Saturday & Sunday are working days????!!!??

numptynumptynoo

I had to post this as I have just had the most bizarre conversation with Lloyds TSB regarding my account.

I had some fees applied to my account about 6 months ago and after some wrangling and negotiation, I got them reduced and had a temporary overdraft on my account to ensure no further fees were incurred. It was agreed that this overdraft would reduce by £80 per month so, in essence, I could continue to use my account within the limits set and pay off the agreed fees at £80 per month - simple! (or so I thought)

I had a few phone calls in the first few months asking why I had not paid the £80 into the account on the agreed date and I had to explain that, as far as I was concerned, paying in a few hundred pounds a week regularly meant that the £80 was covered but they insisted I had to pay £80 into the account on the day my overdraft was reduced despite the fact that I was not exceeding my limit. We finally got over that and I told them how ridiculous they were being and they finally seemed to agree and the calls stopped.

Anyway, today I received a letter to tell me that I had exceeded my limit by £80.59 and would be charged £10 per day unauthorised overdraft usage from the 17th September - which is a Saturday!

I called Lloyds and explained that I received a text on Monday morning to say I was over my limit and, when I checked my account, the overdraft reduction of £80 had been applied, I paid in £81 cash before 3.30pm so, by the end of the banking day I was within my limit and Lloyds advertise that if you do this, you will not incur charges.

"Not so", said Lloyds, because Saturday and Sunday are classed as working days when it comes to calculating unauthorised borrowing charges!!

"What?!?" I said, quite :mad: at this point.

"So if they are working days, how come, when I pay a cheque in, you don't count the weekend towards clearance days, and how come Saturdays and Sundays don't show up on any bank statements and, how come, you didn't text me on Saturday to notify my I was over my limit as you would have done Monday to Friday and, if it's a working day - how come you close at 3pm on a Saturday and never open at all on a Sunday!?!??!"

"Ah, well", said Lloyds, "they are only classed as working days when it comes to calculating fees."

"How very convenient." I replied

Anyway, after being passed onto a Manager, they finally agreed to refund the charges and gave me an extra tenner for the inconvenience so, all in all I can't complain too much but thought it worth posting so people know - check your accounts on Saturdays and Sundays if you think you may go overdrawn or you will be charged! If you are charged, however, use the information above as it helped me get the charges refunded plus a little extra :rotfl:

pcombo

Does it matter what day it was, You went over the agreed limit now you need to pay a fee.

numptynumptynoo

I think it does matter yes. They reduced my overdraft on a Saturday! it wasn't reduced on the Friday or the Monday and they failed to notify me that due to them actioning a reduction on a non-working day, I exceeded the limit. Plus, the reduction showed on my account dated Monday because Saturdays and Sundays do not show up on statements.

numptynumptynoo

I disagree. I run my account fine now after having some issues before. If I had exceeded my limit on Monday and failed to rectify it by the following Monday, I would accept 7 days fees but to have the limit reduced on a Saturday and then being charged for two days borrowing when cash was paid in before midday on Monday is unfair. I would like to stress that had the reduction occurred on Friday and I received my usual text notification and I had then failed to rectify it, I would have accepted the charges but this was not the case.

Aaravkmr

Saturday and Sunday are rest day with family.

lr1277

Just throwing this into the mix.

I have sent faster payments on a Saturday and according to the system they were received on the same Saturday. I would imagine the same for Sunday.

Now that money can be transferred (at least electronically) on a weekend, why shouldn't they be considered as working days?

Banks may need to change their systems to take this into account, especially notifiying account holders about (overdrawn) balances.

numptynumptynoo

That's interesting because when I have sent faster payments, they have arrived on the same day i.e. Saturday or Sunday, but they are dated Monday. And I would be fine with the weekends being classed as working days providing in works both ways - i.e. for cheque clearance and for charges - it's not right that they are only classed as working days when it favours the bank is it?

lr1277

Just my two penneth', but I think yes they should be able to charge for a weekend if you have borrowed their money without telling them.

However I would suggest they can only charge customers for going overdrawn on a weekend if they let the customer know during the weekend.
If the customer goes overdrawn on Saturday (technically) but their balance is not updated till Sunday night/Monday morning, then no they can't charge.

hermante

lr1277 wrote: »

Now that money can be transferred (at least electronically) on a weekend, why shouldn't they be considered as working days?

lr1277 wrote: »

If the customer goes overdrawn on Saturday (technically) but their balance is not updated till Sunday night/Monday morning, then no they can't charge.

Yes faster payments from Lloyds go instantly 24/7. However, the funny thing is that if you send money from Lloyds after 10pm on Friday, you will earn interest on the money you send for Friday, Saturday and Sunday despite it not actually being in the account.

I would imagine the same applies to going overdrawn - but as cheques, DDs and SOs don't get processed on weekends, I supose the only way you can go overdrawn is if you have an agreed overdraft. In that case you would not be charged any debit interest until Monday. However, daily fees may be a different matter.