Prior notification of impending bank charges should be essential ?

Jsma

Hi everyone first post on here.

I did try to find if this header topic “Prior notification of impending bank charges should be essential ?” had been brought up anywhere before but there are so many topics to look through I'm afraid I had to give up. So my apologies in advance if it has....

Even though I've been on the state pension for about a year now with an existing overdraft from a major high street bank running for a few years before that, I've always managed to avoid any interest charges throughout. In turn meaning I never had any real idea as to how their overdraft charges system worked.

I finally managed to save enough to settle about a third of the long standing balance about 5 or 6 months ago but being unfamiliar with how things worked to begin with, got into a right old muddle over the following three months as to the correct monthly payment due dates and how to correctly pay. When I told them on the first month that the money was already there to be taken but was in the wrong account they cancelled the £25 charge which was fair.

However for the second month even though the money again was there and ready to be taken, I got something wrong again I forget exactly what and so incurred a second interest charge also for £25.

On the third occasion the next month, still not realising that I hadn't fully understood things and even though the funds again were there, I was told I got it wrong yet again by putting their interest money into the required account myself (to make sure it was paid !) instead of letting the automatic system do it so incurring the third £25 charge as there was by then insufficent funds in the original account !

I'm now dreading that every time I go into my online account I'll see yet another hated red banner saying you have incurred yet another £25 charge !!

My first point is this. The intent to pay the monthly interest to my bank has always been there from day one, my past record of some 5 or 6 years' payments always on time, always without fail and always without incurring one single interest charge throughout is more than enough proof of that.

My second point is there has always been enough monthly funds available to always cover the routine monthly interest charges also from day one. There is ample evidence of this too in all my past monthly and yearly statements again going back to 5 or 6 years to back this up.

My third point is that I'm quite sure all banks must have tons of risk software to warn them in plenty of good time that there is a financial problem looming for themselves and to take immediate steps to resolve it.

My fourth point. If the banks do have such warning software why can't this same triggering principle be extended to all their customers as well ? Surely in the interests of maintaining customer goodwill plus the fact we all make mistakes or overlook things at some time or another why is it necessary to suddenly penalise me or any reliable customer in a similar position and out of the blue, without giving them fair and ample warning that say in three days time you will face an additional interest charge of £25 if action is not taken immediately to deposit sufficient funds to cover this payment in time ?

Instead of deliberately behaving underhand and effectively grabbing the money when it's obviously far too late for the customer who might be in hospital, on holiday or has family problems the list is endless, to do anything about it ?

I was thinking of taking this up with the Financial Ombudsman to seek some financial redress but what's the point given the waiting times and inevitable red tape involved ?

My final point. What's sauce for the goose....

Look forward to hearing how others feel and view this too or is it just me ?

Thanks

meer53

So what you're looking for is a bank who will monitor your account on a daily basis for you ?

How on earth do you expect a bank to know what you have spent, or will be spending, or even paying into your account, in the next 3 or 4 days ? I don't think any piece of software currently has the capability of predicting the future.

If you do incur fees for being overdrawn and you have a genuine reason for this happening, you'll find that most banks are quite forgiving the first time it happens. Sometimes even the second time.

It's quite simple to manage, just make sure you have money in your account the day BEFORE anything is due to debit. If you do this, you won't incur any more fees.

If you're looking for "redress" (although i can't think why you would be) you should start with a complaint to your bank, FOS will expect you to do this first.

dunstonh

If you want to pay for a personal banker then I see no problem with that. I suspect it would cost you around £10k a year for basic checking and around £50k a year for the works.

It is not the job of the bank to control your finances. It is your job. If you want to employ someone to do it then you can. But the bank is not there to do that.

I was thinking of taking this up with the Financial Ombudsman to seek some financial redress but what's the point given the waiting times and inevitable red tape involved ?

That is not what the ombudsman is for.

Jsma

meer53 wrote: »

How on earth do you expect a bank to know what you have spent, or will be spending, or even paying into your account, in the next 3 or 4 days ?

