to be really angry at £25 per day bank charges and no idea when they take it?

[marykat2004]

DH has ONE standing order on his account. He is such an idiot he can't even have ONE standing order and understand that he has to leave enough in the bank to pay it.

But what REALLY makes me angry is that he is charged £25 per day by the bank, BUT they take their fee "21 days after the end of the blah blah blah" which makes no sense even to me let alone to an idiot like DH. SO, they will take their FEE at random, some 21 days after a random date, and the DH will be unprepared for it again and then he will be overdrawn again and then he will be charged a fee again. And so it will continue.

This is a way for the bank to rob from the poor, making it impossible to tell when they are going to take their overdraft fees.

Why can't they at least TELL YOU WHEN they are taking the fee so you can be prepared???

Im with the Halifax they charge £18 for a bounced direct debit, and they notify when they will take the charges. They only charge once.

If your partners bank charges per day then he needs to move banks, he should always leave money in his account. He sounds irresponsible.

£25 a day? Is that a business account then, because usually it's a one off payment.

Could you ring them and ask when they're going to rob you?

Make sure you have a buffer amount of money in the bank, if you have lots of direct debits.

I am sure it is not legal for them not to tell you when a bank charge will be applied.

'Tis bloody criminal,

Or he could take control of his finances and then he wouldn't have charges. The bank can't take anything if he isn't such a prat with his money, can they? So who's to blame?

If he really is totally unable to understand that a standing order comes out of his bank and there needs to be money there to pay it, then perhaps the standing order should come out of a different account. Maybe he should have a bill account, for which he has no card or anything.

Thing is, he knows this standing order is there, he knows what day it comes out, he knows it will result in a charge if it's not there - I honestly am finding it impossible to get behind your rage with the bank. The solution to this problem is simple and blindingly obvious.

And I'm not saying this to be an unsympathetic cow to you, but the reality is they will carry on taking his money until he gets his arse into gear and it's all his own fault. How many £25s is he going to chuck at them? How many have they had? when will he stop? after £100? after £1000?

I make sure I have a buffer in the joint account. It's HIM that doesn't have a clue. He shouldn't have set that up. So what if it's his account, it's £25 plus more, I am sure it is more than a one-off, it's Nat West but the most basic current account, no credit cards, no overdraft, no loans. It's money he is throwing away that he could be spending on food or contributing to the family.

This is basic stuff that your DH needs to get a grip of.

If he is incapable of managing his finances like an adult, and continues to get these £25 a day charges due to poor organisation skills, I'd find this totally unacceptable. I mean, that's two third of a day's take home pay if you're on minimum wage. How can that continue?

It's not up to the bank to sort out your DH - the problem is closer to home.

The bank is just taking advantage of his stupidity. Sorry.

Yes, true, TheMagnificentBathykolpian. Ok So I am angry with him. Also with the bank for not be clear when it comes out.

Try phoning them and being super - nice and apologetic and a little bit pathetic and they might reduce the charges. They were going to charge me £75 for being overdrawn for 3 days but after I called they reduced it to £37.50.
Which is still crap, but less crap..

I used to deal with bank charges at work so have a very black and white view on the subject!! The charges are alot and in some circumstances can seem alittle unfair but if you dont have the money in your account to pay your bills then you will be charged!
Your DH will HAVE to be prepared to avoid further charges and sorry to sound harsh but its as simple as that! so im affraid yabu!

AND being angry that it is ME who has to deal with this because he doesn't give a shit about anything practical. Fridge leaking out all over the floor? He's sleeping. Nits? Would he even THINK of helping out with DD's hair? no way. ANYTHING official, or anything other than FUN things that HE wants to do, he ignores. GRRRR.

It's money he is throwing away that he could be spending on food or contributing to the family.

OP, that's it, exactly.

But this money (which buys nothing of value) is being wasted.

It's time to get your DH to sort himself out - normal adults don't have a single standing order going out of control on a regular basis. Was he always this feckless or has there been some change - debt, redundancy, working lots of overtime?

If he literally cannot cope with dealing with his finances like a responsible adult (e.g. he hasn't arranged telephone banking and can't get to a branch when it's open... I guess?) is there any way you can help him out and essentially take control yourself? The danger is then that you start to enable his poor money management to continue.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that: is your husband just unable to deal with this stuff properly due to circumstances outside his control, or is he just being irresponsible?

what does it actually say? 21 days after the end of what?

21 days after the end of the month? that would be the 21st of the month

21 days after the date of the statement?

What's the full thing, maybe we can help you work it out.

OP I have the same account with natwest and they only charge £38 for a bounced standing order the next day, no daily charge and if you dont have enough to cover the standing order on the day you can put the cash in before 2.30pm on the same day and they will pay the SO/DD and no charges.

Well, after your last post, I think the bank charge is the least of your problems, don't you? Sounds like you have a man-child on your hands.

God, who wouldn't like to only do the fun stuff in life! I bloody would! Unfortunately, there's this little thing called Being A Grown-Up that gets in the way.

How is it that he is able to avoid that?

Oh FFS both of you need to grow up. He needs to take some responsibility and you need to stop enabeling him.

"21 days after the end of the charging period." So WHAT is the "Charging period"?

My first thought was that he was trying to account for some money for something without you knowing

Ditto everyone else. The banks don't take charges randomly, they take them because they have had to return a dd/so, or if you exceed a limit. The customer is always notified of the "offence" so to speak, and the day the charges will be debited. Its possible that the debit of a charge can result in more charges....for example if the bank took the £25 fee but there was only £20 available, pushing your husband into an unauthorised overdraft.

As an ex assistant bank manager, he needs to get a grip on this. I am finding it hard to understand your rage directed at the Bank, they will be following procedure but whether your husbands absorbs this information or not is not their problem.

These charges can, and do, affect credit scores too, meaning that you could find it hard to draw a loan, buy a car, get a mobile phone etc etc over the years unless he sorts this out.

I would get this sorted to avoid wasting money and affecting your future money plans.....

End of the month maybe?

This is easy enough to sort out. you phone them and ask.

Sorting out the child you are married to may not be as simple...

yeah, we are getting into deeper territory. He's never had standing orders, the only other time he had one the same thing happened to I cancelled it. I am going to cancel this one, too. I already spoke to the people who it goes to, to make other arrangements.

I have always been in charge of all the money stuff. Apart from one little bank account he had before we met.

AT LEAST he doesn't go overdrawing the joint account. Because I keep so much in there that even if he uses it to pay a bill or buy some food, it won't overdraw.

I'm with Natwest and have NEVER been able to work out their charges!

Ha! NightNurse, EXACTLY, it is NAT WEST.

But marykat2004, cancelling this standing order effectively means you're working around his inability to get a grip on one of the most basic functions of being an adult (responsible money management) and setting a shockingly bad example for your DCs' future attitudes.

You shouldn't have to take charge and cancel the order, making alternate arrangements.

Your DH should buckle his ideas up.

I know you already know this, but I suspect that if you've had this pattern before (him being feckless, you fixing things) without it getting resolved, you're just storing up more years of having to compensate for him with this latest episode.

You have a man child, as the others have said.

If I don't do anything he won't either. I don't care if it's "HIS" money, if he throws "his" money away he dips into the joint account. There are worse men out there, ones who would run the joint account out of control, too.

I don't think he's capable of being a grown up.

An astrologer once told me I would have 2 children and no husband. So sad that has come true.