TSB laser card

Stheno

Hi

I've been banking with ptsb for about eight years now, and found them ok.

However in the last six months their service has gone completely down the tubes, and they have introduced some bizarre new policies.

The latest and greatest came about two months ago.

I have my own account and then a joint account with my partner, so before paydays there may not be a lot of money in the joint account as we both get paid into our own accounts then transfer funds using online banking.

That was fine, until ptsb changed their laser policy.

Their new policy is that at 530 each morning the laser system checks how much is in your account and sets that as your limit for the next 24 hours, irrespective of whether or not you transfer/lodge funds to your account during that time.

So yesterday I had 500 in the account in the morning and then transferred in from my own account as I'd been paid.

I then paid my credit card using my laser (paid 500) and forgetting the inane new policy, went and filled the car up with petrol, and paid with laser.

Darn thing declined (as according to the laser system, I had no funds in my account despite having transferred)

Thankfully as the shop had an atm I was able to go and take cash out and avoid some of the embarrassment of the laser declining.

Now ptsb say this is a laser issue, not a problem with their banking setup.
They didn't even bother to write to customers to tell them of this change either;.

Can anyone tell me if this is true? I.e. is this the same for all the banks?
Frankly to me it seems utterly ridiculous that in this day and age any bank cannot have real time processing on their systems.

That said I'm cheesed off with ptsb as I said over the last few months, the service has deteriorated terribly, they even managed to key in a cheque I wrote as ten times the amount and then argued over refunding the associated charges!

bullrunner

report them to the Financial services regulator over the incorrect cheque issue.....u may even receive compensation for it.

Bottle_of_Smoke

nouggatti wrote:

Hi

I've been banking with ptsb for about eight years now, and found them ok.

However in the last six months their service has gone completely down the tubes, and they have introduced some bizarre new policies.

The latest and greatest came about two months ago.

I have my own account and then a joint account with my partner, so before paydays there may not be a lot of money in the joint account as we both get paid into our own accounts then transfer funds using online banking.

That was fine, until ptsb changed their laser policy.

Their new policy is that at 530 each morning the laser system checks how much is in your account and sets that as your limit for the next 24 hours, irrespective of whether or not you transfer/lodge funds to your account during that time.

So yesterday I had 500 in the account in the morning and then transferred in from my own account as I'd been paid.

I then paid my credit card using my laser (paid 500) and forgetting the inane new policy, went and filled the car up with petrol, and paid with laser.

Darn thing declined (as according to the laser system, I had no funds in my account despite having transferred)

Thankfully as the shop had an atm I was able to go and take cash out and avoid some of the embarrassment of the laser declining.

Now ptsb say this is a laser issue, not a problem with their banking setup.
They didn't even bother to write to customers to tell them of this change either;.

Can anyone tell me if this is true? I.e. is this the same for all the banks?
Frankly to me it seems utterly ridiculous that in this day and age any bank cannot have real time processing on their systems.

That said I'm cheesed off with ptsb as I said over the last few months, the service has deteriorated terribly, they even managed to key in a cheque I wrote as ten times the amount and then argued over refunding the associated charges!

I don't think they'd lie to you outright about something like that but it seems untrue. The way Laser works is when you buy something the shop system will seek authorisation to give you the goods on the basis of the card you give them. The system accepts or refuses but your account won't be debited until a later time (when the shop actually debits the money from your bank) The amount will be debited to your account regardless of the funds available as the bank must pay the shop.(laser agreement) - This means you can go overdrawn if you spend your original funds before the debits come through.

Now I suspect they're applying this limit to stop people from going overdrawn so they don't have to hire as many staff to follow up on unauthorised balances.

I'd ring their lending centre & ask to speak to a manager. If you spoke to someone who's only there a while they might just say "it's a laser issue" to get you off their backs/ Banking can be complicated & an awful lot of the time the staff don't know how the products work. If you rang where I work asking why you were overdrawn from a laser debit theres a 50% chance you would have been told "you can go overdrawn - it's a laser thing" instead of how I explained above.

Ask lots of questions so you know the person knows what they're talking about - if you're not satisfied ask for their supervisor.

I work for one of the big banks & I'm 90% sure this limit isn't applied. If I remember I'lll ask someone on monday.