Why don't banks just bill us?

Borodin

olly300 wrote: »

Would you prefer that the bank refused to honour your direct debit if you where overdrawn instead of charging you, and didn't give you a cheque book? When I was a university student this was a common occurrence for students who couldn't manage their money to prevent them getting more bank charges.

Haha! If there are insufficient funds my bank (Nationwide) refuses to honour direct debits and charges me. I only get problems when a payment is due that I didn't expect, and most of the time that happens it's because of a mistake or bad practice by a third party.

Scottishmummy

LittleVoice wrote: »

My banks tell me in advance if it intends taking any charges out of my account. It then deducts the money it has advised me about - and I have time to query the payment. I think they all do that.

Unfortunately they don't ALL do that as I have just found out with Alliance & Leicester:mad:

Borodin

Scottishmummy wrote: »

Unfortunately they don't ALL do that as I have just found out with Alliance & Leicester:mad:

Precisely. And querying the payment is a waste of time unless they've made an obvious mistake. Contesting the fairness of a charge can't happen until way after you've made the payment and many more like it. It's common advice if an account is in dispute to close the account and open one with another bank. That wouldn't be necessary if the banks invoiced us like every other industry instead of helping themselves to whatever they wanted.

Borodin

Poosmate wrote: »

Isn't that what your statements are for? Mine always tell me how much interest is going to be charged to the account and on what date. I haven't paid a charge for about 6 or 7 years.

Then presumably you think were being reckless and stupid seven years ago?

It is easy to stay within limits if you always pay cash and never buy anything but groceries. If you often buy different sorts things from different suppliers you will sooner or later come across a bad one.

Poosmate wrote: »

Borodin, we all make mistakes and most of us learn by them. You seem to have made "dozens" of mistakes but not learnt anything. Maybe it's time you sat down and actually read your statements and studied your account to find out why this is happening and then maybe you would avoid having to pay charges in the future.

That seems rather rude to me. I have been banking for 38 years now, and nearly all of the occasions I was referring to were charges that were unexpected. I could have allowed for them outright only by expecting appalling behaviour from everybody involved in every transaction. I am more than a little peeved that bankers alone insist on being so mechanical and ungracious, and since the last twenty years have decided to work from behind a corporate screen so that all we can talk to is puppets.

Poosmate wrote: »

Hope this helps.

Not really no.

olly300

Borodin wrote: »

I only get problems when a payment is due that I didn't expect,

This and some of your previous posts indicate that you may have some organisation problems.

Some of my friends' have a white board which they place in a prominent position where they write down when all the direct debits are going to come out of their accounts as soon as they open their bills. This way they can ensure they have money in their accounts days before the direct debits are due.

Borodin wrote: »

and most of the time that happens it's because of a mistake or bad practice by a third party.

Unfortunately the onus is on you to chase the third party or the bank up and get both the money and charges refunded.

I've had direct debits taken out of my Nationwide account which shouldn't. They are are very quick in comparison to other banks I've banked with in refunding you if you send a message by online banking.

BTW if a bank cannot be bothered to inform you on your statement that they are going to charge you with at least 14 days notice then you should bank elsewhere. I don't know if Nationwide do this as I've not had bank charges for over 10 years and my cash flow is very varied.

Paul_Herring

Borodin wrote: »

Poosmate wrote:

Borodin, we all make mistakes and most of us learn by them. You seem to have made "dozens" of mistakes but not learnt anything. Maybe it's time you sat down and actually read your statements and studied your account to find out why this is happening and then maybe you would avoid having to pay charges in the future.

That seems rather rude to me.

I thought it seemed rather realistic.

useruseruser

Borodin wrote: »

Precisely. And querying the payment is a waste of time unless they've made an obvious mistake. Contesting the fairness of a charge can't happen until way after you've made the payment and many more like it. It's common advice if an account is in dispute to close the account and open one with another bank. That wouldn't be necessary if the banks invoiced us like every other industry instead of helping themselves to whatever they wanted.

And i've just been told by Alliance & Leicester that they will now wait on the decisions made through the courts before they will even look at refunding the £80 I've been charged for going £13 over my limit, not a great help when i've just had my income drastically cut due to maternity leave.

olly300

Paul_Herring wrote: »

I thought it seemed rather realistic.

I have to agree.

If you are on a tight budget then you know you are going to have to watch your cash flow daily, and know what is coming and out of your account. Yes people don't pay you on time so you are going to have to budget for the fact that until you get paid and the funds are cleared in your account then you don't have the money to spend.

It's not the banks responsibility to manage your money for you. There only responsibility is to provide you with a banking service, and make as much profit as possible from you for their shareholders.