Banking Weekend Woes

jahamh

I am intrigued to establish why it is that when we are all encouraged and, progressively, required to conduct financial transactions on-line, the Banks do not work over the weekend.

I am a customer with NatWest. I am paid on the last day of the month. My mortgage (also with Nat West) is taken on the last day of the month. In months like the current one, where the last day of the month is a Monday, the Bank takes all direct debit payments at 00.01 on the preceding Saturday. Thus if I do not carry a considerable amount of funds in my account, I am left with an inactive account over the weekend. On the Monday, when funds are available, we carry on as usual - no penalties or charges levied. Thus there is no benefit to the Bank and only discomfort and hassle for customers. This, from an organisation that promotes "Helpful Banking".

I have tried ad nauseum to get Nat West to come up with a good reason why this is, but they are unable or unwilling to provide such. An inability for the computer systems to cope seems unlikely when they process billions of pounds in both home and international currency transactions in millionths of a second every day.

Just seems daft. Any ideas?

dunstonh

In months like the current one, where the last day of the month is a Monday, the Bank takes all direct debit payments at 00.01 on the preceding Saturday.

No they don't. They appear on a Saturday (and have done for decades) but they are actually debited on the Monday. Check the date and you will see Monday's date.

Thus if I do not carry a considerable amount of funds in my account, I am left with an inactive account over the weekend.

Why? You are required to have the money in your account prior to the transaction (typically the day before). It doesnt matter if its Friday, Monday or Wednesday.

Thus there is no benefit to the Bank and only discomfort and hassle for customers. This, from an organisation that promotes "Helpful Banking".

It is no different from any other day.

I have tried ad nauseum to get Nat West to come up with a good reason why this is, but they are unable or unwilling to provide such.

In finance, it is a 5 day week. That is how it is.

meer53

Thats why it's always best to set up direct debits and standing orders for the day after you're paid. Money has to be in your account the working day before these are due to be paid, why risk it by setting them up on the same day ?

MoneySaverLog

meer53 wrote: »

Thats why it's always best to set up direct debits and standing orders for the day after you're paid. Money has to be in your account the working day before these are due to be paid, why risk it by setting them up on the same day ?

It's not always that easy unless they pay you early. e.g. long weekends when there are bank holiday Friday's and Monday's come to mind. Or the one due soon where there is a bank holiday Monday and Tuesday. If you're paid on one of these days having funds leave the day after will just result in the payment going in and out on the same day following the bank holiday.

jen245

If you are paid on the last day of the month, then that credit will also be showing today, as it always does with my account if I'm due to be paid on a Monday, so I don't really see what the problem is.

mgdavid

jahamh wrote: »

.......... I am paid on the last day of the month. My mortgage (also with Nat West) is taken on the last day of the month. ...........

major fail; you now realise why almost everybody else leaves a day at least (2 or 3 is better) between payday and bills being paid. Just alter your mortgage SO to be 1 day later, the Building soc'y probably won't even notice :-)

Agricolae

Ask NatWest (Mortgage Services) if they will discuss changing the date of your direct debit to a few days after you're paid - this might be a way around this problem. Unfortunately the "weekend problem" is the same story across all banks as far as I know.

pqrdef

jahamh wrote: »

]I have tried ad nauseum to get Nat West to come up with a good reason why this is

They do it so you can't spend the money, so they can pay the DD first thing Monday. If you're planning to spend the money at the weekend and fund the account on Monday, when are they supposed to pay the DD?

opinions4u

In finance, it is a 5 day week. That is how it is.

It's a glorious answer.

It just is. Deal with it!

My own view is that the weekend and even bank holidays should be recognised by banks. Both transactionally and also for processes like cheque clearing.

We live in days of Internet, ATMs, weekend opening of branches and the like, yet the banks built their computers in a time where most branches were closed by 4pm on a Friday afternoon and wouldn't open again until 9.30am the following monday morning.

Now that we're in a 24/7 society it would make sense to change, but it's unlikely to happen because the cost of recoding the software would be huge and, because the current system works despite its imperfections, isn't worth spending the money on especially during tough times.

When I worked for Halifax they did operate in real time for most transactions and interest calculations. But even then there were some oddities. They did, however, recognise that Saturday was a massive trading day where a big competitive advantage could be gained from setting your branches up well for the hours they were open. They knew what activity was happening where and when.

During my brief (and painful!) return to the now LBG I discovered a firm that doesn't actually know how many current accounts it opens on a Saturday or Sunday, either in branch, online or by phone. It knows how many are opened between Saturday and Monday night.

Not the end of the world, but you'd have thought a massive bank would be a little bit closer to knowing the facts.

CG19a

My only thought on this one, is that Natwest treat Sat,Sun,Mon as the one day, so all credits and debits due on the Monday will show on the account on the Saturday. In my 11 years as a customer with them, I've never experienced them taking the debits on a Saturday and leaving the credits until the Monday. Only thing that could be is that the OP's wages aren't paid into his account by BACS.

pinkdalek

Whinge, whinge, moan and whinge.....

Yawn, Yawn, Yawn..........another weekend approaches at the month end and this same old sob story keeps coming up.

It's amazing how we never hear of complaints when credits that are due on the Monday show over the weekend are readily available to spend.

If you did withdraw the funds over the weekend then how are you going to pay the direct debit due from your account on the Monday?