Please give your feedback on personal current accounts

MrAndy_2

With HSBC (and possibly others?) my biggest gripe is that the "funds available" displayed at ATM machines is frequently inaccurate - it does not seem to take into account transactions which have been authorised but for which the money has not yet left my account.

For example:
1. I buy something costing £20 on my debit card.
2. The next day I check my balance at the ATM and supposing I am told: "Today you may withdraw: £30"
3. I immediately withdraw another £20, thinking I will still have £10 funds available
4. The next day I check my balance at the ATM and am told I am £10 overdrawn.

The money I spent in step 1 has come out somewhere between steps 3 and 4.

So why did the bank tell me I had £30 of funds available?

They knew that £20 would be going out of my account (they authorised the transaction in step 1!) so why didn't they say I only had £10 available?

I can't help but feel like this is another way for HSBC etc to trick people into going overdrawn (and thus charge extortionate fees for doing so) by inaccurately reporting available funds. It seems to be deliberately misleading at best, outright lies at worst - because the "funds available" aren't actually available.

If there is a good reason for this, I would love to know what it is. The technology is available to allow accurate reporting of available funds, in fact it has been for years.

In short:

I think the "funds available" should take into account authorised debit card transactions which have not yet left the account.

(other transactions such as Standing Orders and Direct Debits should remain exempt as these are easier to plan for and it should rightly be the responsibility of the account holder to ensure that funds are available for these)


I also agree with the following, raised earlier:

• Banks should give you the opportunity to repay any excess of overdraft before charging
  ...because you never know you are going to be charged until it's too late! I keep a close eye on my account but occasionally there are slip-ups (hence my gripes with HSBC above!) and I nearly always manage to transfer the shortfall back in within 24 hours, so even a 24 hour delay before charging would be fantastic for me. Notification (via text / email) would be a bonus, but not entirely necessary.
• Electronic transfers should take place on the same day if completed before 1200. No exceptions.
  ...there is no need for banks to pocket the money for several days before releasing funds, and would help people manage their finances.

Lokolo

MrAndy wrote: »

With HSBC (and possibly others?) my biggest gripe is that the "funds available" displayed at ATM machines is frequently inaccurate - it does not seem to take into account transactions which have been authorised but for which the money has not yet left my account.

For example:
1. I buy something costing £20 on my debit card.
2. The next day I check my balance at the ATM and supposing I am told: "Today you may withdraw: £30"
3. I immediately withdraw another £20, thinking I will still have £10 funds available
4. The next day I check my balance at the ATM and am told I am £10 overdrawn.

Are you sure about this?

Mine does show the correct balance I can withdraw (so in your case, would be £10). Well it did last week anyway.

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for everyone else

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MSE have released Manifesto of which interest rates are on the agenda:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/reclaim/2010/01/moneysavingexpertcom-launches-new-50-word-consumer-manifesto-?utm_source=forum&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_campaign=box

crittertog

Personally, I'd like to see it a requirement to include current interest rates on printed statements, as well as easily locatable on online statements (even if it's just a link to their interest rate page, scrolling to the appropriate part, in the case of the latter), as well as a requirement to inform customers of a rate change in writing. I also think that 3 days for BACS transfers is somewhat excessive.

Amber_47

When is an overdraft unauthorised?

Banks claim it is when the account falls below a zero balance without their express permission.

WRONG!

My bank does not allow me to have an overdraft and as such any Direct Debit that may cause the balance to fall below the magic £0.00 even by 1p is refused.

Of course my punishment for breaking this 'simple' rule is I am now levied a penalty of £30 for each attempt to break this barrier.

Curious as to where these charges are collected from?

You guessed it! The bank 'authorises' an overdraft far in excess of the original 'excursion' AND charges an OVERDRAFT FEE PLUS INTEREST.

I have asked why they do this but keep being ignored and sent forms to apply for my charges to be refunded.

So far in employing these tactics it has cost me over £300 on an insurance premium of £21.00 not being paid. £120.00 for a £20.00 phone bill etc. These include the original sum I still have to pay plus charges from the companies concerned.

How much simpler would it have been to allow the overdraft and charge a nominal sum for the period I was overdrawn?

Cause of the problem? I am weekly paid and the companies presented their Direct Debits on working day before I was paid. Due to there being a certain day the bank takes the charges off I had miscalculated by a couple of £'s.

