Best way to avoid bank charges?

[Love Bunny]

SO!

I went £1.66 overdrawn.

£1.66 !!!!!

And they are saying that they are going to charge me £40 on the 1st of December!!!! £40 for a measley £1.66!

I've been with Abbey ALL my life, so 19 years and for nearly a year until now my account balence has been over £1000. They REFUSED me an overdraft of £50 to prevent things like this happening last time I asked aswell!

Any way I can get out of this?

I know people get out of charges all the time so, any tips ?

I don't know how they get away with their extortionate charges. I mean fair enough if it was like £100 or something but... Pfft.

xX

 

[suzib76]

i would actually go in or call them coz if its a first they sometimes let you off as a gesture of goodwill especially as it was such a teeny amount you went over by

also explain that you would like their help in preventing it happening, banks love it when you ask them to help lol

 

[Love Bunny]

Hahaha yeah I bet they damn well do !

 

[Kimboowee]

I had the same problem but with a different bank. In the end I went with another bank where I couldn't get an overdraft, If theres no money there then my card gets refused. What pissed me off the most was I wasn't meant to get an overdraft with this other bank, as soon as I hit 17 they put one on and didnt notify me

 

[Love Bunny]

See thats what I don't get =S ! I don't even have an overdraft! any kind of overdraft! So I don't understand why my last transaction wasn't just refused?! I think I paid for something that was like 16.66 with only £15 in my account (or there abouts!), but why they let the transaction proceed I'll never know!!! why LET me go overdrawn then try charge me for it! if it'd been like £5 over what was in my account my card woulda been refused! so why £1.66!!!!!!!

RAGH!

 

[polo_princess]

I would argue it out if you dont have an overdraft at all ....

 

[Love Bunny]

I know I was gobsmacked when I got the letter this morning! I checked my account at the cashpoint the other day and assumed the £1.66 figure was all I had in my account! NOT that I was overdrawn by £1.66! They've refused me an overdraft twice now, i'm really pee'd off that they allowed me to use my card for a transaction with insufficient funds in my account :\ x

 

[Abz1982]

They have to honour payments to shops, its totally shit! I paid for petrol once and has well over £80 in my account when I paid for it. However interest and another payment came out BEFORE the petrol station put the payment to the pant (ten days!!) and so the bank had to honour it and I went overdrawn!

However, my bank are chancers to! I check it online and one day I will have like say £80 available, then nothing goes in or comes out, and it goes up to £100+, then the next day its down to like £60 - an there will be no transactions for about 4 or 5 days. I actually started doing screen prints the last few times this has happened as I am so scared to spend anything as I am never sure exactly what's in there! And thats N&*"£$T.

 

[Foogirl]

I would call and appeal to their better nature, apologise to them for your oversight and explain that such a high charge means you may well end up doing the same thing next month and you'd really like to avoid that. If you have generally good credit with them and talk nicely, they may well refund or reduce the charges. Then ask them if you can have an authorised overdraft to avoid it in the future. If they refuse, tell them you would like to close your account and move to another bank.

Don't go in all guns blazing though as yesterday's announcement means they have "right" on their side.

I'm with RBS and in 20 years have only ever had 3 charges. 2 of them were my fault but they refunded with no question. In fact the first time it happened, the manager actually called me to say I'd gone over drawn and would be charged unless I promised him I would be more careful in the future and he hoped I enjoyed the movie I had been to see! The other charge was their error and was refunded also.

 

[AP]

personally i'd go beserk! i don't have an overdraft,never will. you haven't requested that service so whatever you bought should have been declined. i'd go nuts

 

[tasha41]

Banking is so confusing in the UK, lol.

Here if you pay by debit, it all comes out immediately.

You do have to worry about cheques you've written or pre-authorized payments (say a bill that's the same amount every month, like your gym membership etc).. but those things come out on the same day every month so you know when to expect them??

At my bank I only have like a $5 overdraft, then they say insufficient funds and my card gets declined. Not sure how it works really because I've tried to take out a $20 from the ATM with a $1.50 service charge and been declined but paid for something and gone like $4.50 overdraft & if you have to pay a bill, say your $30 tanning membership and the money's not in your account, the business doesn't get their money, and you have to settle it with the business, not the bank. When you do contracts they usually have it in there that they charge like $30 etc if you bounce a payment

 

[lesleyann]

bank tried to charge my nan before she told them she would cut up the card and go somewhere else and they then decided they would not charge her

 

[Abz1982]

Change to Natwest. I have slated them before but they have just really reduced their charges.

