A High Street Bank Employee's View

RobertoMoir

gallygirl wrote: »

You are joking aren't you? Where has Martyn encouraged anyone to do this?

When your advice is big enough to change a market you have to be very careful what you say because of unintended consequences. You might not intend for something to happen because of your actions but that doesn't mean that it won't. It is, or it certainly should be, a very sobering thought to realise that a large number of people might make important decisions based on what you thought was a throw-away remark.

milliemonster

Well, despite the fact we have quite large debts that we are managing and paying off, we have very rarely been the victim of bank charged and in the main have always stayed within our agreed overdraft (albeit on probably 2 occasions in the last 10 years)

However, I agree that the charges banks impose are extortionate and do nothing to help people get out of the spiral that this inevitably leads to continual charging.

My point is, when banks say they charge for 'unathorised lending' why do they lend then???, if taking money out of an ATM is going to lead you to go over your overdraft and thus incur more charges, why isn't the transaction rejected??? surely if the banks were being responsible they would just refuse these transactions?. We had a situation 3 years ago where the bank authorised a DD of £3900 out of our account that sent us £2000 overdrawn, the DD was a mistake but the bank refused to pay it back immediately until they got it refunded by the retailer, 10 days later, in the meantime I had cheques due to come out, mortgage due to be paid etc etc, and all were refused by the bank and they slapped subsequent charges on, my parents had to lend us the money for 2 weeks until it was sorted out, but the bank were no help whatsoever even when they whould have been alerted that the DD was not the same amount it had been for the previous 36 months and should have questioned it and not allowed it to send us into an unauthorised overdraft!

I do think that the level of charge is excessive and I don't believe the banks are financially responsible when their customers come to them for help and financial advice.

We recently visited our bank to discuss reducing the interest rate on our credit card (that we don't use and are overpaying to pay it off), they wouldn't and were trying to persuade us to take a loan out to pay it off, how is this sound advice? our credit card is going to be paid off in 6 months with the rate we are overpaying, a loan would tie us in for at least a year and offer no flexibility for overpaying.

Back in the early seventies when my parents had their first mortgage, my dad was ill in hospital for a year, with virtually no money coming in, my mum turned to the bank for help, their mortgage provider paid their mortgage for a year (they had no illness protection) and they paid it back once my dad was back at work, this was because the bank knew my parents well and the situation they found themselves in, banks are faceless now, if that had happened now my parents would have been repossessed.

We have no option in the UK but to use banks now and there has to be regulation for them to help customers more and treat them fairly.

diane105

Just started to read the thread but thought I would like to put my 2 pence worth in.

I work for a high street bank who was NOT bailed out. I work behind the scenes deaing with customer compaints and at one point was on a team dealing with customers requests for refund of bank charges.

Knowing the ins and outs I do agree that £30 and £35 is a ridiculous amount of money to charge for being overdrawn/having an item returned unpaid and does not cost the bank this much in admin, however some of the reasons customers gave me were beyond belief. Yes some were genuine mistakes people made or went overdrawn through no fault of there own but the amount of times I heard' well how am I supposed to know what is in my account' was ridiculous. We even had some customers who wanted a phone call when they were ABOUT to go overdrawn as if we knew exactly what they had spent!!! As the customers were politely told there are many ways to access your account and just spending then expecting to get the charges back was no excuse -I have even had to counsel people on budgeting.

There are valid arguments on both sides however. As you may see from my sig I am not entirely innocent in the debt department but this is different from incurring bank charges. Everyone has different circumstances and I listened to every one and tried to help them. I have had a few charges and took them on the nose normally through my own fault - I just feel that the issue does not lie fully with the banks

diane105

Just read the link in post 16 - I understand the frustration but how was it left to get this bad and then his mum help him out - he can't of looked at his account for months and if his mum out when it was that bad surely he could have gone to her sooner - customers do have a responsibility to monitor their accounts.

oldwiring

milliemonster wrote: »

....Back in the early seventies when my parents had their first mortgage, my dad was ill in hospital for a year, with virtually no money coming in, my mum turned to the bank for help, their mortgage provider paid their mortgage for a year (they had no illness protection) and they paid it back once my dad was back at work, this was because the bank knew my parents well and the situation they found themselves in, banks are faceless now, if that had happened now my parents would have been repossessed.....

