Quick Co-Op bank question

agrinnall

chuckley wrote: »

yea coz on a day shopping you really remember the market, coffee shop, library, supermarket and x5 clothing shop purchases every second?

Wake up please.

You'd have to be pretty disorganised to lose all the receipts for card transactions (or cheque stubs if you happen to be one of the few people still using cheques on a regular basis) before getting home, where you can simply transfer the amounts to a record keeping system. I use MS Money, but there are other specialised programs, or you can use a spreadsheet, or just write everything down in a notebook. I've been doing it for the last 20 years without any problem.

Jennifer_Jane

agrinnall wrote: »

You'd have to be pretty disorganised to lose all the receipts for card transactions (or cheque stubs if you happen to be one of the few people still using cheques on a regular basis) before getting home, where you can simply transfer the amounts to a record keeping system. I use MS Money, but there are other specialised programs, or you can use a spreadsheet, or just write everything down in a notebook. I've been doing it for the last 20 years without any problem.

Been banking for about 6 years with Co-op and never knew there was a problem. I usually use cards for everything I purchase, however small, and that record gets put on a spreadsheet. I think I monitor my finances pretty carefully. Can't see what the problem is especially if you are keeping sufficient money in the bank as a cushion/emergency fund (which everyone should be doing as basic financial planning).

Anthorn

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

Been banking for about 6 years with Co-op and never knew there was a problem. I usually use cards for everything I purchase, however small, and that record gets put on a spreadsheet. I think I monitor my finances pretty carefully. Can't see what the problem is especially if you are keeping sufficient money in the bank as a cushion/emergency fund (which everyone should be doing as basic financial planning).

Not having the available balance online is ok so long as we know our available balance from the records we ourselves keep. But the absence of an available balance fails to provide an early warning of debits to our account we haven't authorised. That's the one and only reason why I visit an ATM every day.

In my recent experience it would appear that Co-op Bank's automatic fraudulent transaction detector has a problem in recognising an existing association with a payee for debit card payments. So the result is that debit card payments to a particular payee will be repeatedly denied even though the account is in credit and the bank has been told repeatedly that the transaction is authorised. Not so serious if all you're paying for is a loaf and a litre of milk at a supermarket. But it starts to get serious if you're making a payment off your credit card! In my case, solely due to the failure of Co-op Bank I have to pay interest on my Vanquis credit card which I would not have otherwise had to pay because all the bank will allow me to pay is under £50 which covers the minimum payment and I have to wait for a new direct debit authorisation to be processed!

Jennifer_Jane

Anthorn wrote: »

Not having the available balance online is ok so long as we know our available balance from the records we ourselves keep. But the absence of an available balance fails to provide an early warning of debits to our account we haven't authorised. That's the one and only reason why I visit an ATM every day.

In my recent experience it would appear that Co-op Bank's automatic fraudulent transaction detector has a problem in recognising an existing association with a payee for debit card payments. So the result is that debit card payments to a particular payee will be repeatedly denied even though the account is in credit and the bank has been told repeatedly that the transaction is authorised. Not so serious if all you're paying for is a loaf and a litre of milk at a supermarket. But it starts to get serious if you're making a payment off your credit card! In my case, solely due to the failure of Co-op Bank I have to pay interest on my Vanquis credit card which I would not have otherwise had to pay because all the bank will allow me to pay is under £50 which covers the minimum payment and I have to wait for a new direct debit authorisation to be processed!

Again, I would say, know your expenditure, you had 50 days or so to know if a large amount going through your card would need to be paid off. I have three credit cards, and a couple of months ago had the full £500 being paid off my Aqua card and £2900 going off the same month on a different credit card (it was a payment for one item, put through on two cards). I knew it was going to come through, obviously, so ensured I had the money in my account. I had also ensured that the job was not done (house maintenance) until I had sufficient funds to cover all expenditure + the usual cushion.

