2 minds

[2 minds]

 

Working at a Bank you should know that Basic Accounts don't come with Cheque Guarantee Cards, and most of them don't even have Cheque Books.

 

if you read my last note thats exactly what i said!!

 

and as for dispraportionate charges again if you read my comments you'll see that I dont agree people should get charged for a dd returned at £2.49, tinkerbelle r u sure you have read my comments?? Don't assume just because I work for a bank that I'm heartless!!

 

Yes Lueeze I do agree (to a degree!)

 

 

I'd be interested to know what everyone else does for a living????!!????

[Puppet]

barman. / student

 

people claim the dole and spend it in the pub i work so effectively i am self employed my taxes pay my wages .

 

2 minds do you agree that how you are treated by a bank is entirely dependant on which person you speak to. some people have no common sense

[Bookworm]

I'd be interested to know what everyone else does for a living????!!????

 

Breathe in, breathe out, try to survive...

[2 minds]

barman. / student

 

people claim the dole and spend it in the pub i work so effectively i am self employed my taxes pay my wages .

 

So ur loved by all!!

2 minds do you agree that how you are treated by a bank is entirely dependant on which person you speak to. some people have no common sense.

 

Regrettably, yes!!

[2 minds]

So bookworm sells oxygen?;-)

[Bookworm]

Not sells, gives. Not oxygen, advice and hope. In the end, it helps people here breathe better, so I guess not so far from the truth...

[pmhread]

Haven't said anything on this thread but have found it quite entertaining!

 

I wish 2minds worked at my bank let me tell you.... I have charges of about £1000 which were mostly incurred during 2001-2003. We had just had a our first child, me and my partner were on very low incomes as we were just "starting out" (£1000 would have been above our combined monthly income!). I remember one instance where all of us went to the bank to contest over £100 of charges in a month. This left us with no absolutely no money left at the end of the month and what did they bank say.... We're very sympathetic to your plight, but..... we aren't in a position to refund your charges blah blah..... partner (now wife) was crying in the middle of the bank and they just didn't give a toss... No we can't give you a temporary overdraft because your currently overdrawn due to these charges, if you can pay in £100 today we can consider an overdraft.....????!! We ended up having no option but to go to a loan shark who charged us over £200 to borrow £100 which of course left us in a worse situation over the following months. Bit of a snowball effect from there really, not enough money to pay the next months bills because of charges and loan which resulted in more charges etc etc. I guess some of you already know this story.

 

I really wish we could put a monetary value on distress because I would be taking my bank to the cleaners right now. I just wish I knew at the time that there was a legal route to follow rather than just bending over and taking it like we have done for years.

[dave]

...and it's stories like that (very similar to my own) that prompted BF and I to start this site.

 

EVERYONE should know that being shafted by the bank doesn't have to be an option.

[powerful_rogue]

 

Is it just me, or does this just appear to be going round in circles?

[Guest Lueeze]

Hey i live 2 miles from that sign!!!!

 

PMSL!

[2 minds]

pmhread - good luck getting your charges back, and for the record I would've refunded your charges at first contact!

 

Well this has been fun everyone, best of luck to everyone in a similar position, I have learnt alot from you guys. Hope you can see where I am coming from. Never know I maybe writing to some of you soon and probably have written to some of you already!!

 

I will keep my eyes and ears open and if I hear anything that maybe of interest I will let you know. If any of you have any questions I wil try help out.

[Guest Lueeze]

Thanks 2 Minds

 

Lou x

[monkeysputum]

they shouldn't let any money leave the account if its not there, instead they authorise the payment and charge you £35 for it!!

 

HBoS never pays my DD's if there is insufficient funds, yet still charge me £39 for their trouble (7 days after the DD is actioned, might i add)

 

Like I said if people genuinely need help then banks should help but if people are irresponsible maybe they should get a basic account with no facilities so they can't spend money they do not have

 

I have a basic account for my direct debits, and on the occasions where i have been unable to pay in funds to cover DD's in time I am charged £39 for nothing but a letter telling me They will be STEALING £39 from me in 7 days. Until now, i have always believed these charges to be perfectly above board (after all, it's the bank, surely THEY wouldn't do anything unlawful) If they'd paid the DD's for me, then charged me £39 on top for the service, then I wouldn't really have any problem with it, as I would see it as a service charge, but, as it stands, they're fleecing me for every penny they can and I WANT IT BACK!

[2 minds]

£39 ouch!!!

[monkeysputum]

£39 ouch!!!

 

Exactly, now whenever i get a letter from the bank, I make sure to lube up before i open it, but now the boot is on the other foot, and I will be sending some K.Y. with my DPA:-D:D

[monkeysputum]

Letters like this one:mad: aren't they supposed to give you 14 days notice?

