Lloyds SNEAKY debit card payments

Diggle123

As I try to keep my Club Vantage account topped up to JUST enough to maximise the interest I can earn, Ive noticed that just recently (last few months) Lloyds have started debiting the debit card purchases very late at night so that your balance dips below the optimum for 1 day for each purchase.
OK so it's not the end of the world, but I'd guess that across their entire customer base, both for 'savings on interest paid' and 'overdraft extra charge' it's a nice little earner.
Anyone else noticed this, and is it common practice across all the banks now, seems yet another GREEDY bankers trick

cheekycactus

I check my balance multiple times a day due to payments coming in, out, refunds etc and while most do clear at night, they also occur in the day.

There's no conspiracy here. Its just how things work and have always worked.

fwor

Diggle123 wrote: »

seems yet another GREEDY bankers trick

Except that, when you think about it, every debit gets paid out of one bank account and into another bank account?

So for every "losing" customer, there will be a corresponding "gaining" customer?

Which means that, for the banks, it's a zero sum game.

I suspect that a more likely explanation is that the banks try to reserve at least some of their daytime network and computer processing power for real-time transactions, with the result that scheduled transactions gets deferred, to be processed outside the main UK working hours.

YorkshireBoy

Why keep £5K in an account making a maximum of 1.2%? Be a SNEAKY customer and keep it in an account making circa 1.5% instead. That's a GREEDY customer trick.

Ballard

From memory this account pays around 1.2% on a balance of £5,000 but let’s round that up to 2% and calculate how much interest the banks are greedily stealing from you. £200 would reap the bank a fraction over a penny. If you have that sort of amount debited late at night and are concerned about the 1p interest that you’re missing out on then take them to the small claims court.

Do keep us updated as other may want to join you in a class action.

Ergates

Diggle123 wrote: »

As I try to keep my Club Vantage account topped up to JUST enough to maximise the interest I can earn, Ive noticed that just recently (last few months) Lloyds have started debiting the debit card purchases very late at night so that your balance dips below the optimum for 1 day for each purchase.
OK so it's not the end of the world, but I'd guess that across their entire customer base, both for 'savings on interest paid' and 'overdraft extra charge' it's a nice little earner.
Anyone else noticed this, and is it common practice across all the banks now, seems yet another GREEDY bankers trick

Banks don't time their batch payment processing to save paying *you* a small amount of interest.

*You're* the one who decided to keep *just* enough money in the account to maximise the interest (a GREEDY customer trick) - so you've set yourself up for failure there. Put enough money into the account to cover the debits and still be about the interest threshold, problem solved.

born_again

You know that the money is going to come out. So why not top it up prior to it coming out?

I have noticed that some debit card payments have started to debit the same day as made. So it could be that payment systems are being beefed up so that when you spend on your card it comes out same day, rather than a few days later.
Which was actually allowing YOU to make a bit more interest than you were due

Anyone else remember knowing that going shopping on a friday night meant that it would not hit your account till tuesday.

pafpcg

Diggle123 wrote: »

As I try to keep my Club Vantage account topped up to JUST enough to maximise the interest I can earn, I've noticed that just recently (last few months) Lloyds have started debiting the debit card purchases very late at night so that your balance dips below the optimum for 1 day for each purchase.

Are you sure this makes any difference? Just because the displayed balance does not show debits overnight doesn't stop the bank from retrospectively calculating the overnight balance using the date when the purchase was made.

For example, debit card payments on my Santander123 account don't appear for two days, but the entry on my statement displays the date when the payment was actually made. I assume that when the interest is calculated it is based on the daily balance after any outstanding payments have been subtracted.

IanManc

Diggle123 wrote: »

As I try to keep my Club Vantage account topped up to JUST enough to maximise the interest I can earn, Ive noticed that just recently (last few months) Lloyds have started debiting the debit card purchases very late at night so that your balance dips below the optimum for 1 day for each purchase.
OK so it's not the end of the world, but I'd guess that across their entire customer base, both for 'savings on interest paid' and 'overdraft extra charge' it's a nice little earner.
Anyone else noticed this, and is it common practice across all the banks now, seems yet another GREEDY bankers trick

Why do you think you're entitled to interest on money that you have already spent? :huh:

born_again

pafpcg wrote: »

Are you sure this makes any difference? Just because the displayed balance does not show debits overnight doesn't stop the bank from retrospectively calculating the overnight balance using the date when the purchase was made.

For example, debit card payments on my Santander123 account don't appear for two days, but the entry on my statement displays the date when the payment was actually made. I assume that when the interest is calculated it is based on the daily balance after any outstanding payments have been subtracted.

No. Interest is calculated from the date the transaction debits your account.

They only add date of transaction to help you reconcile the purchase.

Ben8282

If you are so bothered why not use a credit card rather than a debit card then you can keep the money in your 'Club Vantage' account a whole month longer.
Alternatively, use a debit card on the account from which you transfer the funds in to this 'Club Vantage' account. If you have an account which you keep topped up to an exact figure, you normally do your day to day banking from a different account, not keep topping up the account every single time you make a transaction.