", but that would also apply to mortgages as well, wouldn't it, if that were the case?

I do agree credit is made too easy, but that is why we're in a recession now and all paying the price for it.

If you're not good with numbers, use a calculator.

If you don't want credit, say no.

How hard does it have to be? Things have cost more year on year since the year dot. People have always complained they earn too little, are taxed too much, and things cost too much. What's new about that. The fact is, our lifestyle now is better than it has been at any other point in history.

Again, it's all about making excuses for our poor behaviour. It's all about blaming someone else - the banks, society, unrealistic expectations shown on tv - and it's never ever our fault.

Well, here's the rub. Yes it is.

jambosans

BeenieCat wrote: »

I explained how i'd used my card in Morrisons (on the 10th) and this was deducted from my available balance that day. It wasn't until the 12th that the £16 charges came out, taking me over my limit, so cannot understand why i'm being charged a GTF for Morrisons.

Basically he agreed with me,

I can't understand why he agrees with you, and let me explain why.

Earmarked funds are not set in stone, the amount earmarked can either: debit the full amount; debit a different amount; or not debit at all. Therefore Barclays cannot apply a charge to an earmarked transaction until it actually debits the account. In your case it was a matter of poor timing, Barclays debited their charges on the same day Morrisons collected what was due to them.

Ultimately the long and short of it is, you knew £16 of charges were due off the account, and you also knew that money was due off to Morrisons. Barclays gave you a grace period before taking the charges but you still didn't budget for the £16. You claimed not to know when the charges were due off, why did you not ask?

Unless the complaints department offer you the money back as goodwill to end this headache I can't see you getting a refund. The mistake was yours, not Barclays, and as I've explained the argument about earmarked funds doesn't wash.

damoandclaire

just slightly off topic here - i had an experience with barclays not so long back.

knew some items were coming out on a monday, was planning to put the funds in on a saturday morning to be in time - they said i could do this. checked my bank online on the saturday morning only to find that not only had the said items i was expecting had been taken out, but they had takent he charges out in respect of that because the funds weren't there yet.

when i queried this, they basically said tough. i argued the fact that as saturday was a non working day, they had no right to take direct debits (direct debit agreement stated working days) and the like out but they begged to differ because the date was forward dated for monday.

i told them basically that I WAS going to put money in to cover the payments but now I am not as the charges would swallow this. just told them they were getting nothing. they started the usual threat of action to which i said, go for it. Went bankrupt a few months later with all my other debts anyways, that included and as such - they got nothing.

stand your ground with them, don't let them push you around, especially over charges.

BeenieCat

Jambo, i wouldn;t say he admitted liability on Barclays behalf, but he sympathised with my complaint in that i'd used my card in Morrisons well before they took the charges but they're charging me purely for using it in Morrisons. As i've said, i had asked a couple of times when exactly the charges were going out, and was told it would be "some time after my next statement" and they couldn't tell me when my statement was due, which i found very odd.
However, as i said, i had been budgeting for it, but had to use the funds for emergency car repair, leaving my account at a £0 balance for only a day. Typically this is the day they took the charges, after Morrisons plus cash withdrawal (for car) had been debited from my account. Whether this was "earmarked" shouldn't matter, it was spent, it was debited, it was still in credit UNTIL they removed charges. So my point is, it was not Morrisons that took my account overdrawn, it was bank charges.

BeenieCat

damo, that's typical of them. In fact i do believe some of my previous charges were due to direct debits going out early, post dated for when they were supposed to have gone out. However i've managed to argue a refund of charges on those occasions.

When i say i've had charges before, i'm talking over the last 6 years since i was 18! It's not a regular occurance by any means.