£85 charges for £3.99 overdraft!

nieceypiecey · 11 January 2010 at 11:35PM

Hi there, can anyone help me here. I have a bank account (with Abbey) that I don't use very much as I am not working at the moment, however I had some money in there and I needed to write a cheque to our joint account (with the same bank), I stupidly miscalculated what I had in there and the cheque took me £3.99 overdrawn. As a result of this I have had a charge of £35 for going overdrawn, another £25 for the transaction that took me overdrawn and because I didn't realise until my statement arrived, I am being charged a further £25 for still being overdrawn when my statement was issued (5 days after the transaction).

I telephoned them and they agreed to return the £35, but still insist on the £50.

I know I screwed up, but surely common sense should prevail here and that these charges are totally unreasonable for a £3.99 debt!!! Any words of wisdom out there for me please......

Thanks.

natweststaffmember · 12 January 2010 at 7:40AM

nieceypiecey wrote: »

Hi there, can anyone help me here. I have a bank account (with Abbey) that I don't use very much as I am not working at the moment, however I had some money in there and I needed to write a cheque to our joint account (with the same bank), I stupidly miscalculated what I had in there and the cheque took me £3.99 overdrawn. As a result of this I have had a charge of £35 for going overdrawn, another £25 for the transaction that took me overdrawn and because I didn't realise until my statement arrived, I am being charged a further £25 for still being overdrawn when my statement was issued (5 days after the transaction).

I telephoned them and they agreed to return the £35, but still insist on the £50.

I know I screwed up, but surely common sense should prevail here and that these charges are totally unreasonable for a £3.99 debt!!! Any words of wisdom out there for me please......

Thanks.

If it is the first occasion then they have made an offer to refund £35.00.
The obvious question is whether you paid in the excess as soon as you were aware of the mistake you had made in your calculation?
If you did do then I would write to them and explain what happened and ask them that on this occasion whether they would refund the lot due to a genuine mistake and the fact that you paid in the money as soon as you were made aware of it.
However, if you haven't paid in anything to clear the excess then £35 would appear to be a reasonable gesture and you will need to await further advice from MSE about reclaiming further charges.

Premier_2 · 12 January 2010 at 11:28AM

I'm afraid the banks are like the cat that got the cream currently, having had to endure a massive court case in which they finally won.

With that current cocky attitude, they don't see the point in issuing the goodwill gesture they often used to before, as usually happens, thousands of people jump on a bandwagon and start putting in claims not for the odd mistake, but often for many thousands of pounds.

I'm afarid that goodwill gestures will become a thing of the past with this mentality a few people adopt where once they see a glint of an opening, they'll pile in with horrendous claims, often running into many thousands of pounds. Companies are aware that this is commonly becoming the new ambulance chasers modus operandi, and will be very reluctant to offer any measure of goodwill in future for fear of opening a back door to such claimants.

£85 charges for £3.99 overdraft!

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