Bank charges some helpful positive info.

[emalou90]

So the past three months I've been charged for going into an unarranged overdraft.
Totally my fault the first time, we moved house etc and just spent more than we should have. But since then the charges from the bank seemed to have just been making it worse.

I called the bank today and thought, they either need to stop charging me so I can get myself out and back in the black again or I'm going to have to close the account and just withdraw all my wages when it comes in and pay off the overdraft gradually. (It's only £300 so not huuuuuge)

I got through straight away explained I kept going into my unarranged overdraft and feel as though it's causing me problems now it's taking £90 out (this month) which would equal two bills to be paid
The lady interrupted me and said "yes I can see that, right, not a problem, what we'll do is refund any charges since (three months ago) which will be refunded back into your account by tomorrow morning. I'll make a note that you're also on maternity leave and you won't be charged anything in June either. Please call us if you have any further problems, we'll be happy to help you out"

Argh whattttt?!!
That was so simple, I could have cried to her on the phone.

My tip and advice is: CALL YOUR BANK AND ASK FOR HELP IF YOU ARE STRUGGLING

 

[modified]

The same thing happened to me - I don't have an overdraft and accidentally went into an unplanned overdraft once. The charges they kept throwing at me meant I was struggling to get out of it so they'd charge me more. One call to them had the charges cleared and frozen

 

[Vesta]

When I worked for a bank I got banned from refunding charges. Apparently I did it too much. Opps! Lol.

 

[emalou90]

When I worked for a bank I got banned from refunding charges. Apparently I did it too much. Opps! Lol.

you're such a nice person!

I assume mine was only because I've never had any refunds before.
But I wasn't going to ask for them to be refunded you know? It's my own fault the first time? But the lady I spoke to just did it straight away
Helped me out no end. just wanted to let people know, don't be scared to ring and ask for help!

 

[dgirllamius]

What they charge is ridiculous.

Ages ago I had a bank account with abbey (now we're talking yonks ago) and I went over by 1p. Yeah you read that right, 1p.

They charged me £20 for making the payment (it was a direct debit and they covered the 1p that was missing, but charged me £20 for doing so) and another £30 because I went over.

Raging, I phoned them up and they refunded it. Even the woman on the other end said it was ridiculous. Back then though they said you could only do that once a year. Not sure if its changed since or if just that banks policy.

No wonder people get into so much trouble when they slap on these charges.

 

[Lisa40]

The problem is that most charges are applied automatically whether you are 1p or £100 over.

So like PP says just give them a call. Banks don't have a great reputation at the moment which is a shame because as long as you conduct your accounts within the terms and conditions then banking and all of the services they provide ie cash machines / cards etc are free. They have to charge somewhere to cover these costs.

Anyway, my point is that if you actually call and speak to somebody and explain your situation then 'most' advisors will be helpful.

I work for a bank and a lady called us and wanted a loan, unfortunately we couldn't help as she wasn't working, how're be she was upset as she had no money to buy baby formula, so we checked her account and refunded some interest that had been applied on her overdraft so she could buy the milk until she received her benefit on the Monday. We aren't all ogres, please do contact your bank and be honest with them if you are struggling

xx