Insane £150 overdraft fee incoming

MrSpudders

I've got a notification on my online banking for HSBC informing me of a £150 (!) [STRIKE]money grabbing !!!!!!! fee[/STRIKE] 'overdraft arrangement fee' due to be applied to my account on May 14th.

This is for going £144 overdrawn on a current account with no arranged overdraft, balance was paid off in a week.

That fee seems astronomical to me, especially since I only earn £750 a month after tax.

I've noticed in the success stories thread a couple of people who have had success recently pre-empting the charge and writing to the banks, is this worth doing?

I've been overdrawn in the past before only a few times but have never been charged more than £30, in fact I've searched my past statements and found 6 charges amounting to £160 over the past 5 years.

So, need a little advice, write asking them to cancel the due charge, write asking for the lot over the past 5 years, or something else?

I'm so !!!!ed off about this charge I've already opened a new account (Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct Current account, on this website's reccomendation) which will be used as my main account from the second it's active. HSBC won't get another penny from me, and this site has given me confidence I'll get back at least some of what they've taken.

Thanks in advance.

natweststaffmember

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/PA_1_5_S5/content/uk/pdfs/en/90030_9_bankacctcards_trav_q4_web.pdf;jsessionid=0000BLzq3pEY3KlTrOVGxYpRZDM:12c58nn8e
Have a look at page 2. It seems to indicate that you will not be charged more than the amount overdrawn, plus it seems to be a charge of £25. might be worth arguing that point, ie £144 overdrawn and £150 charges.

MrSpudders

I actually can't log into my online banking service right now to check, but I've just thought, could it be from going overdrawn, it being paid off, then going overdrawn again?

For the sake of argument say I went £80 overdrawn, paid it off, then went £150 overdrawn, £150 fee would be less than the £230 'total', but if it's £25 a pop that would mean that's happened 6 times... can they save up fees like that?