Should I be charged?

odyseus

Hi all,
I have a Personal Barclays current account with overdraft £250+£150 reserve.
on the 25th Dec it was hovering around £0 (end of month).
I made a paypal purchase of £375 BUT by default it used my current account number when I should have used my credit card. This would take me beyond the £350 limit!!
I emailed the seller who immediately did a refund and then I re-paid using my credit card.
1/2 an hour or so later I checked on PP to see that the refund was pending??
At the same time I moved £350 into my current account.

I'm guessing the Paypal refund pending issue is because the original payment may have been blocked by Barclays and would also cause Barclays to incur a £8 fee + £22 special reserve fee.

This has happened to me before, but it took me a day to realise my mistake and I eventually got a letter from Barclays charging me £30!!

This time however, I moved £350 in my account within an hour of the PP transaction, the 25th Dec was also a bank holiday.

So, should I get charged?? and if I do can I challenge the fees?

All the best John

It says this on the Barclay's site:-

"If my balance goes into my Reserve during the course of the day, but is back within my overdraft limit (or back in credit, where I don’t have an overdraft) by the end of the day, will I be charged?
No. You won't incur a Reserve Usage Fee if your balance is within your overdraft limit (or in credit, if you don’t have an overdraft) at the end of the working day."

Icey370

First of all your total buffer is £400 limit and not £350 limit since you have an OD of £250 and a reserve of £150!

You say you paid £350 into your account within an hour, however, was this before the end of the working day?

Anyways, if I was in your position, I would definitely argue the case with Barclays, they'll see you paid it off very quickly and may understand that it was an honest mistake, the worst they can say is no

UsetheFORCE

In the situation you have described then highly unlikely in my opinion that you will be charged.

Regards

odyseus

I did get charged!! £22 Why..

Because the Paypal payment did not show up as pending payment when
I viewed the online banking and so after a couple of days, I moved the extra money back to my other accounts.

However, about a week later I get a letter saying I went overdrawn into my reserve and will now get charged £22 !!!

The reason being that the Paypal charge appeared on my account about a week later pushing the account into the reserve, with a penalty £22.

Even though I requested an instant refund on Paypal and it was done 1/2 an hour later, it appears that Paypal continue to request the payment, wait for it to be received BEFORE they refund it!!!??

What annoys me, was that there was no warning that payment was inbound as I could have left the extra funds in there (I always like to keep my current account around £0).

No surprise that the bank doesn't bother informing me of the payment and so I can't put extra funds in the account to stop the overdraft.

They just wait and then inform me of the charge

dzug1

odyseus wrote: »

I did get charged!! £22 Why..

Because the Paypal payment did not show up as pending payment when
I viewed the online banking and so after a couple of days, I moved the extra money back to my other accounts.

(I always like to keep my current account around £0).

I think that scuppers your chances of a refund of the fees - you take on that risk when you keep your account near zero when there are transactions pending. You need to think 'what has happened to that transaction?' and think worst case. Not 'It's not there therefore it doesn't exist'

Hominu

Paypal always have your bank account first and other means of payment last, as bank transfers cost them next to nothing and Credit cards cost them a lot more. You have to select your credit card every time you buy something (or never link your bank account, which is the one I prefer)

They'll also never issue a refund to your bank account until they have received the funds, so you need to leave cash in your current account until you see both the withdrawal and deposit.

Of course, you know all this now.

Barclays are robbing gits indeed, but they do offer free text messages (which of course happen after you have been charged, but at least it stops them mounting up)

I'm a bit confused you put the cash in the account to cover it, then withdrew it again before the transactions went through. If you do this for interest reasons, then you might be better using a current account with interest, such as Santander, TSB, or BoS, which offer 3%.

grumbler

I remember checking Barclays fees recently and IIRC they charge only for going over the limit(s), not for bounced transactions. If so, if there is a transaction in your statement there has to bee a fee. No transaction - no fee.