Is it just me, or do banks seem to like technology only when it suits them? Take debit cards. How difficult would it be for debit card purchases to instantly debit an account? Not that hard, with a few web services or dedicated links between banks and card companies. Yet, strangely enough, it takes a day for the purchases to show up on your account, even though ATM withdrawals show up instantly.
What takes it so long? Could it be that if it arrives in your account at an unspecified point in the day, you might not have enough money in your account and you’ll have to pay an extortionate overdraft charge?
Take First Direct. £30 for going over your limit. You’ll only get charged though, if you’re over your limit at midnight. Fill up your account before midnight with enough money to take you back within your limit and you’ll be let off.
They also offer a text messaging service that will tell you when specific events occur.
Good plan I came up with: why not get a text message whenever my account goes over the limit (which would never happen if certain accounts departments didn’t regard “Pay within 30 days” as being equivalent to “Start thinking about paying at no point before 30 days”)?
Brilliant, huh?
Yet you only get the message at 6am each day. No instant alert, even though it’s SMS and entirely event-driven. But that’s okay, because all my BACS transfers happen at 2am it turns out. So I’ll know at the start of the day if I’m overdrawn and need to do something about it. But if one of these tricky debit cards transactions comes in, I’ll be over without any warning.
So that’s two ways First Direct try to get you to give them loads of money for not providing a helpful service, despite my best attempts. I’m going to have to check my balance last thing at night every day now. That is, until those pesky Highbury-Paragon people get round to paying me according to their contractually obliged terms and conditions, rather than “when they feel like it”. Then I’ll be rolling in it. Sort of.