Be Excellent To Each Other

This is only to do with the OFT getting to stick it's nose in though, isn't it? It shouldn't in and of itself affect whether or not they are unenforceable penalty clauses as a matter of contract law.

Who's going to take their bank to court over £35 though?

Oh, I'm absolutely certain there are plenty of green pen wielding sorts who would do just that on principle.

Capital One tried to charge me £12 in default sums this month. I set up a direct debit in October, they made no mention of it apparently taking two months to take effect, and I missed my payment. They can nob right off.

When I switched banks Capital One failed to do the switcheroo so failed a payment. I complained and ended up with the £12 refunded twice. So technically I've defrauded them since I paid the balance down to zero, didn't tell them and am about to close the account.

Serves them right for ignoring my bank telling them to switch over, frankly.

I claimed back thousands of pounds in penalty charges + interest + court fees a few years ago (don't ask). I feel sorry for those who have had claims stuck for ages now to be told to get fucked.

How so?



Damn! Too late!

I followed a guide on a consumer website, initially writing to them to ask for the charges back. When they didn't (obv), I took them to small claims court. They ended up settling a day before.

This is something of a pisser, being as last month I got fined £35-ish for going 2p into an unplanned overdraft. I was not amused.

I've never understood why the banks can't just refuse transactions that would take you over the limit. They used to do that, didn't they?

I was talking about that with my bank manager last week. Apparently it's because refusing transactions is embarrassing for the customer. I told him that was bollocks.

'cos then they wouldn't make as much money, innit

Having worked in that sector for a while a way back, transactions (via card) that took you overdrawn were usually for 2 reasons:
1) At a low level the system didn't bother to dial through to check for authorisations.
2) If the link to the centre was broken, under a certain level, again, the transaction would be authorised.

But, again, it depended on whom the card merchant provider was.

Well yes, it is bollocks, because I distinctly remember having a load refused when I was a student due to insufficient funds.

Gaz speaks the trufax.

Doubt it - they charge for stopping them too.

This is why I love my O2 Money card thingy. It won't let me spend a penny more than I have.

markh speaks the trufax. Transactions can be offline for all sorts of reasons, and the retailer doesn't know you don't have any money.

If it's online authorised, the host certainly will knock the transaction back if it would take you overdrawn, for debit accounts anyway.

I have a bank account that does just that. Still charges £20 if a direct debit is refused, but you simply can't go overdrawn. I had to look for it, but it's a Cooperative Bank Cashminder account. It's hard to find on the web site, but it is there. It's very simple and you don't get a cheque book, but do get a Visa Debit card. I like it a lot. The online bank site is lean, simple and iPhone friendly and the phone gets answered very quickly by helpful people. It's ace.

O2 don't charge you for, er, not going overdrawn.

Hmm.

The other thing I wondered is why they're allowed to take the charge out of an unauthorised overdraft - I'm not ALLOWED to go overdrawn, yet you're making me further overdrawn and charging me for that charge taking me overdrawn! Surely by doing that you've consented to me being overdrawn? And anyway - rather than deduct the money from an empty account which I don't want you to do, as I have no money and no wish to use an overdraft facility (and have not consented to taking advantage of what is, basically a loan - MUST be some Consumer Credit Act issues there) , why don't you just fucking invoice me for the charge, eh?

All that said, I've never been overdrawn, and it's people like myp gettin gtheir money back who are going to mean I end up paying for my heretofore free banking.

Also, another thing is once you have a couple of things refused, most banks used to (don't work in that field any more, thank god) plop in a monitoring system, so that smaller excesses are less likely to be tolerated. Which affected my mate whom accidentally used his company card (issued by a high street bank, his employer, for expenses) to pay for a service and tyres, then forgot to put enough cash in his account to stop the cheque being bounced repaying this debt for which he'd had to grovel to stop them firing him on the spot , which got him into a whole world of trouble....

They all authorise charges for £x over your limit now though, to a certain point (a bit like a cheque guarantee).

Guy from Which? on Radio 4 this morning (oh, I know) made a seemingly good point that although it's typical not to be charged for a current account in this country, you're getting a virtually zero interest rate, and the banks do very well out of it, even without the daft charges.

I wouldn't be overly concerned. They've made/are making more out of me than I've been paid back, that's for sure.

Aye, that's up to the bank though, I was just agreeing with the point of how it works, technically.

It does sound like a bit of a scam if they explicitely authorise you going overdrawn and then slap on a big fine.

Yeah, I was listening to that too, and I said that myself when this first came up a billion years ago. But it still means they would have a 2 billion per annum hole in their finances if the overdraft charges went. They're not going to just wave goodbye to that - it would get recouped elsewhere, most likely by charges.

FTFY

I don't; the lazy useless feckers.

In an occasional case the bank has made a balls-up and the customer shouldn't have been charged, but in the vast, vast majority of cases it's just someone who's been bad with money, not paid attention to their finances correctly and gone overdrawn when they're not allowed to, despite knowing the rules.

Whenever I've hand an inkling this might happen to me I've let the bank know, and they've been fine to extend my overdraft. Also, when they've charged me incorrectly I've gone into a branch and they've corrected it for me there and then.

As such, I don't have a tremendous amount of sympathy for the muppets who aren't getting 'their' money back, on the whole.

Yep, I've been charged loads over the years, but I have no intention of claiming any of it back because I'm thoroughly aware it was all down to me being a 'tard.

The problem is, it can be a vicious circle. It has taken me the best part of six months to get out a hole caused by charges.

Basically, money goes in, Direct Debits go out, DD's get refused as it would make me overdrawn, bank charges for refusal, which then takes me overdrawn, more DDs, more refusals, money goes in, pays off the charges first, leaving not enough for all the DDs and so on and so forth.

You can say that is me being a 'tard, and to a large extent, I take responsibility. However, cash flow is an issue when you are self-employed, and your client decides to simply stop paying people while it mashes three accounts departments together. And then can't do BACS payment.

The way I finally got control of things was to cancel every direct debit. Means you pay people when you can pay them, not when they want paying.

Plus, it changes their attitude completely. From "we're taking the money anyway" to "oh shit... how can we get something?"

Yeah, I don't have any direct debits. Don't like the whole idea of them.

I didn't though, I said it was me being a 'tard - because in my case it was down to just being rubbish at managing money as a student. I fully appreciate that's not always the case.

Hang on - you going overdrawn isn't me being a 'tard. I'm not taking the fall for that.

But you said you had the negatives...

That's fair enough, and in the main you're right. Mine was an... interesting case.