Bank Charges of £254 in 8 days!??

alunp

Hi

I'm helping a mate go through her finances with her. Her bank (RBS) has charged her £254 in 8 days. The two reasons for the charges are "Card Misuse" which by the looks of it means writing a cheque when there wasn't enough money in the bank. The second reason s a Charge for Unpaid items, such as a direct debit bouncing.

Its no wonder she is in such trouble if this is typical. Without the charges she'd have improved her financial situation this month. But with them she's now loads worse than when she started the month.

I recall someone saying these charges were an unfair term of contract and won't stand up in court. Can anyone offer any advice cos this is just an outrageous set of charges, and I'm sure the labour they did doesn't justify the charge.

Help?

Al

roswell

Um Either way the cause of the problem of spending money they dont have hasnt been fixed if you can get the charges back from the bank all the better but till your Friend stops spenind more money than they have they will have this problem every month.

Xbigman

Ditto roswell.

You don't say what her overdraft situation is, which would make a big difference on the way forward. Please let us know.

For now she must cancel every DD and SO that she can (mort, council tax and compulsory insuance should stay for now). Stopping any more money heamoraging is top priority.
Regards



X

alunp

She has a 600 overdraft allowance. She started this month 821 overdrawn as a result of last months charges. This month she'd be only a few quid over and about to get within the 600 but the 254 charges have meant she's now 900 odd overdrawn.

Basically she wouldn't be overdrawn each month if they weren't charging her. I'd say she's being charged between 300 to 500 a month. Its just ridiculous.

All her wages goes on last months charges so her Direct Debits dont get paid which incurs more, and she writes cheques to get the basics of life like food which she is then charged for again.

And so the vicious circle goes on. I'd estimate that she pays 5 to 6k a year in bank charges, when if they left her alone just for one month she'd be within their 600 agreed overdraft figure. Its utterly outrageous.

bank_of_slate

Hi Alun,
has she done a full SOA to work out exactly what comes in and goes out.
If her essential outgoings are less than the incomings than she must work very hard to slowly get back in the black. Has she tried communicating with the bank so that they understand the problem?
If the outgoings are more than the incomings than as it stands she has an unresolvable problem.
In which case she should contact cccs or Payplan for clear advice. Stress to her that her mortgage and Council tax MUST NOT be defaulted on.
Can you get her to come on here and get some direct support herself?
...Linda xx

alunp

The bottom line is that she has taken loads of action including selling her house which should go thru soon and get rid of her debts and cut her outgoings.

But it really boils down to this. If the bank didn't charge her, even for just one month, then she'd be okay. That's how the figures add up.

She's going more overdrawn than allowed only because the bank are charging her. If they give her one months respite from their charges, there really wouldn't be a problem any more.

Its as simple as that.

Callisto

Check out this link: http://www.bankactiongroup.co.uk

This site will help you if you want to try and get the charges back from the bank. Register with the forum and ask on there. Many people on there claim to have got their money back, so it is worth a try?

Hope that helps.

alunp

thanks callisto. i'm guessing that its best to claim no more than 5k back to keep it in the small claims?

roswell

id suggust for instant short term relief get a bigger over draft this way avaioding chrages but she will still need to stop spenting more than she has coming in,

Bloke_with_a_simple_life

Alunp... may be I am being a little slow here, but has your friend tried to talk to the bank about this and getting a bit of help to over come the charging problem for a month?

IF not - please recommend it to her - it cannot not do any harm trying to explain the problem to the bank and demonstrating how it could help her and them get round this cyclical problem. I think you can help her out by assisting in putting together the SOA and a budget for a couple of months that demonstrates to the bank how the problem can be gotten over.

Good luck!