I used my banks internet banking to send some money to a friend of mine in Canada – they charged me 25 bucks to do it.
Turns out I needed to put the branch my friends bank account is with as well as the name of the bank and his account number, so the money bounced.
Now my options are 1) find out his branch number and resend the money, being charged 35 dollars more to do so, or 2) pay them 35 dollars to put the money back in my account and forget about it. That’s it. I’m out 35 on top of the original 25 either way.
Is that a standard banking thing or am I right to be pissed off enough to change to a different bank?
Well, I’ve never tried something like that, and I don’t live in Australia. It sounds pretty crappy, though. I hated my old bank without them ever really doing anything overt like that. Screw 'em!! There’s enough competition out there that you should be able to find a better bank.
Next time you need to send some money, use PayPal. It doesn’t cost either one of you a dime!! (I don’t think it does.)
Did the bank disclose on its website that you would be charged a fee? Did the bank include instructions on its website on how to make funds transfers which included the need to obtain your friend’s branch number? Did you read all of the instructions on the website before attempting to make the payment?
If the answer to these questions are yes, yes and no respectively then you have no reason to be pissed off.
You might try asking your bank to allow you to send the money again with no fee since it didn’t work the first time, or for a refund on the original fee, but I don’t see how they’re under any obligation to do so unless they failed to disclose the fee or the instruction to begin with.
While the bank does say on the website that there’s a 35 buck cancelation fee (under a button marked fees) I didn’t look at it before I sent off the money because I’d been quoted all the fees over the phone by a representative and I guess he forgot to include it. While that’s true (why bother lying on the net?) would that mean anything to the bank?
To the second question on the website it has a place for the branch but doesn’t have it labelled as a necessity. Obviously for the Canadian bank it is, but there’s nothing on my banks website indicating that it’s definately needed. (I just checked :))
Have you spoken with a bank representative yet to tell them your dilemma? Many times banks will waive these kinds of fees. If they don’t and you tell them you’re very upset, have been with them x years, and think you may switch banks because of it and they STILL don’t waive the fee, I’d switch. I’ve found that smaller banks are generally more customer oriented than large and will generally have more leeway when dealing with customers.
I’ve been charged around $2 for a money transfer bouncing, but that was within Australia. I agree that it might be worth asking whether the fee could be waived.
$25 for an international wire is a smidge high for a bank but not horribly so. Last I looked, we charge $20 or so for retail customers. (retail = Joe Paycheck and his ATM card)
I don’t work with retail banking at all, so I don’t know what the norm is for correcting wayward international wires. Kalhoun - Western Union charges a good bit more than $10 for an international transfer. For $200, you’ll be hit up for $22 - not too far off from the original $25
Avarie537 - PayPal is only free for domestic checking account - to - checking account transfers. They do charge the recipient a couple percent merchant fee for accepting credit card payments. And their international returned-item fees are right in line with what Silentgoldfish got charged. They hit you up for a retail currency exchange fee, plus 50 cents origination, and there is a $30 return fee charged if the account info is incorrect.
The moral to this story? Despite the apparently borderless global community on the Web, banking is still loaded with challenges at national borders and the cost for trying to cross those borders can be surprisingly high.
Oh, by the way, didn’t mean to come off sounding harsh in my last post. Spillover from my IRL job. I get calls from people constantly who claim we didn’t disclose this fee or that fee or this billing provision or whatever, and I know damn well that we do since I wrote a lot of the current disclosure language.
Well, they wouldn’t budge on that crap, so different bank it is! Any suggestions? (my mum’s "all banks are bastards didn’t help though it’s getting increasinly true the older I get)
To answer the OP, you have a right to be pissed off and change banks if they don’t refund your fee.
If the field is not marked as MANDATORY and lets you pass it without a care in the world and THEN they bounce your money and charge additional fees because you didn;t fill in a non-mandatory field, yes, you have the right to be mightily pissed.
Have a go at them for not making sure their process (mandatory field validation) caters for a better class fool and demand a refund on at least one of the fees.
Caught@Work; I talked to a “customer service” representative of the bank this morning who was, shall we say less than helpful. Her stance was that since it was the other bank that bounced it and not them it’s not their fault, and though the guy that told me all about the internet banking service didn’t mention the extra 35 dollar fee I didn’t ask about any other fees so it’s not their fault either. As soon as I’d hung up I got doubly cheesed at her using the old “you didn’t ask so we didn’t tell you” routine. Maybe they’ll have a different reaction when I go in and cancel my account tomorrow but I doubt it.
Ahhhhhhhhh, what we used to refer to in the trade as Fascist Pig Bank.
I’d go over her head (if you’re going to change banks then there’s no harm) and suggest that if their site didn’t mandate information, how the fricken’ hell were you supposed to know that that information was required.
Regardless of who bounced the transaction, it’s their fault for not mandating the information that is required.
If her manager doesn’t give you success, go to the complaints department. They are generally pretty decent and may refund one of your fees.
I’ve bitched and complained to the CSR and the manager and then to the complaints department more than once with FPB and they’ve rolled over each time, but only once I start getting shirty with them (shirty but polite).
Continue to point out that if they are providing a service that doesn’t mandate information and the transaction bounces, you are willing to accept ONE of the fees, but NOT both.
Hah HAH! I just checked and the bank branch option is labelled “optional.” I might have them there! Hopefully they’ll be better behaved face to face tomorrow. If nothing else taking all my money out of there will be a lot more satisfying than hanging up (not that I’ve done that yet!).
and demand a refund on at least one of the fees.