Is Bank of Ireland credit card overlimit fee justified?

terenurebob

Bank of Ireland has charged me €7.50 for my credit card being over the limit. Here are the term & conditions in relation to overlimit fees:

"Overlimit fee
You are charged an overlimit fee in relation to any statement
period in which an overlimit position occurred. (If you go over
your credit limit, your card may be declined when you try to
use it.)"

NOTE: This is a straight copy and paste from the terms and conditions.

Background to this:
I carried an overlimit balance into the current billing period. On my Jan 18th statement, I was charged an overlimit fee of €7.50 and I had one transaction during the January billing period. So, from reading the terms and conditions, "an overlimit position occurred" due to the transaction I had.

I paid my card in full on Jan 29th. I did not have any transactions on my account between Jan 18th and Jan 29th.

My new statement was issued on Feb. 18th and there was an overlimit fee of €7.50 applied to my account.

So my question is:
Based on what the terms and conditions state, did "an overlimit position occur" on my account that would justify BOI charging me a €7.50 overlimit fee?

From my perspective, the overlimit position occurred during the Jan billing period and not the February period. The key word here is occurred and what this actually means.

I have an outstanding query with BOI on this but just wanted to see if anyone else agrees with how I have interpreted the terms and conditions and how I have defined what "occurrence means".

I would have though that the terms and conditions would say the following instead:

"You are charged an overlimit fee in relation to any statement period in which the balance of your card is over the credit limit." (if this is what the t&c's stated, then they could justify charging me).

Bank of Ireland: Linda

Hi terenurebob,

Thanks very much for taking the time to post.

We do understand where you are coming from.

With a credit card, if you go over your limit in January for example, that is the first occurrence. If you carry the overlimit balance into the next statement period, that is the first occurrence in that particular statement period and so an overlimit fee will apply to your credit card account.

I hope that clears it up for you.

Thanks
Linda

Glenbhoy

I'm not sure that the OP is actually questioning the justification of the charges under BOI's terms and conditions, rather I suspect he is questioning the absence of logic.  Of course, you can say he signed up for it, but one does expect a certain amount of fairness in any transaction.

Firstly, where is the logic in credit card providers continuing to allow credit card holders to go over limit in the first place?  Whilst there should be a certain amount of responsibility shown by the holder (rather like house purchasers over the first part of this century, one tends to believe that if the bank okays it, then I must be alright), surely  with modern communication technology there can no longer be any justification for allowing card holders to spend one cent more than the imposed limit?

Secondly, and probably more pertinently in this case, what rationale is applied in charging two monthly overlimit fees???  I had never heard of this before, and quite frankly am shocked that the financial regulator would allow this to continue.
Whilst most readers can accept that banks will apply a charge on holders who go over limit, I don't think anyone can provide a rational explanation for the second monthly charge.  It is after all merely a second charge for the same offence, the most unfair part is that this is incurred before many holders would be aware that the first offence has even occurred. 

What is the situation if bank interest applied at the month end puts the card over limit?  Will the holder be hit with two additional monthly charges even though he couldn't really have known what charges would be applied?  I realise that there has to be some degree of personal responsibility here, but it could easily happen that after a minimum payment has been made, interest could put the card over limit.

terenurebob

@Linda - Thanks for responding to this post.

My point here is what @Glenbhoy has articulated. My issue here is that I have been charged two overlimit fees for the same overlimit occurrence. I would accept the new overlimit charge if I had further transactions which would have caused my balance to go further over the limit, but I did not do this.

I do not agree that carrying an overlimit balance into a new billing period results in a "new overlimit occurrence".

In order to resolve this issue, I would like the overlimit charge refunded to my account. My hope here is that I can sort out this issue informally without having to go through the formal complaint process.

Bank of Ireland: Linda

Hi guys,
 
It is up to the customer to make sure they do not exceed their limit on a credit card. Bank of Ireland has a number of options open to customers to manage their accounts:
-We have launched a mobile banking app which allows customers to check their accounts anytime, anywhere.
-You can call Banking 365 to check your balances, please click here and the contact us link.
-You can also check it on Banking 365 online as well.

@terenurebob, if you can please pm us with your contact number, I will send this on to Credit Card Services to contact you relating to the charges.

Thanks
Linda

Glenbhoy

Linda,

I understand there are limitations as to what you can say on an open forum such as this, but your answer does not touch on the fairness or otherwise of the double charge.
You point out that it's the customers responsibility to keep track of spending, I agree the customer does bear a certain amount of responsibility, it may be difficult however given the speed with which transactions are reflected on an online or tele banking facility, or the fact that additional charges are applied by the provider, of which the customer will not know the amount of until they are actually applied.  Further, many people may not be particularly au-fait with any of the tracking methods you have outlined and prefer to rely on the paper statement.

In any event, I'm sure you would agree (if were speaking off the record), that perhaps the second charge could be justified if, after receiving the paper record, the customer did not take actions to remedy the situation and remained over limit at the end of the period.  In that instance, one would have to say the process of natural justice had been applied.

I really think this is a matter which should be brought to the attention of ombudsman as the system as it currently exists is blatantly unfair.

Regards,

terenurebob

To rub salt into the wound of this, I paid off the entire balance of the card of Jan. 29th and the statement issued on Feb. 18th.

Linda, as requested, I will send you my contact number. Thanks.

Bank of Ireland: Linda

Hi Glenbouy,

We appreciate where you are coming and your feedback regarding these charges has been passed to our Credit Card Department.


Bank of Ireland has this talk to forum to answer customer service queries and pass on feedback to the relevant departments. If you feel that these charges are unjustified and wish to make an official complaint, please see here.


Thank you very much for contacting us.

Thanks
Linda

Bank of Ireland: Linda

Hi terenuebob,

Thank you very much, we have received your pm.

Thanks again.
Linda

terenurebob

BOI has resolved the issue to my satisfaction. I must commend BOI for having a forum like this, I wish every company would do this.

Bank of Ireland: Linda

Hi terenurebob,

Thank you very much, we are glad we could resolve this for you. If there is anything else we can help you with, please feel free to ask.

Thanks
Linda