Approach to the companies concerned claim it is a bank problem, bank claims it is theirs in not being flexible in the day of collection.

By the way TV licence DD is collected on a Monday NO CHANCE OF CHANGING DAY so touch luck on those paid either monthly or weekly on a Tuesday!

Does anyone know a better example of corporate rip off?

Inactive

Amber_47 wrote: »

Cause of the problem? I am weekly paid and the companies presented their Direct Debits on working day before I was paid. Due to there being a certain day the bank takes the charges off I had miscalculated by a couple of £'s.



Does anyone know a better example of corporate rip off?

Real cause of problem;

Inability to manage own finances properly.

No " rip - off, you agreed to the banks T&C's at the outset, you only need to adhere to them.

Dont-pick-on-the-poor.

rachel_reeves wrote: »

If you have a basic account with no overdraft facility, sometimes it is easy to go over (i have done so by £3) Lloyds TSB have sent me letters stating i owe £690 for being £3 overdrawn. if the suffiecient funds arnt in there then i strongly believe the banks should not let the transaction go through. i would rather go without then rack up a bill for £690... i wouldnt mind if i had spent that money, but going £3 overdrawn to incurr £690 charges is a bit much. More and more people are in financial hardship - why do banks always penalise the ones that struggle? it makes me sick.

I have challenged this with my bank before too, the answer I recieved was that it sometimes can take upto 3 days for an item to go through, ie (from Tescos).However, I do not think this is right. As it is all electronically done and if the card was lost or stolen they would know immediately, so why cant they decline a card with not enough funds immediately? Rather than charging for unauthorised overdraft of amounts such as 10p?

Dont-pick-on-the-poor.

bendix wrote: »

Yeah, rachel, because it's the bank's job to monitor your spending and stop you from spending more than you have, isnt it? I mean, god forbid that it should be your own responsibility.

Perhaps you'd also like to criticise the banks because they don't come round and do your weekly laundry for you, or feed the cats when you're not at home.

If you had it in your pocket, then you could clearly see how much you have left. But as the wages system insists that you have your funds in a bank account, as do many corporations require a bank account for payments, we are being pushed into a corner here. Within administration times and opening hours of banks, they are taking away our freedom to manage our own money. I would never trust the banks to feed my cats..thank goodness thats not inflicted upon us...

MrAndy_2

Lokolo wrote: »

Are you sure about this?

Mine does show the correct balance I can withdraw (so in your case, would be £10). Well it did last week anyway.

I'm absolutely positively 100% sure.

The first few times I thought it was just me being a bit dim - as I've noticed that the "balance" and "funds available" don't always add up, suggesting that they are taking these pending transactions into account.

But then I had an experience similar to my example. I thought I was safe withdrawing some of my "available" funds one weekend, but still ended up going overdrawn on the Monday for something I'd paid for on my debit card the previous Thursday.

MikeinFrance

sandyl wrote: »

Herewith my thoughts and frustrations:

1. Lloyds only allow a maximum of £10K per transaction per 24 hour period (although the website does not specify what this 24 hour period is - it certainly isn't calculated on the 24 hour clock). Their excuse is that this is to protect me the customer......

2. Electronic transfers should take place on the same day if completed before 1200. No exceptions.

3. All interest rates should be shown on the website statement pages. Given that banks offer one rate then close this, it is essential that you understand what your specific account is receiving.

4. Banks should give 30 day notice of all changes to their interest rates, in particular to special offers that are due to expire.

I would also like to share a problem I had with Ulster Bank. When I wrote and asked for my savings account to be closed and the balance transferred, they actually sent me a cheque (and this after banks have stated they want to abolish cheques). As a result of this, I estimate that I have lost a minimum of 10 days interest. I am aggressively pursuing this with them.

The above example is how banks manipulate customer's money to their advantage and continually get away with it. Their priority is not the customer but the profit to be extracted from them. As far as I am concerned this is daylight robbery.

I wrote to LloydsTSB suggesting that for on line banking they could easily show the current interest rates without having to go to a seperate tab and delve down through at least 2 sub menus to get to the interest rates.... not even a reply!

Dont-pick-on-the-poor.

Allow us to take our coins out over the counter.