Your Ideal Customer Charter

[iancognito]

OK it appears an opportunity has been missed, anyone who has read The Customer Charter will know it goes no way to solving the problems caused by unauthorised overdraft charges.

SO thought it would be good to start a thread to see how your ideal charges regime should run, here's mine:

1. Do away with unauthorised overdrafts as far as possible, if the money isn't in the account on the day a payment is due, it doesn't get paid, putting the onus on the customer to meet their own budget. Fee to reflect cost of declining payment.
2. Put any charges incurred in a separate account to be billed monthly on a set date, with the onus being on the customer to pay the amount physically rather than the bank being able to deduct it from the account.
3. Give the customer the option of spreading costs over 12 months be direct debit like other service industry companies do.
4. Banks should have to chase debt like other companies, just because they hold your funds, shouldn't mean it's their money, even if it means threat of suspension of services like phone companies do.

Over to you......

[Nattie]

Re: Your Ideal Customer Charter

I hope you don't mind but I will play devil's advocate on this one as my perspective is as a bank worker.
on point 3 do you mean costs of paying charges? how could that work?

[iancognito]

Re: Your Ideal Customer Charter

Like every other service industry comapny does it, on an average of the last 12 months - reviewed at regular intervals - works for everyone else!

[Amethyst]

Re: Your Ideal Customer Charter

Okay heres mine...


1:Fees to be more inline with actual costs - a set limit per fee - £12 (sorry folks) - a set number of times it can be charged per month - 3 times. The fee becomes a service which the banks actually provide. (whateve anyone says we DO need the charge to be high enough for it to matter to stop abuse of accounts - don't throttle me for saying that)

2: To be invoiced as per your phone bill - your bank services bill.....giving u the choice of how and when to pay to enable you to manage your funds. Pay by DD/card/transfer whatever - monthly invoice etc.

3. For a limit say £20 OD where things are still paid - everything should be declined otherwise

4. For banks to do their decision making on pay or not pay at 11pm on the day of the DD payment - not a 2.30am. Therefore allowing a full banking day for money to be paid in to cover it BEFORE it is taken.

5. More account and notice taken of individual circumstances -more discretion given to staff for refunds for benefits/hardship/genuine error cases.

6. A set time limit (a lot shorter than current say 4 days) for businesses to process debit/visa card transactions from your account.



i'll add as i think of stuff

[Nattie]

Re: Your Ideal Customer Charter

on point 5 staff have been sacked for less and could lead to abuse internally, but guidelines should exist. I think point 2 and environmental issues of paper

[biscuits]

Re: Your Ideal Customer Charter

4. For banks to do their decision making on pay or not pay at 11pm on the day of the DD payment - not a 2.30am. Therefore allowing a full banking day for money to be paid in to cover it BEFORE it is taken.




Excellent point, i looked at my online banking (natwest) on a friday, and i noticed a direct debit was coming out on the tuesday and my account was £3 short of paying it so i transferred £3 to the account and they still bounced it and are charging me £58 for the privilege, barstewards

[Nattie]

Re: Your Ideal Customer Charter

£38 sorry to correct it, but internet cut off point is 6pm i believe.

[biscuits]

Re: Your Ideal Customer Charter

No they are charging me for going over my overdraft also on top of the £38, and i transferred the money 3 days before

[Nattie]

Re: Your Ideal Customer Charter

that means £66 cos its £38 plus £28 unless they paid it and then charged you so referral at £30 and unarranged borrowing at £28 so that figure would be correct.

[biscuits]

Re: Your Ideal Customer Charter

Yeah thats the one, £66 but my point is they should've paid the dd as the money was there!