A member is charged for an overdraft. He telephones, annoyed, and says nobody told him.
The charge was in the terms, on the website and in an annual statement. None of that is the same as him understanding, at the moment his balance went below zero, what the next five days would cost. The complaint is not really about the money.
What an account actually costs
Four components. Any monthly account fee, interest on borrowing, transaction specific charges, and the charges that apply when something goes wrong such as a returned payment.
Component 1: the account fee
Monthly, where it applies, and what it buys. Packaged accounts bundle benefits people frequently do not use, and members should periodically be asked whether they still need them.
Component 2: the borrowing interest
Applied to the balance borrowed, for the days it is borrowed. This is the component members misunderstand most, because they compare it to an annual rate and cannot map it onto five days.
Component 3: the transaction charges
Foreign use, cash withdrawals in certain circumstances, and some payment types. These are small individually and surprising in aggregate on a holiday statement.
Component 4: the failure charges
Returned payments and unarranged borrowing. These are the charges that produce complaints and the ones most preventable with an alert.
A worked example
A member goes eighty pounds overdrawn for six days. At an illustrative rate of forty per cent a year, the interest is roughly eighty pounds multiplied by the daily rate, multiplied by six days, which comes to well under a pound. The same member with a returned payment charge could pay many times that for a single failed transaction.
What the worked example teaches
That the headline rate frightens people while the failure charges cost them. Members shown this arithmetic behave differently, and the behaviour change is worth more to them than any refund.
Explain the alerts that prevent it
Balance alerts, payment reminders and a small arranged facility. Every one of these is cheaper than the charge and almost nobody sets them up unprompted.
Explain how to compare accounts honestly
Fee, borrowing cost, foreign use and anything bundled. Members frequently hold the wrong account for their actual pattern of use.
Keep savings rate questions strictly factual
Stating a rate is information and recommending a product is advice, which is the line drawn in savings product questions that must not become advice.
Handle financial difficulty differently from charge queries
Somebody in genuine difficulty needs a supportive route rather than a charges explanation, and the two conversations must be distinguishable at first contact.
Publish it where the question is actually asked
Not in terms. At the moment somebody looks at a charge on a statement, which is usually in an evening outside branch hours, alongside the service questions in branch hours and service questions members repeat.
Answer the charge question before it becomes a complaint
An assistant that explains what a charge was for, shows the arithmetic, sets up the alert that prevents the next one and routes anybody in difficulty to a person turns a daily source of irritation into a useful conversation. The repetition it removes is described in stop answering the same email twice automate it, and the same membership fee questions appear in subscription rate and concession questions from members. See pricing, run the numbers on the chatbot ROI calculator, and the sector view sits under financial advisors.