TSB - being unreasonable or not

Frontera2

Hi,

Here's my story about a recent experience with TSB.. Firstly, I know that having sufficient funds in my account to make payments is solely my responsibility so no "holier than thou" comments please

A couple of days before payday, a direct debit came out of my account which put me £0.71 ( yes, 71 pence ) overdrawn. TSB refused to pay it and levied a £10 returned item fee..

What was even more frustrating is that the same say, they had made a payment to my savings account under their "save the change" service for more than the amount I was going to go overdrawn by!

Looking their terms and conditions and various bits of marketing "guff", TSB are oft to crow about their overdraft buffer whereby if you go overdrawn by £10 or less then they won't charge any fees or interest etc. On the day this payment was attempted , I did receive a text from them to say I was £0.71 OD but because of the buffer I didn't think I needed to worry, and therefore didn't take time out to check further.

So, had I knowingly made a contactless payment which I didn't have funds for, they wouldn't have charged me anything yet because of a direct debit taking me 71p OD they refused payment and charged £10...

This smacks of blatant profiteering to me, or was I expecting too much?

I should add that having contacted them by phone they have waived the charge. However, that doesn't change my general concern, especially for other customers who may be in the same boat.

And yes. I'll make sure funds are in place next time!

sinizterguy

Yes. You're expecting too much.

Archi_Bald

Assuming this was your first charge: if you contact them and explain nicely that you had misunderstood how things work, they might re-imburse you the £10. If you throw your toys, you won't see the money again.

Aquamania

Frontera2 wrote: »

Hi,

Here's my story about a recent experience with TSB.. Firstly, I know that having sufficient funds in my account to make payments is solely my responsibility so no "holier than thou" comments please

A couple of days before payday, a direct debit came out of my account which put me £0.71 ( yes, 71 pence ) overdrawn. TSB refused to pay it and levied a £10 returned item fee..

What was even more frustrating is that the same say, they had made a payment to my savings account under their "save the change" service for more than the amount I was going to go overdrawn by!

Looking their terms and conditions and various bits of marketing "guff", TSB are oft to crow about their overdraft buffer whereby if you go overdrawn by £10 or less then they won't charge any fees or interest etc. On the day this payment was attempted , I did receive a text from them to say I was £0.71 OD but because of the buffer I didn't think I needed to worry, and therefore didn't take time out to check further.

So, had I knowingly made a contactless payment which I didn't have funds for, they wouldn't have charged me anything yet because of a direct debit taking me 71p OD they refused payment and charged £10...

This smacks of blatant profiteering to me, or was I expecting too much?

I should add that having contacted them by phone they have waived the charge. However, that doesn't change my general concern, especially for other customers who may be in the same boat.

And yes. I'll make sure funds are in place next time!

LOL

They wouldn't lend you 71p?
I can't comment on whether or not that was reasonable but as they say

How much we lend, if anything, depends on our assessment of your personal circumstances. TSB is a responsible lender and we only want you to borrow what you can afford and in a way that is best for you.

However, they should not have charged you £10 for the unpaid item, where the amount involved that caused the decline was £10 or less. Hence presumably why they refunded you this charge when you brought the error to their attention.

societys_child

Archi, the op says:

I should add that having contacted them by phone they have waived the charge.

So everything's fine . . .

Frontera2

Unfortunately their terms and conditions say that they will charge the £10 fee when the amount of the Direct Debit is less than £10, not the amount of the unavailable funds.

Given I pay in nearly (or sometimes over) £3k a month, have a contactless payment card and have had no real issues with the account it does seem very strange for them not to be worthy of 71p!

Aquamania

I refer the OP to the response given to them by Thrugelmir earlier

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=66441275&postcount=28

:cool:

PeacefulWaters

Frontera2 wrote: »

Given I pay in nearly (or sometimes over) £3k a month, have a contactless payment card and have had no real issues with the account it does seem very strange for them not to be worthy of 71p!

It seems very strange that you'd put yourself in a position where you'd need 71p, given that you pay in so much.

TrustyOven

Frontera2 wrote: »

Given I pay in nearly (or sometimes over) £3k a month, have a contactless payment card and have had no real issues with the account it does seem very strange for them not to be worthy of 71p!

They may simply be unacquainted with your ego. (Yes, everyone has an ego, including me )

They'd have no way of knowing if next pay-day, you don't have any money coming in. So the 3k bit is a bit superfluous. There's probably a certain amount of trust they extend you - that you will not go overdrawn.

If you don't have an overdraft set-up, then it seems reasonable that you would get a charge for going overdrawn.

It's probably a type of conditioning: those that go overdrawn should be punished with some charges. I see nothing wrong with that.

Frontera2

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

It seems very strange that you'd put yourself in a position where you'd need 71p, given that you pay in so much.

It was an honest mistake, I had funds in linked savings account that I would normally transfer across, yet forgot on this occasion - it was a very busy week!

Dobbibill

If you have text alerts you will have read or been told that for payments such as DD's, SO's, Bill Payments or Cheques, cleared funds should be available the bank working day before the payment is due.

The buffer is not an overdraft unfortunately and allows you to go into a minus balance by up to £10 without incurring overdraft charges, it does not allow you to borrow money for DD's.

Glad they did the waiver of charges for you though