Bank Charges

cgilliga89

I have transferred to lloyds this year and i find myself being charged for unintentionally and also falsely going into my overdraft alot. However, I can check my account on a monday and it will tell me i have an available balance of £50 and then i can check it on tuesday it will say i have £80. This happens quite often and sometimes means i have gone over my limit by £1 -£10 quite regularly because i spend a bit more than £50 thinking i have £30 left. I have asked the bank and they say it is money that has gone into 'holding' (ready to be paid out) then into my account to be paid out. However, if the money is in holding why put it back into my account? I also asked for text alerts when close to the £5 balance and still i could drop into my overdraft because of money in 'holding' going in and back out.

I have paid around £120 in charges already because of this this year. Does anyone have any advice? thanks

grumbler

cgilliga89 wrote: »

I can check my account on a monday and it will tell me i have an available balance of £50 and then i can check it on tuesday it will say i have £80. This happens quite often and sometimes means i have gone over my limit by £1 -£10 quite regularly because i spend a bit more than £50 thinking i have £30 left.

When have you spent more than £50 - on Monday or Tuesday? If on Tuesday, why are you telling us about Monday?

Does anyone have any advice?

1. Stop relying on the 'available' figure and keep your own track of the available balance. What if some retailer hasn't processed some your transaction a few days ago and will process it later today?
2. Stop balancing on the edge of overdraft. Build some buffer. £0 balance isn't a target.

cgilliga89

But surely if it says £50 one day and the bank has already taken £30 out of my account already to pay for the direct debits/ card purchases then there is no reason for that money to be put back into my account as an available balance the next day just to take it off me again. I trust my bank to show me an accurate representation of the money i have available after i have paid into my savings account and this i find to be a massive misrepresentation. Whenever i see that extra money the first thing i do is check my bills have been paid (phone, utilities, etc) they show as paid but the money is still available in my account. So i do find it hard to keep track of this when a phone bill has gone into 'Holding' but not actually out of my account.

cgilliga89

However, i do like the sound of using a buffer so i will transfer £100 from my saving to my current account and make that my target. thanks

Kim_13

Go back to a previous bank where you didn't have this problem? Every bank has their own way of doing things.

TSB Classic Plus has a fee free arranged overdraft of £25. If it is always by £1-£10, that should stop you from incurring charges (if you are accepted for an overdraft with them.)

colsten

"available balance" will only show purchases that a retailer has reported to the bank. Not all retailers report everything immediately. It will also not show any imminent SOs and DDs, nor does it show how much you have available to spend.

The only one who can possibly know how much money you have available to spend is yourself.

~Beanie~

cgilliga89 wrote: »

However, I can check my account on a monday and it will tell me i have an available balance of £50 and then i can check it on tuesday it will say i have £80.

Don't you ever wonder where this extra £30 has come from? Unless you are expecting someone to pay £30 into your account on the Monday then I would certainly be questioning where it had come from before I went and spent it.