unbelievable bank charges

mike_jobson

Surely banks can't do this, 150 quid worth of charges for 3 transactions at Tesco, when I had enough funds available, Tesco keep it for 2 days, then take it 2 days later and not enough in account due to payments the day before etc. Wham! Overdrawn!.... not having this! Same thing happened last month, paid 135 quid. Cant afford this as barely have enough wage to get by as it is. Help please folks!.

DevCoder

Whats the breakdown of the charges?

You know you spent the money at tescos so why didnt you budget for the additional outgoings the next day?

Even if Tesco had taken out funds same day then you would be overdrawn by the next days outgoings.

dunstonh

Surely banks can't do this, 150 quid worth of charges for 3 transactions at Tesco, when I had enough funds available

If you had enough funds available then you would not have been charged.

Tesco keep it for 2 days, then take it 2 days later and not enough in account due to payments the day before etc.

Transactions are not instant. You have to allow up to 6 years for them to appear. Although the vast majority will appear on the account inside a week.

Wham! Overdrawn!.... not having this!

I can imagine you are not at all impressed at yourself for such poor money management. However, unless you start to run your accounts properly there is nothing you can do about it.

Help please folks!.

Learn to reconcile your accounts. Once a week if fine for most people. Doesnt take long either. If you dont do that then expect this sort of thing to continue.

pelirocco

mike_jobson wrote: »

Surely banks can't do this, 150 quid worth of charges for 3 transactions at Tesco, when I had enough funds available, Tesco keep it for 2 days, then take it 2 days later and not enough in account due to payments the day before etc. Wham! Overdrawn!.... not having this! Same thing happened last month, paid 135 quid. Cant afford this as barely have enough wage to get by as it is. Help please folks!.

So if they had taken the payments on the same day , the payments that were due to come out later would have bounced ?

mike_jobson

At the time of payment for the 3 transactions , I checked my account and my available balance would cover these, subsequently the next day a payment to co-op had been paid from 3 days prior, thus taking my available balance to its limit more or less, then next day 3 payments to Tesco over my limit

pelirocco

mike_jobson wrote: »

At the time of payment for the 3 transactions , I checked my account and my available balance would cover these, subsequently the next day a payment to co-op had been paid from 3 days prior, thus taking my available balance to its limit more or less, then next day 3 payments to Tesco over my limit

Available balances dont show a true balance , there will often be transactions waiting to go through the system

DevCoder

You would still have gone overdrawn by the co-op transaction and incurred charges.

You need to get into the habit of net'ing all your expenditure against what you will have in your bank account at the end of any one day

So if you have spent £150 on Monday, you need to ensure you have £150 in your account from Day 1 until the payment clears (normally its within 5 workings days)

zzzLazyDaisy

So you did not have enough money in your account.

Funds transfers are not instant.

As an example:

Monday - balance £50, spend £40 in Tesco paying by card
Tuesday - balance still showing as £50 (the £40 not yet having left the account)
Wednesday - balance still showing as £50, spend another £40 in tesco on card
Thursday - Monday's payment leaves account, balance £10
Friday Wednesday's payment leaves account, balance £30 overdrawn.

It isn't rocket science, you cannot spend the same £50 twice, no matter what the balance on your account says. You need to keep track of what you are spending and how much money you actually have left.

dunstonh

mike_jobson wrote: »

At the time of payment for the 3 transactions , I checked my account and my available balance would cover these, subsequently the next day a payment to co-op had been paid from 3 days prior, thus taking my available balance to its limit more or less, then next day 3 payments to Tesco over my limit

That is not the way to run your bank account. You need to know what is going through in advance and use a reconciled/potential balance and not the daily balance which will not show pipeline transactions.

jamesd

Unfortunately, you screwed up by not checking what transactions had been applied and which were pending. Dunstonh describes the most failure-proof approach, roughly what I also use. Another is to have a sufficient overdraft facility available but unused so all you get is overdraft charges if you get it wrong. You can also have essential bills coming out of one account and others out of another so your key bills get paid even if you have trouble with the other one.

If this is the first time, ask them to waive the charges. Banks often will if it's not a habit to do it.