Question about my Laser/ Atm card

semibluff

Im not sure if i am in the correct forum, but as a consumer i was hoping that someone could help me find an answer to the above question.

I have a Laser card with BOI, and i dont use this account much - although i still have a Standing Ordering coming out of it for rent every month.

Initially i lodged the cash to cover the SO a day late, and i didnt think the SO had gone through as i had not activated an Overdraft facility (dont trust myself!!) it turns out it did go into overdraft but i presumed it was just for the standing order, and cleared it accordingly (plus a small bit of interest)

Recently when out on an absolute bender i used my BOI card as laser instead of my AIB card (where i have cash). It was accepted oblivious to me and i went on to squander a fair bit of cash. Only now have a found out that yes i did go into overdraft with these withdrawals, even though the main reason i DIDNT set up the overdraft facility was to prevent an occurence like this.

Having rang up my branch they informed me that because i was ex staff (finished there about 3 monhts ago - since which i have received my p45 and p60) that there must have been lenience shown to me regards the overdraft and that yes, i have NOT activated the overdraft as i presumed. My account is now being changed to a normal account and not a "staff" one.

I did not ask for this leniency - and def did not avail of the overdraft facility when setting up the a/c, is this a case of two wrongs (them foolishly allowing me something that isnt in the conditions of my card and me actually taking the money) or what steps can i take?? Paying back the money is not a problem in the slightest, but its the principle - they made it sound as if they were doing me a favour - well next time i hope they dont bother!

Could i have a few opinions on this please, and perhaps people could make me aware of fact and opinion.

Oryx

As long as they didnt charge me a huge fee for an unauthorised overdraft, I wouldnt mind if this happened. I would rather have the card work than be stuck in a queue in Lidl with a card that wont go thru, you know?;)

Where you stand re paying it back is for a better legal mind than mine, but you DID get the cash, so you do effectively owe it back.

dudara

Bank of Ireland do allow my account to exceed my overdraft when I use my laser card. They do charge for the privilege, but it is better than having your card declined.

Pythia

My BOI Laser card can go into overdraft when though I don't have one. They told me it's to do with the Cirrus network or something. It's not 'online' so transactions can sometimes go through that shouldn't, bringing you into overdraft, or so they told me.

LizardKing

My TSB laser accepted transactions even though I was in a negative balance. I had previously declined there offer of an overdraft facility. Then they proceeded to charge me a referral fee of €4.44 on every transaction on the account while in the red. 2 transactions occured 1 withdrawal and 1 deposit.

I even got credit interest charged on the account at the end of the quarter.

I was not a happy customer after this but they have their arses covered with the small print on the accounts - I threathened to leave but the customer phone agent just said that I should speak to other banks dedicated switcher teams ... I stayed with em' as I had too much changing to alter salary transfers , Direct Debits - Standing orders etc.

Sangre

TSB laser cards can't do that any more as they are fully live, that is, if you don't have the available balance the card won't work.

If BOI laser cards aren't live and take the usual 3 days or so to go through then it doesn't matter you didn't have an overdraft as the transaction won't hit the account for a few days. When the transaction does hit they have to let it go through as you've already received the goods. Essentially you can keep you using the card as its not linked to your account balance. I would have thought you'd known this having worked in a bank.