Can’t trust bank account

[ThatDenimExpert]

I am with bank of Scotland.
After making a purchase, pending transactions show right away. I bought a few things for my home, and was relying on the number in my debit account to tell me how much I had spent/had left and I was checking my transactions to see if my balance accounted for the transactions. After everything spent, my debit account said I had money left over which I put back into my savings. I didn’t buy anything more after that. My electric bill was being paid the following day, so I put the money for that into my debit account.
Turns out I can’t trust the amount bank of Scotland says I have left. The following morning, my balance was £0, and I was in debt for the entire cost of my energy bill. I checked my transactions, and the money I had put in for my energy bills had been spent. If I’d of known I’d gone over, I wouldn’t have continued buying!

Not the bank’s fault.

transactions may take a few days to show but you need to keep track of what you have spent and what routine payments are still to come out of your account

Not all transactions you make will show as pending. It's up to you to know how much you have spent and to make sure you have funds to cover it. Don't blame the bank for you overspending

You can’t blame a bank for you not controlling what you spent. That’s on you. Transactions don’t always show right away. You should have worked out how much spare you had to spend

On the Bank of Scotland app your balance doesn't include what's pending so you need to keep track ( minus pending total from balance) I know it's a pain because my daughter has the same problem.

I have a Royal bank of Scotland account and balance includes pending which is way much easier.

It’s up to you to keep track.

I have accounts in 3 different banks (none in Bank of Scotland). All of them have pending transactions included in the balance, so I really don’t understand other posters blaming the OP. Clearly BoS is an outlier here and doing things backwards.

Barclays are the same now, they used to be "live" and update straightaway but don't now, its a right pain

I moved to the Starling Bank and it's great. Much impressed. I also use the Emma app for account checking and planning.
I will never go back to the trad banks

When you say you can’t trust the bank - what you mean is that you’re not aware that not all transactions go through and pull from your balance immediately.

That’s an issue with every bank, just some more so than others depending on how they handle pending. A lot of payment systems work on a lag basis.

I think it can also depend on the transaction - sometimes money can come out of your account (in a failed transaction for example) and go back in again, but it can take several days to show as credited back to your account (this is down to the banks, not the retailer), which obviously would make you think you were worse off than you are.

But it's not the bank's fault. Back in the old days you'd have to write down on your cheque stubs what you'd spent and then total it all up if you wanted to know where you stood with your account. It's easier now but it can still take time for things to be processed.

Some retailers show up later than others in pending, the only way to be sure is to check receipts against what is showing in the app to see what is not there.

I don't think you can blame the bank unless it says somewhere in the Ts and Cs that every transaction will always be included as soon as you make it

My First Direct account confuses the hell out of me by sometimes taking payments off the available balance and other times not. I find Monzo much easier to use as all transactions happen immediately and show immediately. Have you thought about switching.

You need tighter controls of your finances. I'm presuming an energy bill is hundreds of pounds and you can't spend the same money twice. How much did you 'overspend' by?
Toys R Us used to be awful. It could take six months for them to take a pending payment (that didn't show as pending) and it was easy to lose track with Christmas spending. That was a good lesson to learn.

You need more than one account. It's difficult to spend from a current account without getting into a mess unless you have a big float as a buffer.

Have one account used for direct debits and make sure it has a monthly amount going into it to pay them and don't touch it for anything else.

Have a separate spending account (or two, you could split essentials and non essentials if you are at risk spending until the money runs out, if you do this, you need your spending accounts to be the type that show transactions straight away. Monzo, Kroo, Starling and Chase at least do this, not sure about traditional banks).

Then a savings account for money you want to put away for later for whatever reason.

I just checked my BoS app and the balance shown is the balance after pending. It may have been that the retailer didn't post the transaction immediately, but that's not the bank's fault.

You always need to leave a bit of a cushion in your current account.

You have to have a buffer, you can't rely on the balance to be accurate minute by minute. You can't spend up to the last penny, you have to have a permanent balance of close to what goes out each month otherwise this will happen some of the time- it's not the banks fault it's yours.

I think you absolutely should be able to rely on the 21st century computers to provide an accurate balance. I moved away from NatWest as my spending account purely for this reason. The available is sometimes correct and sometimes not. It should simply remove pending from available. Probably depending on the retailer but other banks manage to do it. It’s left me in the shit a few times and it’s a simple expectation.

I’m now with Monzo and I really rate them. Much higher interest for my savings too.

First direct were the worst for me. I have a spending account, a bill account and saving. I would use my card for my spending and instead of declining it would allow it because I had enough money in the other account. Convenient in one way but I don’t want to spend my bill money. That’s why it’s in another account.

Tbh it was quicker when we had manual cheques.

A few days for it to show up is ridiculous when the whole thing is electronic and should show instantaneously.
I want to know why it takes so long to show. I have one credit card which only updates every week or so, you could spend and spend on it and it would let you as it relies on the balance from a week ago.

Got caught out by that a few times in the past. The app will tell me immediately I have spent £10.03 in Sainsbury’s but that amount won’t be deducted from my balance for about a week. It makes no sense that with today’s technology that things are slower now than pre internet.

Remember trying to sign up for First Direct years ago and gave up as you seemed to have to make up innumerable passwords and codes and I got bored and abandoned the sign up process half way through

If they were taking 6 months to claim their money no wonder they went under
What a ridiculous system. Surely this was flagged as a problem. People could spend huge amounts at Christmas then close their bank account and would never be charged

This is very clearly user error and perhaps you need more support in managing your finances

You need to have two current accounts.
One for bills/direct debits and one for spending.

Or a minimum balance of something far greater than £0