Just before the New Year, my local newspaper published a letter from a woman who had been waiting in a queue at a Tiverton bank and who had overheard a conversation that a polite, elderly gentleman was having with one of the cashiers.
He was asking for a £10 overdraft because he had no heating at home and needed to top up his “heating key”. Unfortunately he was short of money because he had just paid his newspaper bill, which had been more than he had expected. He was obviously known to the bank and had an account there but the cashier explained to him that there was nothing that she could do. In reply, the elderly customer kept on saying that he would have no heating over Christmas and that he would pay back the £10 after the Christmas break because he was expecting to receive a cheque. He also asked to speak to somebody he knew at the branch, but was told that she wouldn’t be able to help him either.
The woman who related this story expressed her embarrassment at witnessing this situation and explained that, as the pensioner thanked the cashier and started to walk away, she had felt moved to leave her place in the queue to press a £20 note into his hand.
On the face of it, it looks as though this story could have come straight from the pen of a modern-day Charles Dickens, with the miserly attitude of the bank and its employee making them the villains of the piece. But once I started thinking about it, I got the feeling that the bank cashier probably did the elderly customer a favour.
Unplanned overdrafts, such as the one that the customer was asking for, invariably incur substantial bank charges. For simply going overdrawn by £10, the pensioner could have been charged a monthly fee of about £15, together with a daily fee of about £5 for every day his account remained overdrawn. So, if he had waited for his cheque to arrive at the end of the Christmas (and New Year) break, and taking into account the time it would have taken for the cheque to clear, his initial £10 overdraft could have become £100.
Can you imagine how upset the woman, his Good Samaritan, would have been had she realized that. Then the letter to the press could have been complaining about how he had been overcharged! Which letter would you have preferred to read? I know what my answer would be!
If the overdraft was authorised and not exceeded, there should be no charges applied. But you’re right that in this case the pensioner did well. Maybe he could burn his read newspapers that cost so much … ? (No, I’m not really heartless). All the best … Am still reading through your stuff …
Comment by Russell — January 20, 2009 @ 9:45 pm |