Heart Attack time - Overdraft taken away!!!

elisebutt65 · 3 September 2008 at 10:56AM

OMG!!!! This morning my card was declined at Tescos - embarrassment city or what!!!:eek: Raced home to log on to my Abbey account and my overdraft has just been wiped out and all the direct debits to pay my monthly bills have been bounced:eek::eek::eek:

I have a Post Grad account with an £1800 O/D and I'm up to £1100 so it's not a pretty sight at the mo. I rang them and apparently there's been a huge FUBAR on the OD system and they can't do anything on the other end of the phone so I now have to go back into town to see the bank in person - Great - I just love traipsing a mile into town to sort out their mistakes!!!!:mad:

So if anyone else has any probs with their Abbey accounts then get down to your bank .

Allegedly I won't be charged for the bounces but we'll see:rolleyes:

That's what I originally wrote in quotes before I visited the bank. Now - sigh. I can see my whole life swirling down the toilet!!!! I have my IS, CB, CTC and maintenance paid into this account. The girl in the branch was totally disgusted by this - apparently a few students have been left in the lurch and they can't sort it out properly in branch.

She has had to re-apply for the overdraft - watch it get turned down and then fax an appeal to the underwriters. I now have to wait up toi 48 hours for something to be resolved and if it's not then she said I basically have to go somewhere else and get a new account. In the meantime, any DD's may incur charges. All my bills will have to have new details - all my incomings will have to be notifioed.

This has the makings of a whole new nightmare!!! One way for the banks to make a profit from the credit crunch - take away the overdrafts of the vulnerable - Way to go Abbey!!!!

elisebutt65 · 3 September 2008 at 1:50PM

Shameless bump as I want to know if this is happening with anyone else as well?????

jimbob_too · 3 September 2008 at 5:10PM

Yes - it has happened to me as well. I am presently doing a PhD degree, and it is the last thing I need for Abbey to cut my overdraft without first informing me.

Unfortunately I have not had the chance to visit a branch in person yet (10 miles from my place of study), and will not be able to do so until the weekend. The phone line was no help whatsoever - after keeping me waiting for 30 mins they then offered to put me through to their overdraft query department... but instead cut me off. I wasn't willing to wait on the phone for another 30 minutes!

Luckily I have a credit card that I have been using for expenses, and all of my direct debits leave the account around the 15th of the month. I sincerely hope that Abbey will resolve this when I am able to visit their branch... but I'm not entirely confident!

Broke_Student · 3 September 2008 at 5:19PM

My guess is that they have not programmed their systems correctly to 'roll on' certain groups of students into the next academic year.

jimbob_too · 3 September 2008 at 5:42PM

It just makes me smile when I think of Lewis Hamilton in the old Abbey commercial explaining how it is so important to know that he has a good team behind him, both in his motor racing and with his finances.

I'd love to know if he really has an Abbey account (alongside the Swiss one, no doubt...) and, if so, if they are in the habit of withdrawing his overdraft without any warning, keeping him waiting on the phone for 30 minutes, and then cutting him off. ;-)

zkw29 · 3 September 2008 at 6:17PM

jimbob_too wrote: »

It just makes me smile when I think of Lewis Hamilton in the old Abbey commercial explaining how it is so important to know that he has a good team behind him, both in his motor racing and with his finances.

I'd love to know if he really has an Abbey account (alongside the Swiss one, no doubt...) and, if so, if they are in the habit of withdrawing his overdraft without any warning, keeping him waiting on the phone for 30 minutes, and then cutting him off. ;-)

:rotfl:I'd hazard a guess that Lewis doesn't make much use of his overdraft anyway

DCFC79 · 3 September 2008 at 6:17PM

jimbob_too wrote: »

I'd love to know if he really has an Abbey account (alongside the Swiss one, no doubt...) and, if so, if they are in the habit of withdrawing his overdraft without any warning, keeping him waiting on the phone for 30 minutes, and then cutting him off. ;-)

i bet lewis doesnt even have an overdraft, cant see him needing one

Kavanne · 3 September 2008 at 6:44PM

I'm sorry but I spoke to a cust this happened to at the bank I work for today. I phoned straight through to our lending team who saw what had happened and reinstated it IMMEDIATELY.

Waiting 48hrs to rectify THEIR mistake is awful and I can't believe they made you go to branch. You should launch a complaint immediately. Also in the meantime you can't use your card or get cash out? Seriously bad.

elisebutt65 · 3 September 2008 at 11:07PM

Well after waiting for 10 hours - it's back!!! OMG I am so relieved and now am determined to get rid of the O/D altogether. I may only be able to wipe of £150 per month but I really don't want this to happen again.

I will also look into getting a basic bank ac somewhere else just to pay bills and pay in the req. amount every month so that I don't have this heart attack again this time next year.

At the moment I have everything with Abbey - E-Saver and Isa, kids accounts etc along with the current account. The lady in branch was wonderful though - I nearly burst into ters there and then after I had the !!!!py Indian callcentre refusing to put me through to the correct department. She's also put in a complaint about them as she was there whilst I did it, cos they let me use the branch phone to try again to sort it out.

Repeat to myself several times - "Do not put eggs all in one basket"!!! :rotfl:

jimbob_too · 3 September 2008 at 11:17PM

Well I've just checked and mine is back too... before I even made it to the bank... but yes it was very useful to have an emergency credit card to see me through this situation, and I was lucky with the direct debits!

jimbob_too · 3 September 2008 at 11:18PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by DCFC79

i bet lewis doesnt even have an overdraft, cant see him needing one

You're probably right :-)

Heart Attack time - Overdraft taken away!!!

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free