Abbey charges scam- check your statement.

sallyhey

Check your Abbbey credit card for late payment charges.

I pay by direct debit -set up by Abbey. Only this month the debit was taken too late to cover the pay by date.....I was charged £12 for their error.

When I called I waited 25 minutes on the phone to be told it would be sent to a "resolution manager" and I would hear in 10 days.

This is not good enough. Potentially Abbey could have hit all their direct debit paying customers for this £12 fee, half of them may never even notice. Interest would be charged by Abbey on the amount plus the fee and could potentially damage customers on balance transfers.

Surely, a sophisticated bank system in this day and age should not make such basic errrors!

Sally

egamar

I think it's common with ex-Building-society banks. Their credit card systems are third-party bolt-ons and do not integrate seamlessly with their 'banking' accounts, Halifax is the same.

When I used to bank with Barclays, transfers to a Barclaycard were visible on that card the second you pressed send - just like transferring between savings and current accounts.

With Halifax it's a 3-4 day process. It's daft. I got caught and refused to pay: took two demands to speak to the call centre drone's manager (do they even exist) before they begrudgingly agreed to refund it.

Hfx Customer Disservice staff are trained to be especially rude and unhelpful I think, unlike their BoS counterparts who are unfailingly helpful and courteous - they're all Scots too! I think it's telling that Hfx was a BSoc and BoS was always a bank.

Anyway a good warning - but you'll get your money back for sure. I don't think it's a scam (that word is used far too loosely these days) just incompetence, although as you point out - incompetence always seems to work in the bank's favour somehow!

dmg24

sallyhey wrote: »

Check your Abbbey credit card for late payment charges.

I pay by direct debit -set up by Abbey. Only this month the debit was taken too late to cover the pay by date.....I was charged £12 for their error.

When I called I waited 25 minutes on the phone to be told it would be sent to a "resolution manager" and I would hear in 10 days.

This is not good enough. Potentially Abbey could have hit all their direct debit paying customers for this £12 fee, half of them may never even notice. Interest would be charged by Abbey on the amount plus the fee and could potentially damage customers on balance transfers.

Surely, a sophisticated bank system in this day and age should not make such basic errrors!

Sally

They made a mistake and they will refund the fee. I really don't see why this is labelled a 'scam'?

Edit: Cross posted egamar, at least we agree! x

egamar

dmg24 wrote: »

They made a mistake and they will refund the fee. I really don't see why this is labelled a 'scam'?

Edit: Cross posted egamar, at least we agree! x

Indeed we do. A scam it is not: incompetence and contempt it is!

ric2003

egamar wrote: »

Hfx Customer Disservice staff are trained to be especially rude and unhelpful I think, unlike their BoS counterparts who are unfailingly helpful and courteous - they're all Scots too! I think it's telling that Hfx was a BSoc and BoS was always a bank.

maybe its because up here the BoS staff don't spend all their time singing and dancing in adverts like the Halifax staff! Thats the best thing about scottish telly, no Howard!