Beware Bank of Ireland's sneaky £25 overdraft 'facility' (!?) fee

Jon_C

I switched my current account to one of the English banks about six months ago because Bank of Ireland kept charging me for setting up/changing direct debits/standing orders etc.

I kept the Bank of Ireland account open with about a fiver in it.

Usually my monthly paper statements just show no change but on Saturday my latest one arrived showing a £25 debit labelled 'overdraft facility fee'.

I've had an overdraft facility since I opened the account as a student 10 years ago and never been charged in this way, even though the account metamorphosed into a graduate one and then what I assumed to be a standard current account.

Now all of a sudden there is this charge. I haven't gone overdrawn on this account at all since maybe a year before I let it lie dormant, so I figure this charge is something new.

I haven't received any new terms and conditions in writing about this so I'm going to give off stink in the branch about it today and get the charge cancelled (probably closing my account in the process and making a complaint to the Financial Services Authority if this is the right watchdog).

I just wanted to warn other people about this in case they might not notice the transaction among other ones. Mine was easy to spot on a very short statement but if it's a new charge they're levying on a lot of accounts, perhaps other people with more transactions mightn't see it.

Any comments?

pickle

While that exact situation hasn't happened to me. A while back I was charged for lodging a refund cheque from a government utility provider (4 months old) and apparently the date for cheque expiries was 3 months. I got charged a sizeable sum - can't remember how much exactly but it was between £25-50 because the cheque from the provider bounced. Other cheques apparently expire in 6 -12 months, but it was 3 in this particular case. I argued black and blue with them but with no result.

The other thing to watch is that when you cancel a direct debit/standing order they don't always ensure that this is done. This has happened 2 out of 2 times to me and I have had to complain. Once after canceling it, the money was taken out after the date and I was fined for it being unpaid, so I had to once again cancel it then explain that it had been cancelled in order to get back the money and the fine which had been imposed. You really need to keep a very careful eye on the transactions. Needless to say I am in the process of changing my account. I am also quite annoyed as I have had many thousands of pounds in my account with no interest, so the least I expect is the ability to take care of basic accounting.