A Bankers View, Open Letter To Martin Lewis And His Followers On Bank Charges.

Phaelok

My response.

'Thank you for your note. However I'm afraid you've been sold a bit of a story by your bank and much of what you write isn't really true.'

Well i have worked in a banking environment for just over 4 years now and ever since then I have dealt with customers who naturally are unhappy with the level of bank charges.

The first point I need to make is this; I always go out of my way to help customers who have been charged or have received charges on charges. As and when I do help them I would hope that they never contact us again in relation to charges, after all if I have explained to them the reason why they were charged, how to avoid it in future and what I intend to do, then it follows that there should be no reason that they are charged in future. What frustrates me are people who have had charges refunded in the past and continue to persist in having more charges refunded, even though it was their fault. The so-called its 'unlawful' jargon is, quite literally, absurd - How on earth can a charge be unlawful if the bank clearly states how/when it will charge you on the account? Before opening an account you need to be in agreement with the way the account should be run. If you are not happy why agree for it to be open?

I am sorry for saying this, but it does not require someone with banking knowledge to appreciate that if you want items to be paid from your account, i.e. cheques, d/d's etc, then cleared funds need to be in there. If customers took more responsibility for their account then I am sure we would not be seeing countless threads about unfair bank charges.

As I have stated above I always go out of my way to help, but if I do help should it not be a case of 'mistake made, lesson learnt'?

whitewing

Banker Girl,

You post up a full and honest SOA and we'll see if you really are in a position to comment. I bet you live with your parents.

Nathan_Spleen

Phaelok wrote: »

My response.

The so-called its 'unlawful' jargon is, quite literally, absurd - How on earth can a charge be unlawful if the bank clearly states how/when it will charge you on the account?

Of course it can be unlawful. Why do you think the OFT are taking the banks
to court? For laughs?

If some one asked you to sign a document agreeing to them murdering you
would that make it a lawful killing?

Phaelok

Nathan_Spleen wrote: »

Of course it can be unlawful. Why do you think the OFT are taking the banks
to court? For laughs?

If some one asked you to sign a document agreeing to them murdering you
would that make it a lawful killing?

What I am referring to is the 'legal' aspect of it. In other words the banks clearly stating in their literature the cost etc rather than applying charges to a/c's the customer has no idea what its for. The cost of it involved is the issue here, hence the term 'unlawful' is misleading.

Its like opening an account which states it does charge at all in its literature, only for a week later to have a charge applied to the account. In this respect this is illegal as it contradicts the original literature.

WestonDave

Interesting to see Martin describe someone who doesn't take account of an unpaid cheque as budgeting carefully. If you issue a cheque you are the only one that knows it exists until it hits the bank so you are the only one who can factor it in. If the little screen on the cashpoint says £50, but that £40 cheque hasn't gone through you have £10 to spend not £50 so spending £30 is going to get you overdrawn and charged. On a personal note for reasons I won't go into we currently have a £500 cheque outstanding on our current account so I have to keep £500 in there at all times - fortunately the account is offsetting our mortgage so in interest terms it works but it is a pain to remember - but that's real budgetting.

I don't doubt that bank charge levels are in excess of actual costs and that should be stamped out once the courts consider the test cases, but by the same token this site needs to be a lot clearer in calling poor budgeting, poor budgeting because in the end its only good budgeting which will stop people getting penalty charges. The mixed messages which imply that its all down to the banks aren't helping people.

Nathan_Spleen

I see. So if the murder contract only results in an injury, that's alright then is it?

GadgetsDS

BANKER_GIRL wrote: »

My true message is that customers need to take responsibility for their own money and not rely on what you say, You have no real contact with some of the customers you claim to wish to help, and you have no idea how you affect their treatment of bank workers. You have no idea how many times I have been sworn at, screamed at and verbally abused by customers who believe what you say. You seriously need to look at what you saying to people and the message you are giving as it is simply wrong.
<o></o>

arr poor you, if u dont like the way people talk to you then dont work there, if your so smart then im sure your find another job, if the banks stop taking are money then we will have no reason to "verbally abuse" people like u over the phone

Phaelok

Nathan_Spleen wrote: »

I see. So if the murder contract only results in an injury, that's alright then is it?

Well referring to your initial post, I am sure you are aware that the state of mind, as well as other factors, would be called into question at the time of agreeing to that. But what I am referring to initially is bank charges, the example you have given is flawed.

katiekittykat

BANKER_GIRL wrote: »

Well the bank i work for would not charge that amount. But certainly i feel that not looking after what is coming in and coming out is irresponsible behaviour, especially since i know how many measures the bank puts forward to stop this happening that people will not take up. People do not even look at their statements, they flip straight to the charges page and dont even ask why they have been charged, so yes i feel that going overdrawn for 67.99 should be charged for. But I know my bank would not charge that much. And no i will not disclose what bank i work for.

So how do you feel when you get charged £30 for being 1p over drawn?

Nathan_Spleen

In law, if a charge is deemed to be a penalty, the entire charge is unlawful.