Bank charges ?

<-Notes From an Angry Island->
This is an email I sent to The bank of Ireland after being charged bank fees (when I shouldn't have been)...

Hello,

I have recently been charged a total of £36.96 pence (and £2 interest) by your Cookstown branch because I had become overdrawn. I do not however have an overdraft facility and therefore should not have been able to withdraw any money from my account; I understand the reason for this was due to the fact the cashpoint had not allowed for previous transactions over the weekend period.

I feel it is unfair I have been charged, as when I opened the account I specified I did not want an overdraft for this exact reason and was told by a member of staff that I would not be subject to bank charges.



I tried to resolve this issue on the 17th of May this year, I spoke to a woman called Emer at 16:30 aprox, and was told she couldn't help me and that I would have to phone back once the money had been taken from my account at the end of the month. Today I phoned the BOI Cookstown and was told by the woman I spoke to, she could not help me and that she would have to speak to the manager. I then asked to speak to the manager myself but was informed that the manager was in a meeting, when I asked what time the meeting would be finished I was informed that the meeting or meetings would last all day...


I am currently in receipt of benefit and feel that perhaps my £*** every two weeks that is paid into my account is not significant enough for me to be treated the same as a customer who has a more substantial bank balance and therefore makes your company a lot more money than I do. I do sincerely hope that this is not the case. I would very much appreciate some clarification in relation to this matter.


Yours faithfully Peter Mitchell


In response to this eImaIl i received the following letter...

Dear Mr Mitchell

I refer to your recent query regarding fees charged to your account. Unfortunately, I have been able to reach you by telephone but wish to confirm that fee and interest charges of £36.96 & £2.00 respectively have been refunded to your account.

I trust this is satisfactory.

Yours sincerely.

Katherine McNulty
Customer Services

.................................................................................

It was not made at all easy for me to get my money back, but I did. Having been through this I can understand why some people would keep money under a mattres before trusting a bank to look after it.

Just because they are standing on the other side of the counter, they do not have balaclavas, ski masks and shot guns, doesn't mean they are not "bank" robbers.