Sir, - My bank recently charged me £3.50 for temporarily not having sufficient funds on the day a direct debit for the princely sum of £9.82 was drawn on my account. When I queried this charge, I was initially told that it was a "normal charge for being overdrawn". I do not have, nor have I ever had, an overdraft facility on this account.
When I queried the matter with my bank manager, he told me that he was "doing me a favour" by allowing the direct debit to be processed, as the usual charge for a returned direct debit was £10. This charge was apparently outlined in a leaflet produced by the bank earlier this year, which I don't believe I ever saw before and which, by the bank manager's own admission, was "probably never sent to me".
After sermonising for a while ("I have over 2,000 accounts to deal with, you know"), he saved the best for last, telling me that I might "lose face in the public domain" if my direct debit was returned unpaid.
Surely this is something the banking profession lost some time ago. - Yours, etc., Andy Needham,
Oldtown Avenue, Santry, Dublin 9.