The other side of the coin: The case for bank charges

inmypocketnottheirs

Call_Centre_Monkey wrote:

When you make a transaction with say a debit card, it is wrong to assume money is transferred instantly. The company wouldn't actually receive the money for a number of days. For instance, say you do a transaction for £10, that £10 gets put to one side of your account to cover the transaction. The company would then get the money a few days later. But it would show up on your statement as on the day of transaction (giving the impression that it's been done on the same day).

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Irrelevant really. When I pay by debit or credit card, the amount of the transaction is immediately deducted from my available funds. The fact that it is then 'a few days later' to quote call centre monkey, is further evidence of the banks deliberately delaying the transfer of funds, thus earning them extra interest. In a word, it is a scam, pure and simple.

Hereward

inmypocketnottheirs wrote:

Irrelevant really. When I apy by debit or credit card, the amount of the transaction is immediately deducted from my available funds. The fact that it is then 'a few days later' to quote call centre monkey, is further evidence of the banks deliberately delaying the transfer of funds, thus earning them extra interest. In a word, it is a scam, pure and simple.

How do you know it is done instantaneously? IIRC, it is posssible to exceed your overdraft, or credit limit, when paying with your cards as they only reference the amount availible from the night before, this way the can charge you for excedding your limits. I agree it should not be difficult to have near-real time balance checks, but this would take a few extra seconds at a till and we don't live in an idea world (yet).

inmypocketnottheirs

Hereward wrote:

How do you know it is done instantaneously? IIRC, it is posssible to exceed your overdraft, or credit limit, when paying with your cards as they only reference the amount availible from the night before, this way the can charge you for excedding your limits. I agree it should not be difficult to have near-real time balance checks, but this would take a few extra seconds at a till and we don't live in an idea world (yet).

Simple. I make a payment on my card, walk out the shop, phone for a balance and the amount of available credit is reduced by the amount of the transaction. Immediately. Straight away. Without delay.

Call_Centre_Monkey

But the shop doesn't have the money at that stage. Just like a credit card company doesn't instantly have a payment on your account the second you had a bank cashier your payment.

debster369

inmypocketnottheirs wrote:

Simple. I make a payment on my card, walk out the shop, phone for a balance and the amount of available credit is reduced by the amount of the transaction. Immediately. Straight away. Without delay.

Impossible. The money won't leave your account until the retailer claims it.

michaelend

I know we agreed to it but I cant find a bank account that doesnt have these charges , I was really struggling a few years ago and I had quite a few direct debits for my household bills etc... I was self employed and the work was really slack ,we had a baby to feed and look after One week , I only gat paid £108 , I had two mouths to feed. I was behind with the bills.
In that week , I got charged £50 by Nationwide for two direct debits which had bounced. I hadnt delibrately bounced them . It was an oversight, I had no internet banking facility to check my account. this situation , me subsidising the people more fortunate than me. Its really sad , the only words I can think of.
I am now much better off . I dont celebrate the fact that I get free banking at the expense of some poor !!!!!!(s) struggling to get by , there are thousands , millions in this position , the banks making big profits at these peoples expense. lets spare a thought for them. the banks , oh , what a sad situation , sorry cant think of any other words to describe it

michaelend

Bamber19 wrote:

It's kind of ironic that the most interest in claiming back bank charges appears on a "money saving expert" site, it's seems many people have an agenda that is more "how can i use these expert money saving tips to save a bit of cash and then use that, plus money from the bank that doens't belong to me and which i have absolutely no authorisation to take in order to spend beyond my means and live a lifestyle that i shouldn't really be able to" People need to look at the long temr here, everybody currently thinks they are winning the war against banks by claiming back money that they were charged for effectively stealing from the bank, whilst not considering that they currently pay nothing to have their bank account, pay nothing to send out a cheque etc, but if banks lose out on this source of income then they're going to look for it another way and the obvious way to get money in will be to start charging for accounts again. Secondly the financial institutions define the country and keep it running, if you start taking money from them and the judiciary cans ee the negative effect this will have then it only takes one House of Lords interpritation of the legislation on the matter(which contrary to may people's belief has not yes had legal interpretation in case law on the matter, and the whole situation will change, failing that the government could just pass an amendement to the current act, it wouldn;t have the negative opinion people think it would, the majority of people affected by it would be Labour voters, and we all know that even if a Labour government dropped a bomb on the UK the stubborn Labour voters would still vote them in again. SO go on, claim back your charges, but don't complain too loud when you can;t get a bank account in the future because the charges merely for owning an account are too high for you.

if a mistake in wring a cheque is stealing , then why dont they close the accounts , I f you worked in a bank and you tried to steal money you would be sacked immediately , then why dont they terminate these customers accounts then

ah , they would lose a lot of revenue , thats why

inmypocketnottheirs

Call_Centre_Monkey wrote:

But the shop doesn't have the money at that stage. Just like a credit card company doesn't instantly have a payment on your account the second you had a bank cashier your payment.

That is my point. The money is not available for me to use, has been deducted from my available balance, but still takes around 3 days to reach the beneficiary. Talk about convoluted.

inmypocketnottheirs

debster369 wrote:

Impossible. The money won't leave your account until the retailer claims it.

It is possible. You have not read thoroughly what I said. I did not say the money leaves my account. The available funds is reduced by the amount of the transaction.

It is exactly the same when you book in to a hotel or hire a car. The hotel or hire company 'do an authorisation' for an amount, of say £200. That £200 is then deducted from my available funds, or available credit, until it is claimed by the hotel or hire company. If they do not then claim, say I settle my bill in cash, then the authorisation is either reversed by the hotel/hire company, or it expires in about 7 days.

If you don't beleive me, then try it. This is how it happens.

debster369

I work for a bank and before that I was a manager of a shop. I know exactly how it works. Not all retailers do authorisation checks so how can banks be expected to know about it? And even when they do an authorisation it doesn't mean they will claim the money (e.g till operator makes an error or customer changes their mind. then why would the bank then stop the customer from being able to access funds that belong to them if either of these were the case?).