My bank is so confusing

[dekaspace]

I only have mild aspergers and quite bright overall but this is very confusing!

 

In the past 6 months at least my bank balance seems to go wonky, i.e lets say I have a £200 balance and spend £20, the £20 is pre authorised so I have £180 available so I know thats what I have left then the £20 goes back on temporarily.

 

Meanwhile as I know I have £180 left I may pay rent and buy food to balance of say £130 leaving me £50 in credit, I would check balance and it may say something strange like £18 and speaking to bank they just treat me like I am some unintelligent(sometimes in a patronising voice sometimes feels like I am a little child if they are being polite) that I must have used my card to buy something and forgot about it.

 

The next day or so the balance resets to £50 so I may buy something for £8, when I check my balance it may say I have £24 left.

 

Reason I bring this up was I was given a large backdated sum of benefit so I was £1710 in credit, taking into account paying some old bills off that so far I have counted they come to about £700 and that since then I have been paid another £400 in benefits, and that I have £40 paid in direct debits and about £150-£200 in treats like weekend away and quite a few meals out and checking my bank balance last week I somehow have £1070 left!

 

When I checked my balance last week on the phone and checked every large payment had come off I was £1290 in credit so I treated myself to a £70 treat and took £80 cash out, and spent £60 on 2 nights in a hotel to visit relative and spent about £20 on my card when away, just had £270 in benefits pauid in but my balance is £1060!

 

I have counted up everything I know I spent in the month and £100 for card payments I may have forgot about (and only have 1 direct debit) and I assume I should have about £250 more.

 

I did ring up bank who said the DLA payment came in Tuesday and ESA Wednesday so I asked if they showed on my balance and was told yes.

 

Cannot work this out and its happening quite often.

 

I rarely use my card to purchase unless its something I buy online, everything I buy in town is cash only and as I have prepay phone and utilities I have no other bills!

 

Very confused.

[Special_talent123]

definitely happens to me, is it lloyds. i asked them to check but when they check nothing appears nor does it appear on the statement our end but reappears

[dekaspace]

Clydesdale. though I did have an issue about 10 years ago with Halifax so stopped using it, I remember it lasted about 4 years and about 6 or 7 cards had same issue where basiclally I would have something like £20 in account and then go to withdraw and have between £1 and £12 missing in £1 pre authorisations and was told they cant dispute it till it was taken fully, fast forward about 2-3 weeks the money would be back in account and bank would find no record of the pre authorisations.

[trekster]

Have you checked your bank statements to make sure your card hasn't been cloned or junauthorised payments haven't been taken out?

[dekaspace]

Not it hasnt, its just strange how they can say I have X amount 1 minute, then a huge amount lower the next, then something inbetween the 2 eventually not taking into account the obvious other things coming out.

 

In theory it could all be correct, as I worked out before buying food I have £400 less than I thought and I had £30 stolen from a "friend" and £40 in bills means its £330 and I have about £3 on me and bought some gift cards off a friend for £28 so means I could of spent £300 this month on just day to day life though that still seems a little high if its £10 a day I spend and sometimes I may overspend and somedays not spend at all so my £10 a day budget hardly ever reaches that and in the £700 I assume I spent this month that includes meals out/takeaways which I use as meal replacments so if I spent £20 on a take away it would last 2 or 3 days on average.

 

Then again the £60 for the hotel may come back onto my card as I had to do one of those pre authorisations when I got there which was £60 but it wasnt taken off but the funds may have been set aside that would mean my spenditure would be about right.

Edited April 4, 2013 by dekaspace

[Special_talent123]

Trekster, same happens occassionally to me- it reappears on statement it doesnt show its disappeared on statement just u only notice your balance going down

[matzoball]

It might sound a bit labourious - but you can actually request a sit down with your branch manager to explain it to you and have a look at your account. If you can, take a family member or key worker with you and they can make sure they talk to you in clear and unambiguous language. My mum had something similar, and asked to speak to the manager because the teller couldn't explain it properly - they looked at her account and it turned out her card had been cloned!

 

So it might be worth a wee check out?

[bed32]

My bank has the facility that I can walk into a branch and print out a statement containing all recent transactions from their "Account Manager" machine.

 

That shows every transaction, and the balance on the account after each one - if your bank offers a similar facility then it would be a good place to start. If once you have that you still don't understand then you could ask the bank to explain.

 

I have noticed that transactions might not always happen exactly when you think they do. So money paid in may take time to clear, or payments made on a card may take a day or two to be debitted from the account.