Charity

So, the university tried to direct debit £1,133 from me for this term's tuition fees and rent. Painful, but anticipated. Indeed, I'd already transferred sufficient monies into my bank account to allow the transaction to proceed without quite hitting the overdraft limit. Hadn't I?

I realised my mistake when I saw £35 had disappeared from my bank account with the suspicious annotation of "CHARGES". Of course, I'd transferred funds into the wrong account, namely my old "current account" instead of the student account I use most nowadays.

I know that banks make a lot of money from user stupidity like mine, so I was rather crestfallen but not exactly surprised by the damage. I sent a swift and apologetic email to the relevant university department, begging them to retry their direct debit sooner rather than later, lest I accrue their late payment charges as well. A friendly reply informed me that if I phoned up and paid by card by 31st January, I wouldn't get any late payment charges. Yay. However, they would be charging me a failed direct debit charge of 2.5% of the original amount, or £28.33.

A grand total of £63.33 of hard-earned cash frivolously donated to these two mighty institutions means I'll be more careful which account I transfer to in future...

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