Manage your money! Know what your expenditures are. Keep an emergency cushion (basic financial planning). It may be irritating to not have the available amounts, but I think people are sailing very close to the wind by not monitoring their finances in detail.

You could have paid Vanquis (I assume it's like other credit cards) a one-off amount so that you were in control of the direct debit amount without having to change it. I did this with Aqua just the other day. Also, it's better if your direct debits are set to pay off the full amount of the credit card, whatever amount that is.

Jennifer_Jane

chuckley wrote: »

yea coz on a day shopping you really remember the market, coffee shop, library, supermarket and x5 clothing shop purchases every second?

Wake up please.

Why wouldn't you keep the receipts that every market, coffee shop, and your 5 clothing shop purchases every second, give you free and gratis. Keep them and put it on your spreadsheet. It just takes a couple of minutes to do, and is well worth the time to know where you are in relation to your budget or income.

Personally out of your list I mainly only use the library, the supermarket for food, and charity shops for clothes. But all those give receipts. I assume any payment for the library is for computer use, otherwise why are you paying for anything there.

It's really not very hard. Is it?

pmduk

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

Keep an emergency cushion (basic financial planning). It may be irritating to not have the available amounts, but I think people are sailing very close to the wind by not monitoring their finances in detail.
.

You may be in the comfortable position of having an emergency cushion. Millions don't, and in the current climate are struggling to make ends meet.

Jennifer_Jane

pmduk wrote: »

You may be in the comfortable position of having an emergency cushion. Millions don't, and in the current climate are struggling to make ends meet.

It's something that is wise to do - people could do what I did, which is to cut down on things: NO holidays; cheaper food; charity shop clothes (still do those last two); "working" my money to ensure that I have the cheapest insurances; new banking accounts to take advantage of rewards and incentives; Quidco/TopCashback and so on.

Yes, I now have the advantage of the 'magic' of compound interest - although with saving rates so poor, that has stopped over the last few years.

The important thing is to get that cushion - it used to be called "Saving for a rainy day". It's not a new concept, and people used to be much, much poorer than they are today. Take my word for it.

So that is my recommendation - if you don't want to follow it, then so be it. I'm hardly going to lose sleep over your financial problems.

I would have thought that your money was more precious if you are on a low income, and worth monitoring. It certainly is precious to me. I'm getting in marginally above the tax rate level.

The consensus here on this thread seems to be: monitor your expenditure so you know how you how much you are spending vs your budget and income. Anyway, it's up to you.

agrinnall

pmduk wrote: »

You may be in the comfortable position of having an emergency cushion. Millions don't, and in the current climate are struggling to make ends meet.

Very true, and therefore all the more reason for keeping a close eye on ones own financial situation.

Anthorn

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

You could have paid Vanquis (I assume it's like other credit cards) a one-off amount so that you were in control of the direct debit amount without having to change it. I did this with Aqua just the other day. Also, it's better if your direct debits are set to pay off the full amount of the credit card, whatever amount that is.

That's my whole point: Co-op Bank smile will not allow me to pay £849.78p to Vanquis with my debit card which is what I've tried to do twice. And there is an existing association with Vanquis Bank due to payments in previous months. That's the reason why I've had to instigate a direct debit to pay off the full amount. In fact starting today I've stopped using my smile debit card except for ATMs and using my Aqua card instead simply because I don't want to be embarassed when attempting to pay for goods and services due to the possiblity of payments being declined because they say it could be a fraudulent transaction. In fact there has never been a fraudulent transaction with my co-op smile account.

Having been in the position of bad debt through no fault of my own (bank crisis, employer's business went under, redundancy) since 2008 the management of my finances is some way stricter than paranoid. But unfortunately I'm now being shafted by my bank which sort of cancels out my own strict management.

pmduk

Don't get me wrong, looking at my posting history you'll say that I regularly recommend people to keep tight control of expenditure, using a notebook if necessary. But to assume that anyone can click their fingers and build a "safety cushion" is rather naive.