Thanks for your replies.

Quite agree but how do you know whether you'll be able to pay it in the next 3 or 4 days ? Emergencies such as illness or family problems for example....
Nobody's asking anyone to monitor anything just an automatically generated reminder in case of human error which we are all prone to, as it's too loaded in favour of the bank's interests at the expense of the customer's at present.

Is that too costly or too much to ask ?

meer53

Jsma wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.

Quite agree but how do you know whether you'll be able to pay it in the next 3 or 4 days ? Emergencies such as illness or family problems for example....
Nobody's asking anyone to monitor anything just an automatically generated reminder in case of human error which we are all prone to, as it's too loaded in favour of the bank's interests at the expense of the customer's at present.

Is that too costly or too much to ask ?

You SHOULD know whether you can pay your bills in 3 or 4 days time, what would prevent you from knowing this ? If you have an emergency or crisis which will affect you,then a phone call to your bank is all thats needed. Although what you may see as a crisis may not be seen the same way by your bank.

I think most people would view an automated reminder from their bank to "make sure you have money to pay your bills" as a bit patronising.

Most banks these days offer a text message service on a daily basis (mine certainly does) which lets you know what your balance is and whats leaving your account that day, what more would you expect them to do ?

dunstonh

Is that too costly or too much to ask ?

Both. You are asking for someone to be employed to take on your responsibility. Why should people pay for your lack of responsibility? Most people run their accounts correctly. They reconcile the accounts and know roughly where their account is including pipeline transactions.

roonaldo

Another "i cant manage my account so it must be the banks fault" post

My bank offers text messages you can set up to tell you if the balance drops below a certain amount, transactions going in or out.

You said on the third occasion you have still not understood, that sums this up really.

Jsma

meer53 wrote: »

You SHOULD know whether you can pay your bills in 3 or 4 days time, what would prevent you from knowing this ?

I agree you should know in which case there would'nt be a need for this very helpful forum. But judging by the number of replies on this forum many people don't or find it very difficult....

I think most people would view an automated reminder from their bank to "make sure you have money to pay your bills" as a bit patronising.

True but obviously only sent to those who are having a difficult time making ends meet, and it would not be pay your bills just have enough to pay our banking charge.

Most banks these days offer a text message service on a daily basis (mine certainly does) which lets you know what your balance is and whats leaving your account that day, what more would you expect them to do ?

As I said make sure that those who are always having difficulty know well beforehand via the internal bank's messaging systems or through the post that bank charges are liable very soon unless monies are immediately placed into their account, not leave it until they get the charge making life even harder.

Jsma

roonaldo wrote: »

Another "i cant manage my account so it must be the banks fault" post.

Nope I'm afraid not it's too easy to assume or pigeonhole.

It's precisely because of my own openly admitted difficult learning experiences that I and I'm sure many others who are having difficulty on here wouldn't want to be caught the same way again. So if an automatic generated reply to forewarn of impending bank charges before it happens can help so much the better.

roonaldo

Jsma wrote: »

As I said make sure that those who are always having difficulty know well beforehand via the internal bank's messaging systems or through the post that bank charges are liable very soon unless monies are immediately placed into their account, not leave it until they get the charge making life even harder.

again, my bank does, they list charges on the monthly bank statement that they will be charged the next month. you either need to read your statement or change bank.

Jsma

dunstonh wrote: »

Both. You are asking for someone to be employed to take on your responsibility. Why should people pay for your lack of responsibility? Most people run their accounts correctly. They reconcile the accounts and know roughly where their account is including pipeline transactions.

I have no idea at all how you managed to arrive at the strange conclusion that I was asking for someone to be employed, nor how you arrived at them taking over my responsibility when I clearly am not.....

As the bank have already been taking interest charges no-one has to be employed at all. And what has anyone's lack of responsibility other than the bank's got anything to do with sending an automatically generated reminder to those having difficulty with their accounts, for example many of those that post on here, to place sufficient monies into their account before their bank charges are due ?

Is it really that costly and too much to ask for ?