Pre-paid card company cashes in on Covid

Yahoo_Mail

conster_nation said:

Yahoo_Mail said:

conster_nation said:

UK banks and credit card companies have fees listed in their T's and C's, but they contact their customers to alert them before the fees are charged (where possible) and they provide advice and guidance on how to avoid or minimize costs to the customer.

I don't think that's true at all.  There might be the odd exception to this but where fees are clearly outlined in the terms and conditions, I doubt you'll get advanced warning from banks or credit card companies for almost any fee charged by them.  I don't think you'll get guidance on how to minimise charges either.  You might get "advice" to contact them or a debt charity if you're experiencing financial hardship (and the charges were potentially due to this such as unarranged overdraft fees or late payment fees) but that's about it.

Maybe I'm just with the right banks/credit cards and with the wrong pre-paid card. I get emails and texts if I go into overdraft or near my credit limit, and while the advice may be obvious e.g. "don't go over your limit or you'll be charged a fee" or "clear your overdraft by close of business or you'll be charged interest" at least it is a timely reminder before I incur charges.
I am aware that these are voluntary actions that financial institutions may or may not choose to follow, and that Caxton is quite within it's rights to not notify it's customers in advance of fees. Until now I didn't know that Caxton wasn't going to give me advance notification and I'm sure there are many people out there who didn't know that either.

I was thinking more of letters rather than app notifications or texts.  But the examples you give are strictly limited to unarranged borrowing and I did mention that.  Do any "normal" charges get notified by the banks before they're applied?  Do Foreign transaction charges get a notification before they're applied?  Or monthly account charges?  Or charges for bounced Direct debits or cheques?  The latter two, maybe, as they're in a similar vein to the unarranged borrowing charges but everything else?  Can't see it happening routinely, sorry.  And I think the only reason the banks are notifying you of the things they are is that the FCA has probably told them to, or "recommended" they do.

 As the FCA probably hasn't told Caxton or anyone else to notify you of dormancy charges (which are in the T&Cs which you should be reading) then they won't.

k12479

conster_nation said:

Caxton (and probably other card providers) are taking money for doing nothing. 

They are doing something. They are maintaining their accounts, their systems, their staff, possibly their hedging activities if that's something they do, their compliance obligations, paying their suppliers, etc. All that has costs that don't disappear just because people haven't used their cards.

wiseonesomeofthetime

Looks like closing it, at a cost of £1.50 (redemption processing fee, per T&C 21), may be the best course of action in current environment.