Is it any wonder

past10se

I sadly recieved a charge notification from my bank for going over my overdraft limit just today. Guilty as charged. What I don`t get is that they are charging me £30 x 3 = £90. I certainly had 5 items going out yesterday and the total of these items did put me over my limit, but the bank has "re-arranged the order of the items to justify 3 charges and if it was anything kike a caring organisation it could just as easily have arranged the items so that only 1 charge would have been applicable. The strange thing is I have a statement on my online banking site showing that 2 of the items they are applying charges on were paid when my account was in the black, not even into the overdraft. This is a case of maximising profit from charges and I think that if they apply these charges I should report them to the police for theft. What do you think?

past10se

The annoying thing thing is that I had 5 items off, 2 large and 3 small. They have obviously decided to maximise their charges by assuming the large items came off first, which is not as per statement, which means that I have 3 charges. Whereas if they had decided that the 3 smaller items came off first , then only 1 of the larger items would have put me over the limit and I wiuld only have 1 charge. I pnly went £26 over and they are chargingme £90 which is crap and makes you wonder why they wonder why so many people are reclaiming bank charges. I wasn`t quite decided, but i am now.

Camdenite

Abbey have always made a habit of doing this I've found. Thanks for opening up this subject as I've felt it should have some relevence towards the case of anyone claiming bank charges.

I understand that the crux of the legal argument is the size of the charges, not their validity per se, but I do feel this is an area that should be exploited in anyone's case against their bank.

Another favourite "trick" I've found is processing cheques on the day before you expected just before they know your salary is due to arrive. This also has happened far too many time to be a coincidence IMHO.

past10se

Got these charges refunded which was a major surprise, didn`t even have to raise my voice. I wondered if it was anything to do with the fact that I phoned to query the day the news was full of these unfair charges. Another piece of info I feel neds to be shared is that I used to get a magazine from the Royal Bank, years ago, and i recall that there was an article in one of them stating that a member of staff had won £500 in a competition run by the bank for its staff and the purpose was to come yp with ways to make the bank more money, which i believe was a new tier of charges, and that won the prize. Nothing changed much then!!
Thanks for all replies.

Mark7799

When I worked in Bank lending (getting on for several years ago) the rules adopted were that you would pay as much as possible in terms of value. e.g a customer with £100 of available funds and items presented for £5 £10 £15 £45 & £55 meant you would try and pay the £55 &£45 items and bounce the rest - not sure if this rule still applies obviously.

Warriorsith

I prefer to pay back cheque or cash as a way of avoiding charges, I know its easier by DD to pay items but I think we should be able to pay bills etc the way we want to. Most companies prefer the DD way and expect you to set one up.

Glad you got your charges back but remember, when the banks update themselves in the mornings and your have direct debits on that day the bank always takes what you owe out first then places any payments due to you (ie wages) after that hence a way of making money. It's best if you have DD that you set them up a couple of days after your wages are in. It could be wise to have your DD spread too so not all go out on one day??

But as mentioned glad you got the charges refunded.