Pawwed Rig wrote: » EBS have sent me 6 letters about a €3 overdraw on my account (which I don't use anymore). That is 55c x 6 = €3.30 on stamps to recover €3. I will not pay it until offered debt mediation
stepbar wrote: » I could understand perhaps if the account was overdrawn by 500 quid but 13 eur? Does the customer really need to be informed? Personally, I wouldn't be loosing sleep over 13 eur nor would I be over 500 for that matter.
dotsman wrote: » It's simply good practice, good customer service, in line with the regulator's desires and keeps the politicians/media happy (with the last 2 points being the only things that dictate banking decisions these days).
Sky King wrote: » I fully accept the account should not be overdrawn and it's down to bad timing on my part (withdrawing just a little too much cash just before a couple of standing orders went out). Other than this totally insignificant blip, my history is flawless, and I have 20 years of impeccable credit history with this bank. Not only this, but I put thousands through this account monthly. My main problems are 1) None of the above seems to be worth a fking sh!t to my bank, they don't give a tuppenny fk about me, my long standing customer loyalty to their company through good times and bad, and my virtually perfect credit history. 2) Sending out a letter offering debt mediation for a €13 overdraft makes them and their business look unbelievably fking stupid... even if it IS an automated letter. As another poster pointed out, a human wrote the rules for the automation and he or she decided at that point that any overdraft, no matter how small or short lived is worth a snooty automatic generic letter and this is wrong... very very wrong.
Sky King wrote: » My bank just wrote me a snooty letter to tell me to eliminate this outrageous overdraft of €13, run up over a ridiculous period of seven working days. They even went so far as to offer debt mediation services
dotsman wrote: » Yes, just like a human designed pretty much every till system to generate a receipt, regardless of whether the customer is actually looking for it or not. It's very simple, everybody gets the same letter, regardless of past history, their financial standing or how hot they are - it's the same letter. Now, if you think it's snooty, that's a personal opinion. Perhaps if you want to put up the content here for people to judge (minus any personal info), but as I said, the intention is of sending the letter is good on all counts, and is not intended to offend you!
D1stant wrote: » Can I call into your branch to discuss this in person?
syklops wrote: » Yes, write back and ask to have a meeting with them to discuss your circumstances, and to agree a repayment strategy. I would be interested to see what you get back. EDIT: This reminds me. Years ago, my dad got a bill from the ESB for Zero pounds and Zero pence. He ignored it. Every month for about 3 months it came in, the same bill Zero pounds and Zero pence. Then on the fourth month, he got a letter saying "This is a final reminder for your account, if you do not pay, your services will be cut off". So he sent in a Cheque for zero pounds and zero pence. He got a phonecall a few days later from the IT department apologising for the inconvenience of the letters. Apparently, when he sent back the cheque for Zero pounds, zero pence, the billing computer system hung when trying to figure out how to add zeros.
MadsL wrote: » Your dad did this, or he told you he did this? What other tall tales has he filled your head with? I call shenanigans...http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/zero.asp
mcmoustache wrote: » I write/maintain software - specifically, an accounting package. One of the packages that I wrote was the sales ledger which includes an automated reminder letters program. In simple terms, reminder letters get created for customers if their balance is greater than zero after their payment due date. Here's the science bit: Being software, due to floating point precision, sequences of calculations involving basic arithmetic can lead to a zero being something like 0.00000000000000002394. As a developer I get around this by clever rounding at the right times. If however, I somehow left out some of this rounding, let's say, at the point where I select my records from the database, while rounding them for the horrible Crystal Reports that I generate, then people could easily receive reminder letters for effectively zero-balances. It would be poor coding on my part and I'd expect that someone is paid to throw their eyes over these things before they get sent out but it's not inconceivable that this could happen. In fact, I'm tempted to do this just to prove snopes and MadsL wrong . EDIT - After actually reading the snopes link, I see that they cover my scenario. I guess I'll need to wait until next time before I can prove snopes wrong . EDIT 2 - Also, not much software would crash due to a zero-value payment.
dotsman wrote: » Sky King wrote: » I fully accept the account should not be overdrawn and it's down to bad timing on my part (withdrawing just a little too much cash just before a couple of standing orders went out). Other than this totally insignificant blip, my history is flawless, and I have 20 years of impeccable credit history with this bank. Not only this, but I put thousands through this account monthly. My main problems are 1) None of the above seems to be worth a fking sh!t to my bank, they don't give a tuppenny fk about me, my long standing customer loyalty to their company through good times and bad, and my virtually perfect credit history. 2) Sending out a letter offering debt mediation for a €13 overdraft makes them and their business look unbelievably fking stupid... even if it IS an automated letter. As another poster pointed out, a human wrote the rules for the automation and he or she decided at that point that any overdraft, no matter how small or short lived is worth a snooty automatic generic letter and this is wrong... very very wrong. Yes, just like a human designed pretty much every till system to generate a receipt, regardless of whether the customer is actually looking for it or not. It's very simple, everybody gets the same letter, regardless of past history, their financial standing or how hot they are - it's the same letter. Now, if you think it's snooty, that's a personal opinion. Perhaps if you want to put up the content here for people to judge (minus any personal info), but as I said, the intention is of sending the letter is good on all counts, and is not intended to offend you!
hardCopy wrote: » Point is, there is absolutely no reason for everyone to get a "generic" letter. It would be very easy to send a more subtle notification of smaller o/d's without recommending debt mediation for every overdrawn customer. You just trigger different letters for different thresholds.
It would be very easy to send a more subtle notification of smaller o/d's without recommending debt mediation for every overdrawn customer.
...... offer an automatic grace period for long term customers with good credit.
I would have to frame that... and then take a photo of it and send it to the guy at the bank named on it asking him to give me a call when suits him to work out a payment plan.
Sky King wrote: » This: It would be very easy to send a more subtle notification of smaller o/d's without recommending debt mediation for every overdrawn customer. And this: ...... offer an automatic grace period for long term customers with good credit. I agree with. And with respect to this: I would have to frame that... and then take a photo of it and send it to the guy at the bank named on it asking him to give me a call when suits him to work out a payment plan. This: I was going to just draw a wang on it and send it back to him
