Bank at fault?

lp908tdg

Hello All,

So a bit of background, my partner is with TSB and has a standard current account with a visa debit card and £300 OD limit.

Now my partner works and bills and so on come out of her account as with most people.

The issue is that say she goes to a TSB and gets a mini statement which shows she has £100 available on her card and she then goes into a Tescos and spends £10 on her card, she then goes back to a TSB and gets another statement her balance (both available and account) is still £100.

I bank with Santander and Halifax and I have done the same and both would show £90 available.

I understand floor limits and holding times within stores, I raised this to Tesco as an example and they have stated they have a generic policy and this wouldn't differ from bank to bank.

This happened and caused my partner to go over her OD limit and incur charges. At which point I raised the issue to TSB who in fact refunded ALL OD charges and also compensation.

Again this is still happening and so today I raised it back to TSB who refuse to acknowledge a problem and say the fault is with the stores she shops in.

My questions are, is this is the case why would they have refunded and provided compensation on the first time this happened? and does anyone else know of any policies or so on that would cause this to happen?

I can imagine there are many many more people out there who this happens to and get charged OD fees through no fault of their own, surly a bank has some duty of care over their customers to ensure financial difficulty's don't occur because that dont take funds from a card when they should.

If i have £10 and I spend £10 i should not be allowed to spend it again.

Many thanks

colsten

In short: the bank is not at fault. You / your partner are responsible (/at fault).

You and you partner might benefit from digesting this thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5121532

lp908tdg

This does not relate to contact-less payment and if the bank was at fault why would have 400 have been credit to her account as a "gesture of good will" ?

colsten

lp908tdg wrote: »

I can imagine there are many many more people out there who this happens to and get charged OD fees through no fault of their own,

Reality check time: People can only ever get into an overdraft because they are spending more than they have available to spend. Their fault, nobody else's.

Cyberman60

The problem here is that not all computer systems are real-time, so the transaction and new balance will only show after the 'batch' program has run, probably a few hours later. Too many people want to blame banks all the time. This is the fault of the customer IMO.

grumbler

lp908tdg wrote: »

...My questions are, is this is the case why would they have refunded and provided compensation on the first time this happened? and does anyone else know of any policies or so on that would cause this to happen?

Many banks have unwritten policy to refund charges first time.

I can imagine there are many many more people out there who this happens to and get charged OD fees through no fault of their own, surly a bank has some duty of care over their customers to ensure financial difficulty's don't occur because that dont take funds from a card when they should.

It's a known fact that 'available' balance is just an indication, you can never rely on it and have to track your spending yourself.
£300 overdraft limit that your wife has is a safety buffer, not a target to spend.

A yesterday's thread: Card transactions over past month been removed from account in 1 day...ADVICE NEEDED!

If i have £10 and I spend £10 i should not be allowed to spend it again.

Get a cash card or a prepaid card if you want this to be the case. And even with a prepaid card you can get 'overdrawn' sometimes.

colsten

lp908tdg wrote: »

This does not relate to contact-less payment and if the bank was at fault why would have 400 have been credit to her account as a "gesture of good will" ?

I have not said that your post relates to contactless payments, but the principles discussed in that thread apply, the basic one on being: account holders are responsible for the money they have available to spend, nobody else.

If your partner has been credited £400 as a gesture of goodwill, this might relate to something entirely unrelated, or it might just be the cheapest way for the bank to get rid of her complaint. Be assured though banks will not make goodwill payments to the same person very often, and unless you and your partner assume responsibility for your respective finances, you will always have unhappy experiences.

lp908tdg

You all seems to be missing the point.

The bank has acknowledge that if my partner pays for something the funds should no longer be available to spend.

They have stated if this is the case then this is a bank error.

I have provided statements from the account and from shops that outline their floor limit policy and also how they collect the funds. in some cases this can take up to 6 months however its the banks duty to hold these funds and not make them available to the customer until they are collect.

If this was the case then many people, and yes even those who can't/don't budget would get into difficulties.

from what i have seen too many people take the moral high ground and this its ALWAYS the customers fault, when in reality we all know what banks are like

PeacefulWaters

lp908tdg wrote: »

You all seems to be missing the point.

Alas not. You are.

lp908tdg

colsten wrote: »

I have not said that your post relates to contactless payments, but the principles discussed in that thread apply, the basic one on being: account holders are responsible for the money they have available to spend, nobody else.

If your partner has been credited £400 as a gesture of goodwill, this might relate to something entirely unrelated, or it might just be the cheapest way for the bank to get rid of her complaint. Be assured though banks will not make goodwill payments to the same person very often, and unless you and your partner assume responsibility for your respective finances, you will always have unhappy experiences.

I agree that people are responsible for the funds available on the account, but if what's shown is not an accurate representation of what is really on there how can you know how much you have to spend. Should she make a list of the every single item that she spends? is this not what online/statements should show?

lp908tdg

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Alas not. You are.

I understand your point, what I don't understand is why there is a difference between her bank TSB, and both of mine, Santander/Halifax.