 

[Shireena__x]

you think thats bad i went over by 2p and got charged 35 pound ive been charged 12 x £35 in the last 16 months since getting an arranged overdraft. because i dont no im over drawn nd then the charges come out on top of charges, and i could use online banking before nd was heavly pregnant and the nearest cashpoint was haf hour away in the town centre nd fuck was i going there to check my account. i have threatened to close my account with halifax. they then gave me a higher overdraft and carried on doing the same thing!!!! so now i have to pay this £96 off (which i havent got~) to be able to close my account. and before i had intrest free overdraft now its a pound a day wow

 

[wannabemamma]

I queried once why they didn't just decline my card, and they said that the nature of electronic transactions means that it isn't instant, the store machine can't know what is in our bank. The system would be far, far slower in stores if they could. As such they will honour the transaction to the store, placing the responsibility on the account holder to keep on top of their finances.

 

[KrisKitten]

Yup thats one of the problems with debit cards.
If u have £20 i ur account u can spend it as many times as u like if u do it quick enuf coz it takes a while to take the money outta ur account - y my dad only uses cash lol, hes fairly senisible, then he goes for a beer 2 days b4 payday, has £20 left and thinks 'well i could either get anutha round or get some fags....wth ill do both!" and dives betweent the pub nd offlicense in super time.
then the next day realises hes got £50 to pay
Cards scare me....xxxxx

 

[MiissMuffet]

banks are so mean!! We end up paying bank charges every week because OH forgets to transfer the rent over so then that comes out, account goes over and then we get charged. EVERY BLOODY TIME!!!! ggrrr

 

[gemgti]

Go to natwest and take out a step account, has no overdraft or cheque book so you cant go overdrawn. This is the account i have just taken out as i am in the process of trying to get out of debt so i wanted a bank account where i couldnt just keep spending

 

[Foogirl]

Go to natwest and take out a step account, has no overdraft or cheque book so you cant go overdrawn. This is the account i have just taken out as i am in the process of trying to get out of debt so i wanted a bank account where i couldnt just keep spending

I think this answers the OP perfectly. The best way to avoid bank charges is not to spend money you don't have.

It takes discipline but it is possible to keep a track of the money in your account and only spend what is there. I've had to work hard at it since going on maternity. I was used to just spending money whenever I wanted because there was always enough there. Now I have to make sure I have money in my account before I spend. With online banking, which most banks offer, it is easier than ever to know what you have.

When I was a student and had bugger all money, I withdrew an amount of cash once a week and when that was spent, I had no more until the next week. I never once went into overdraft.

 

[// arcadia]

Go to natwest and take out a step account, has no overdraft or cheque book so you cant go overdrawn. This is the account i have just taken out as i am in the process of trying to get out of debt so i wanted a bank account where i couldnt just keep spending

I think this answers the OP perfectly. The best way to avoid bank charges is not to spend money you don't have.

It takes discipline but it is possible to keep a track of the money in your account and only spend what is there. I've had to work hard at it since going on maternity. I was used to just spending money whenever I wanted because there was always enough there. Now I have to make sure I have money in my account before I spend. With online banking, which most banks offer, it is easier than ever to know what you have.

When I was a student and had bugger all money, I withdrew an amount of cash once a week and when that was spent, I had no more until the next week. I never once went into overdraft.

I don't particularly think Natwest is a very good reliable bank though when it comes to what money you have, when i look online 50% of the time the balance it says i have is wrong, when you actually look at your transactions you can see you dont actually have the amount they tell you.

Also they got me when i went to a cashpoint they said i had 133 AVAILABLE FUNDS, when id looked online the morning i only had 33 .. so i assumed a backdated child benefit or tax credits had gone in, when i got home looked again that 100 clearly never existed.

I have the step account but have applied for an overdraft of just 50 to prevent me going overdrawn by their mistake and being charged, and they refused me. :\