As a long ago retired bank employee, I agree with your thoughts, having known managers, who did similarly.
TBH ISTM that too much decision making is based on "computer says". I also think that immediate charging at a time when the account is already out of funds is not good; better the method of roiling them up and advising the customer well before application, so action can be taken.

On the other hand I have little sympathy with those who are cavalier with their finances, or those who quote ridiculously low costs of refusing a debit.


Now for the inevitable

RobertoMoir

esmerellda wrote: »

for what its worth I agree with this entirely and I hate this side of it.

On the other side of the fence read http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=27291345&postcount=7 (just cause its one I happened to have just read)

That is pretty disgusting. I don't see anything wrong with banks levying charges at people who go overdrawn in general, but I very much disagree with the sort of behaviour shown by the bank in that post.

Dylanwing

OP - You think that £30 - £40 is reasonable for a customer error. So presumably when the Bank screws up a customer account, you also think it is fair to pay the customer quite significant compensation, rather than the paltry fiver or tenner that you offer? And presumably Banks will pay the taxpayers significant sums on top of what they were bailed out with for 'exceeding their limit'?

ben500

diane105 wrote: »

Just started to read the thread but thought I would like to put my 2 pence worth in.

I work for a high street bank who was NOT bailed out. I work behind the scenes deaing with customer compaints and at one point was on a team dealing with customers requests for refund of bank charges.

Knowing the ins and outs I do agree that £30 and £35 is a ridiculous amount of money to charge for being overdrawn/having an item returned unpaid and does not cost the bank this much in admin, however some of the reasons customers gave me were beyond belief. Yes some were genuine mistakes people made or went overdrawn through no fault of there own but the amount of times I heard' well how am I supposed to know what is in my account' was ridiculous. We even had some customers who wanted a phone call when they were ABOUT to go overdrawn as if we knew exactly what they had spent!!! As the customers were politely told there are many ways to access your account and just spending then expecting to get the charges back was no excuse -I have even had to counsel people on budgeting.

There are valid arguments on both sides however. As you may see from my sig I am not entirely innocent in the debt department but this is different from incurring bank charges. Everyone has different circumstances and I listened to every one and tried to help them. I have had a few charges and took them on the nose normally through my own fault - I just feel that the issue does not lie fully with the banks

I'd like to dispel this myth circulating through the banking industry!

ALL UK banks were bailed out, just because your particular bank didn't ask for nor receive any funding does not alter the fact that had the others not been funded your bank would have been along with the begging bowl very shortly afterwards if it at all survived the ensuing melee of major bank crashes. Some in the industry are very smug about the fact their particular employer did not request or receive funding despite the fact the whole industry was dependant on those few being supported in order for themselves not to suffer dire consequences if they hadn't.

There is no scope for any banking employee to come on public forums with this smug "my bank wasn't bailed out" statement and it just adds insult to injury, the whole industry needs to adopt a little more humble attitude when addressing its [STRIKE]customers [/STRIKE] victims.

estimator

I agree on some of the above, but not all people wanted the money for holidays etc and some people have real money challenges and the banks have not been there to help.
I wrote many times to my banks when I had 2 young children, one just out of intensive care and had been made redundant and was temping at the time. I didnt have enough money to pay a direct debit, but the bank" kindly" paid it, then charged me for being overdrawn -£30 fee, and then wrote to me chaging me £20 for the letter. When I called the bank for help with an overdraft for a few weeks, I was told that they could not help, but maybe a should talk to one of their morgage advisers about maybe remorgaging my falt to release some cash????
So please remember that there are some people that use this site, that have real reasons to feel angry with the bank and Martin has been a voice for some many people......

estimator

OOOPPPS I meant, remorgaging my flat......