Help and advice...

Gemma182

Hi there,

I am with the halifax bank of scotland and have a £500 overdraft. this month has been a hard month as i had to move home as i couldnt afford to live in the flat i was renting and because of that i had to buy a cheap car so i could get to work as my dads home is in the country. because of this i had to go into my overdraft and even go into my credit a bit. once i used about £495 of my overdraft,i stopped using the card and used the credit card for any other expenses as i knew i was getting a good wage at the end of the month and be able to pay it off.

however, my card is registered to the familys ebay account, along with some other card that belong to my brother and he bought something from ebay that cost about £5 something and used my card by accident, i did not know about this and only realised when i checked my bank account and noticed that it was at £500.20 i IMMEDIATLY transfered £5 from my brothers account into mine and it was ok,

however i got a letter from the bank saying that because i was overdrawn they are going to take £35 from me on a certain day, then about 10 days later they say they are going to take another £28 pounds for being 20p overdrawn!

i am visiting the bank asap and i just wanted advice on what to say...

what do i do if they only offer to refund part of the charge
what do i do if they refuse point blank

any help would be greatly appreciated

thank you so much

gemma

natweststaffmember

You make a decision whether you are going to accept any refund that they offer or whether you are going to partially accept a refund or you don't accept anything and start the process of reclaiming the charges back.

Gemma182

Thank you so much for the reply. I dont understand how they can justify charging me two separate large charges.

I am wondering however, I kind of know for a fact that if the bank offers anything, it will be to refund one of the charges and will say they can't refund both "as it is not the banks fault I went over my overdraft limit" which is true but it does not justify the large charge as in reality, I was overdrawn by 20p for half a day.

Any advice on what I should be saying?

Thanks so much again.

natweststaffmember

Gemma182 wrote: »

Thank you so much for the reply. I dont understand how they can justify charging me two separate large charges.

I am wondering however, I kind of know for a fact that if the bank offers anything, it will be to refund one of the charges and will say they can't refund both "as it is not the banks fault I went over my overdraft limit" which is true but it does not justify the large charge as in reality, I was overdrawn by 20p for half a day.

Any advice on what I should be saying?

Thanks so much again.

I think you have to try and argue the case. If they refund one immediately as a Gesture of Goodwill you can always go after them on the other charge using the standard approach.

Gemma182

Just back from the bank! They refused to give back any of the two charges as they refunded one charge back in October but then she tried to get me to sign up to an ultimate reward card which costs £12 per month to even have. And after she went through it all I brought the topic back onto bank charges and I asked to speak to the manager.

She went away and came back to say he was about to go on his lunch but he said that they would consider paying back the larger of the two charges (£35) if I signed up to this ultimate reward card. Bribing me?

Anyway I left saying I'd think about it, even tho there is no way I'm doing that.

I'm so annoyed about all of this, thank you so much for all your help so far.

I'm beginning to wonder if they blew me off as I'm only 20 but I look younger and they're not taking me seriously

What should my next plan of action be? Writing to them?

Thank you again

natweststaffmember

Gemma182 wrote: »

Just back from the bank! They refused to give back any of the two charges as they refunded one charge back in October but then she tried to get me to sign up to an ultimate reward card which costs £12 per month to even have. And after she went through it all I brought the topic back onto bank charges and I asked to speak to the manager.

She went away and came back to say he was about to go on his lunch but he said that they would consider paying back the larger of the two charges (£35) if I signed up to this ultimate reward card. Bribing me?

Anyway I left saying I'd think about it, even tho there is no way I'm doing that.

I'm so annoyed about all of this, thank you so much for all your help so far.

I'm beginning to wonder if they blew me off as I'm only 20 but I look younger and they're not taking me seriously

What should my next plan of action be? Writing to them?

Thank you again

If you are 20 years old, then you are certainly wise for those years by not signing up for the £12 a month account with the reward going to the bank. I think you need to start the process of reclaiming all your charges. Have you got your statements for the last 2 years?(since they should never charge you when you were under 18 years of age)

Gemma182

Thank you very much, Iv always been good with my money, but with having to get a car and pay the last rent for my flat and changing jobs all in the same month, this is the first time i have ever used my overdraft and then all of this happens.

I do internet banking so I have all my statements on there so I will go through them and see what it all adds up to. I dont think very much as I dont normally go into my overdraft, but still enough for me to feel I have to do this.

So you think I should start the process of writing to the bank? I saw a step by step process on this website for writing letters and asking for the bank charges back, so I will just use the letter template process i have seen on this website?... it looks very good.

Thank you so much for your help, you really have been a godsend. I hate not being in the know about my rights and you have given some great advice

natweststaffmember

I think you will be ok but if you need any further advice, just post on here.

Gemma182

One more quick question... I downloaded the letter template from this site to ask the bank to pay back the charges (£98 in total) but I just need to confirm that I DO NOT send this letter to my local branch? It's HBOS and I saw an address that was in dunfermline, is that the right one?

Many thanks again