taking the mick

klew356 wrote: »

I have a question! I have a friend who is an older gentleman in his seventies. He has been with the same bank for years, he innocently asked me about some amazon prime taking money from his account so I sorted it for him. To discover that he was overdrawn in his current account, had plenty in the savings and was paying a minimum payment on a credit card he had forgotten about. Im just wondering is there not a duty of care to their customers to suggest that the savings had been moved to sort the overdraft, used some to pay the credit card etc etc. instead they have sat back and took the overdraft fees? I have sorted this for him by simply arranging a meeting at the bank and money was moved around. Sorted. Can the charges be claimed back? :money:

His overdraft is his responsibility, his monthly statements would tell him he was over and the charges. Similarly his credit card statements would comprehensively cover the minimum payment, the interest and how long it would take to pay off just by doing the minimum. The savings are a different department, even if the same bank, neither the current account team nor the credit card team can tell him to use his savings. Do you even know if he was choosing to do this to keep his savings as some sort of safety net due to a mindset of wanting to have savings available even at the expense of paying interest?


No the charges cannot be claimed back. He isn't in financial hardship and there is no wrongdoing by the bank, he's an adult who made his choices.

klew356 wrote: »

Im just wondering is there not a duty of care to their customers to suggest that the savings had been moved to sort the overdraft, used some to pay the credit card etc etc. instead they have sat back and took the overdraft fees?

Can you seriously not imagine the uproar if banks began "suggesting" how customers should run their accounts?
It's the customer alone who bears the responsibility thankfully.

On the other hand, if your friend has become a vulnerable individual who can no longer look after his financial affairs then there is help available. He won't be receiving any refund of (even some) charges, though, unless he is now in financial hardship.