We have recently had a number of bank charges added to our accounts, and i feel another is on the way. We bank with HBOS. Last week we were advised that we had a bank charge to be added due to insufficiant funds being in the account. We have an overdraft of £1000 at the time of the standing order, that was set up to automatically to send £5 to another of my savings accounts with HBOS. I have looked through my online banking account and cannot see anywere on it that the balance topps £1000 infact the same day £115 was paid in to the bank account before the £5 was to be sent to the other account. My balance never reaches over £-850 but they have since notified me and charged me £35. I have called them and got no joy what so ever with them. Is there anything i can do. I have taken screen shots of my online account as evidence of this.

My other point has just happend today and it has really P****ed me off. We shop with Asda online and over 2 weeks ago bought a shopping with them. The money came off the account instantly but never showed up on the onlie account. Now this happens all the time but then after a day or so it shows up on the account. Not this time however, it has only came out Today and as a result i am now over my over draft limit. We bought the shopping on the 14th of May and it has taken until now to come off the account. This payment had dissapeared from our account on the 14th but had not showen up. Is there anything i can do to stop the bank from charging me for this, or is this something i need to take up with Asda?

Kind Regards

Andrew

ajizzy1873:

It's likely there is some small print in the Terms & Conditions which explains when a credit is considered to be cleared funds. There is a difference between an account balance and available balance. Look at the online display and see if that is made clear. If not, complain.

I don't want to discourage saving but it doesn't make sense to have a standing order for £5 which potentially costs £35.

I think the Asda situation is another manifestation of the same account balance/available balance issue. The transaction should have instantly reduced your available balance (but not your account balance). Eventually (usually only a day or two later) the actual transaction should be debited. If the actual transaction does not come through in time the "reserved" transaction is cancelled restoring your available balance. This can cause problems if you then rely on your online available balance.

If Asda are consistently slow perhaps you should ask then but the real problem is you are too close to your o/d limit.

If the HBOS online system does not deduct reserved transactions from the available balance then move to a bank which does. I think Nat West/RBS does.

Natwest online definitely shows both current balance & available monies (which includes all cleared deposits, authorised overdraft and future known debit transactions due following day). It does not deduct future D/Ds or S.Os however.

On the ASDA issue, I have had the same problem with them with credit card transactions on several occasions-worse one was when it appeared 6 weeks after the purchase!