Something that still boggles me.

[ffutures]

I paid my last mastercard bill in cash, in full, and in a branch of the issuing bank (NatWest) on 1st May. Payment was due on the 5th. When I got my next statement they'd charged me a late payment fee and interest; my payment was shown as received on 6th May.

I phoned and queried this, and after a lot of hassle they agreed to refund the charge (though I forgot to ask about interest, and I'm waiting to see if they refund it - if not they will be hearing from me again); their version of this is that they can't guarantee that it will take less than five working days for payment to travel from the bank to their computers and for the amount to be credited. And there was a weekend and a bank holiday in between.

Does anyone else think it odd that they can remove cash from my account in a few seconds, but it takes nearly a week for the electrons to travel from the cashier's computer to theirs - which should be a completely automatic process? Do they shunt into sidings on weekends and public holidays?

It's a couple of weeks till I get the next statement, and if it isn't sorted in full I think that the Banking Ombudsman will be my next port of call. The amount is fairly trivial, the principle isn't.

Comments

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

I've got a topper for you. My Bank of America credit card is automatically paid from my Bank of America account using online Bank of America software. Yet every now and then they'll charge me a late fee until I complain, and then they reverse it. Luckily I can complain online.

I really suspect they do it because some large section of the population doesn't notice the fee. Several banks ago I'd have to periodically reverse a mysterious $77 debit that would appear every few months... they'd always reverse it, but they could never identify it.

Or how about earlier this month, when my mortgage company auto-withdrew TWO mortgage payments in the same month?

Banks suck, and you need to keep a close eye on them.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Believe me, I do. One of the reasons I don't have automatic payments set up is that I really don't trust the buggers if I'm not watching.