Understanding bank statements

cepheus

Today I was attempting to find evidence of a cheque payment from a specific person back in June in my Nat West current account. I noticed an entry just labelled 'credit' for £1000 on my paper statement, however, the description was completely missing on my electronic version (something else to think about if deciding to use paperless statements).

I remembered paying in a cheque around that time, but not that much and the corresponding slip seemed to be missing. So I visited my local branch to see if they could help.

It took about 5 minutes at the enquiries desk before I could convince the senior bank clerk it wasn't referring to the line above or below the £1000, but the same line just labelled 'credit'. I had to borrow her pen and underline it.

"O I see, it must be either cash or cheque then"
"can you see if it is a cheque"
"no only if it is cash"
"so assuming it isn't cash it must be a cheque then"
"O yes".

She then went off into a room and came back 5 mins later with a slip of paper

"it appears to be a combination of a cheque and cash"

This explains why I was confused!

Surely Nat West could place more information on their statements, like

£300 cash
£700 cheque from account name xyz

are all the banks like this?

System

Just an idea....you could always have kept your own detailed record of what you paid in :D

sujman

cepheus wrote: »

are all the banks like this?

Yes, I believe so.

One way round it is if you make a mixed deposit again, deposit them in 2 separate transactions as opposed to one.

cepheus

sujman wrote: »

Yes, I believe so.

One way round it is if you make a mixed deposit again, deposit them in 2 separate transactions as opposed to one.

So I get 'blank' £300 and 'blank' £700 on my online statement? Anyway, now I know what blank or credit approximately means I should be able to guess.

cepheus

BAA1 wrote: »

Just an idea....you could always have kept your own detailed record of what you paid in :D

I could ( I do try to save the slip) but that is one of the services we pay banks for isn't it? They must make some money out of providing sod all interest on current accounts.

dzug1

HSBC separate cash and cheque deposits in statements - even if using the same paying in slip

On business accounts anyway.

opinions4u

cepheus wrote: »

I could ( I do try to save the slip) but that is one of the services we pay banks for isn't it?

What are you paying them?

They must make some money out of providing sod all interest on current accounts.

Well as their shareprice dives towards 20p it clearly isn't enough to satisfy the markets.

You do, of course, have the choice of banking elsewhere if you don't like what you're getting.

pqrdef

dzug1 wrote: »

HSBC separate cash and cheque deposits in statements - even if using the same paying in slip

On business accounts anyway.

That's because they're charging for the transactions.

cepheus

opinions4u wrote: »

Well as their shareprice dives towards 20p it clearly isn't enough to satisfy the markets.

They will just have to cut back on their excessive salaries, perks and useless waste then!

JuicyJesus

cepheus wrote: »

They will just have to cut back on their excessive salaries, perks and useless waste then!

Good idea. But since that won't be enough, maybe they should start charging for all of the things they currently do for you free of charge. I'll give you two minutes to have a think about what they could be.

opinions4u

cepheus wrote: »

They will just have to cut back on their excessive salaries, perks and useless waste then!

Quite agree with managing down costs and excess.

But you didn't actually answer the other question I put to you.

What are you paying them?