 

Dear Mr *********

 

Notification of an unpaid Direct Debit / Standing Order

We haven't been able to pay the item(s) shown below because there wasn't enough money in your account.

Where we haven't paid a standing order, please don't forget to make other arrangements for this payment. If the failed payment is a direct debit, you'll need to contact the collecting organisation to see when they'll try to collect the money again.

To cover our costs, we make a charge of £39 (maximum 3 charges per day) for any item we can't pay. We will take this money from your account seven days from the date of this letter.

If there's anything we can do to help you please contact us.

Yours sincerely Garry R D Kettle Manager Personal Banking Services

 

This certainly wasn't my fault, as the receiving organisation had sent me a letter stating they would be requesting £45, then requested £49, only £4, I know, but I had enough to cover the amount I was expecting to pay. Was I refunded by the bank when i explained what had happened? the answer is a resounding NO

[2 minds]

Letters like this one:mad: aren't they supposed to give you 14 days notice?

 

Dear Mr *********

 

Notification of an unpaid Direct Debit / Standing Order

We haven't been able to pay the item(s) shown below because there wasn't enough money in your account.

Where we haven't paid a standing order, please don't forget to make other arrangements for this payment. If the failed payment is a direct debit, you'll need to contact the collecting organisation to see when they'll try to collect the money again.

To cover our costs, we make a charge of £39 (maximum 3 charges per day) for any item we can't pay. We will take this money from your account seven days from the date of this letter.

If there's anything we can do to help you please contact us.

Yours sincerely Garry R D Kettle Manager Personal Banking Services

 

Yes FSA regulations...they do!

[monkeysputum]

so even more unlawful shenanigans to add ammo to my claim:cool:

[2 minds]

so after they send their letter (probably 2nd class) they gave you, what two three days to cover the charges, Naughty naughty bank!!

[bernard coleslaw]

Yes FSA regulations...they do!

 

I think you mean the Banking Code, which is the BCSB, not the FSA. It's a voluntary code, not a formal regulation. The section you're after is:

 

"5.5 Before we deduct interest or charges for standard account services from your current or savings account, we will give you at least fourteen days notice of how much we will deduct."

 

I suspect that many banks will say that the charges we're talking about here do not qualify as "standard account services" and so do not require the fourteen days notice.

 

Hope this helps.

 

BC

[2 minds]

and FSA principal number 7, A firm must pay due regard to the information needs of its clients, and communicate information to them in a way which is clear, fair and not misleading.

this covers notice of charges, fair is not 2 or 3 days

[bernard coleslaw]

The principal you're referring to relates mainly to financial promotions and is not specific enough for anyone to rely on in the instance in question.

 

To remind you, when asked "aren't they supposed to give you 14 days notice?", you replied "Yes FSA regulations...they do!"

 

On this evidence monkeysputum is going to beef up his claim.

 

Please confirm, to back up your reply to monkeysputum, where the FSA have specifically stated that banks must give "x" days notice of charges. All of us on this forum would find it particularly useful if a banking professional could point to the exact regulation.

 

I suspect that you can't.

 

Regards

 

BC

 

(p.s. to observers - I'm not saying that banks shouldn't give notice - I think they should and the regulator should provide clear guidance on this if necessary. But they haven't and it's therefore dangerous for barrack-room lawyers with only a little information to give out information that you later rely on in legal proceedings).

[ispartacus75]

Im going to add one post to this thread as a reply to 2 minds points from earlier in the thread.

 

1) Bread to expensive - I'll bake my own then

2) Plumber to expensive - I'll fix my own pipes then

3) Bank to expensive - I'll stoire my own money then. Oh hang on I cant. The money goes into the bak from my wages. I'll ask my wages dept to pay me cash. Thats a no-no. So what can I do?

 

In the first 2 instances I had a choice. In the 3rd I dont. We are forced by our employers to use banks and the banks are REALLY making us pay for it.

 

I have a basic account with no CHQ Guarentee card and no overdraft but still my bank will add charges on because they process my cheque going out 0.00000003 seconds before my cheque coming in . So for those 0.00000003 seconds there wasnt enough to cover the cheque. If your employers process stuff they way they print on there statements I wouldnt have had my cheque bounced, which incurred the charges which sent me overdrawn which incurred more charges.

 

Tell me who is at fault there then. Well go on then!

[Movingon]

It gets my goat that the banks will NOT pay an external debit of £5 if there's only £4.95 available in the account... but they're quite happy to make a charge of £35 to the same account, regardless of balance !! And yet it's supposed to be "fair and equitable". Yeah. Right.

[susanm]

Don't know about anyone else but i am fed up with the judgemental attitutde of lots of bank workers. My experience (which is the same as many others from reading different threads) is that there is very little that workers can do regarding excessive charging even if they wanted to as "computer says No"!!!