How can you go over limit????????

shaneythorses

Can any one give advice? My son has had a bank account with Abbey for years. He turned 18 two months ago and had money in his bank for his birthday. He used his card to pay fro items and has monaged to go overdrawn. How can someone go overdrawn using the card. Surely if you do not have enough funds you should not be able to use it. He now has been charged as he is £1 overdrawn. He does not have an income and no way of paying this. Is there any account that will not let people passed their limit. he should not be starting his life with a bad credit rating and this is what he is going to have. Am i the only parent worried about this?? Can anything be done about it??

iamana1ias

shaneythorses wrote: »

Can any one give advice? My son has had a bank account with Abbey for years. He turned 18 two months ago and had money in his bank for his birthday. He used his card to pay fro items and has monaged to go overdrawn. How can someone go overdrawn using the card. Surely if you do not have enough funds you should not be able to use it. He now has been charged as he is £1 overdrawn. He does not have an income and no way of paying this. Is there any account that will not let people passed their limit. he should not be starting his life with a bad credit rating and this is what he is going to have. Am i the only parent worried about this?? Can anything be done about it??

Not all transactions happen in live time. So you buy something but it doesn't register immediately and in the meantime you spend the money again. Well, those who aren't very clever do.

Perhaps you should be educating your son about a system that millions of people manage perfectly well.

PC_Gabriel_Kent

"Can anything be done about it??"

Well he needs to make sure there is enough money in the account to buy things. By presenting his card in a shop he is saying yes i have the money. It is not upto to a bank to control this but your son. If he goes into the branch to explain the situation i am sure they will be able to waive the bank charge. It is vital this is done before the charge comes out. It is much simpler for the branch to waive rather than refund a charge.

opinions4u

shaneythorses wrote: »

He turned 18 two months ago

He is an adult now. Time to play by adult rules.

He used his card to pay fro items and has monaged to go overdrawn. How can someone go overdrawn using the card.

He spends more than he has in the account. Simple as that.

Surely if you do not have enough funds you should not be able to use it.

Not all transactions happen in real time. It's up to the account holder to manager their funds properly.

He now has been charged as he is £1 overdrawn. He does not have an income and no way of paying this.

A polite request to get this charge cancelled will probably be successful if it's the first time this has happened.

Is there any account that will not let people passed their limit.

Take a look at the Best Basic Bank Accounts thread. Even these are not guaranteed though.

he should not be starting his life with a bad credit rating and this is what he is going to have.??

It's unlikely that a small overdraft will impact his credit rating. Unpaid charges spiralling out of control could though.

Am i the only parent worried about this?? Can anything be done about it??

You sit down with him and show him how to plan his spending. You teach him always to leave a minimum amount in the account (e.g. £10 or preferably more) just in case he makes a mistake. This also means he has emergency money if he gets stuck somewhere unexpectedly.

You teach him to plan his spending between now and the next time money goes in to his account.

You teach him that all banks are nice if you are in credit and nasty when you go overdrawn.

You teach him to save.

You teach him that a bank account is not something to be emptied as soon as money goes in to it, but that the money in there has to last more than 24 hours.

iamana1ias

opinions4u wrote: »

You teach him to plan his spending between now and the next time money goes in to his account.

You teach him that all banks are nice if you are in credit and nasty when you go overdrawn.

You teach him to save.

you teach him that a bank account is not something to be emptied as soon as money goes in to it, but that the money in there has to last more than 24 hours.

And ideally you do this about 5 years ago.

bengal-stripe

shaneythorses wrote: »

Can anything be done about it??

Your son should contact the bank, eat humble pie, say it was an oversight and it will never happen again.
There is a good chance, he will get the charge refunded as a "first-time offender".

Then you invest a quid or two and buy him a calculator. This will enable him to keep track of his spending.

shaneythorses wrote: »

Am i the only parent worried about this??

If your son cannot add-up, that is something to be worried about.

nickyhutch

I think you're all being a tad harsh.

OP - it may be that the account was automatically switched from an under 18s to a proper "grown up" account when your son turned 18, and he's been used to the card being rejected if there weren't sufficient funds. My son is almost 16 - his account would not allow him to go overdrawn, but I guess an adult one would. It'll be in the T&C.

He needs to get a grip of what's in his account by using online banking and keeping track of his spending. He wont get a poor credit rating from this one off. It might be worth him asking the bank for a small authorised overdraft in case he gets his sums wrong again.

loracan1

For pete's sake, the lad goes overdrawn by a mere £1 and people are criticising the OP for not educating him properly. I agree with nicky, his account will have changed as he turned 18. When opening an account for my son I was given assurances that it could not go overdrawn until he is of age.

Just needs to learn to plan ahead a bit more, and keep a certain amount in as a safety net.

LongTermLurker

It's a bit like burnt fingers - once you've done it once, you learn not to do it again... (hopefully)

It's standard with current accounts - you have arranged and unarranged overdrafts - if you use an arranged overdraft, you pay interest and if you create an unarranged overdraft you pay more interest. The important thing is that he still needs to keep an eye on his balance and ensure he doesn't over spend deliberately - an overdraft is a get out of jail free card, but it's not free money - it needs paying back.

1) I suggest for his sake you lend him a fiver and deposit it tomorrow morning - that way, he won't risk being charged further interest, because it will accrue daily.

2) As above, he should politely tell the bank that he wasn't aware he could now go overdrawn, he's made the effort to bring the account back into the black asap and he'll take care not to let it happen again - they are likely to waive the fee this time. If not, it'll be a learning experience for both of you and probably his mates as well when he tells them.

3) he should enquire about getting an arranged overdraft - they may give him £100 foc, or at any rate it will be less interest than an unarranged overdraft

4) If he can't get an overdraft with them, look elsewhere.

I too think most comments above are a bit harsh - accurate, but not really warranted.

Mark_In_Hampshire

A possible answer as other posters have said, is to have an account with a Visa Electron debit card, not a Visa debit card. These normally come with basic bank accounts.

The main current account I use has an electron debit card and that's the one I use all the time. If I ever ring the bank they always point out that I could have the account upgraded to a "full" account at any time.

However I prefer to keep the electron card - which I'd lose if I upgraded to a full account - purely because every transaction is authorised so you can't spend what you don't have.

e.g. I could upgrade to the reward account and earn £60 per year, but just two minor incidents incurring bank charges in one year would more than undo the benefit.

Banks *could* authorise every Visa debit transaction in real time and stop you spending what you don't have, but they prefer to allow you to mis-manage your money so they can charge you fees, which is why my bank is so keen to upgrade my account.

I'd rather have a transaction declined in public and then simply use my credit card, if it came to it, than have it go through and incur a £35 bank charge.

no_more_cards_for_me

Why not draw out cash on a monday for the week and live on that ?

It would teach you son to budget and he can only spend what he has in his pocket.

Cash can't be overspent