Has your overdraft been cancelled?

ladyk_3

We had a letter through the other day from HBOS informing us that they were withdrawing our OD facility.
Couldn't believe it as things have been quite stressful financially as my partner is freelance and work's been quiet since start of year. So the OD has been extremely helpful during this period. Work has started to come through finally which means there's going to be a regular healthy income for forseeable future being paid into this account.
Contacted HBOS and explained this as it seemed so unfair to get to this point and for them to do this. The end of last month we misjudged our finances as our "pot was running out" and had to make sure we covered everything which resulted in us accruing 2 charges, I was informed that this was reason why our OD was withdrawn. I pointed out that this was a very rare accurance and they acknowledged this however the "underwriters" would not review the situation.
Then women that I was dealing with was symapthetic but her hands were tied. she informed me that we were not alone and that HBOS are now reviewing accounts on a monthly basis instead of the usual yearly review.
We were told that the OD would be withdrawn in 2 weeks and we would have to speak to the collections dept to discuss what happens then as we are going to be in unauthorised OD...still yet to do this so it'll be interesting to see what they say!!!!!!!
I'm going to go into our local branch and speak to the manager there to see if they can assist, i'm going to take in my partner's cuurent invoices to show them proof that there's going to be a regular income coming in again......it's worth a try but deep down i'm not very helpful.
:mad:

ladyk_3

We had a letter through the other day from HBOS informing us that they were withdrawing our OD facility.
Couldn't believe it as things have been quite stressful financially as my partner is freelance and work's been quiet since start of year. So the OD has been extremely helpful during this period. Work has started to come through finally which means there's going to be a regular healthy income for forseeable future being paid into this account.
Contacted HBOS and explained this as it seemed so unfair to get to this point and for them to do this. The end of last month we misjudged our finances as our "pot was running out" and had to make sure we covered everything which resulted in us accruing 2 charges, I was informed that this was reason why our OD was withdrawn. I pointed out that this was a very rare accurance and they acknowledged this however the "underwriters" would not review the situation.
Then women that I was dealing with was symapthetic but her hands were tied. she informed me that we were not alone and that HBOS are now reviewing accounts on a monthly basis instead of the usual yearly review.
We were told that the OD would be withdrawn in 2 weeks and we would have to speak to the collections dept to discuss what happens then as we are going to be in unauthorised OD...still yet to do this so it'll be interesting to see what they say!!!!!!!
I'm going to go into our local branch and speak to the manager there to see if they can assist, i'm going to take in my partner's cuurent invoices to show them proof that there's going to be a regular income coming in again......it's worth a try but deep down i'm not very helpful.
:mad:

Angelgabriel_3

Both me and my husband are both self employed with three small children. We're getting in work but our clients are taking longer to pay us hence we rely heavily on our overdraft. We're basically budgeting day by day to ensure the mortgage and important bills get paid and we can put food on the table. We're getting very good at juggling! If the bank was to withdraw our overdraft facility at the moment we'd be screwed, I'm getting very worried. I don't tend to winge but it makes my blood boil when hard working people are being penalised whilst fat cat bosses are getting paid obscene amounts of money for sitting on their backside admiring the view. We're both looking for part time work on top of running the businesses but there's not a lot our there at the mo. Only way is up because I daren't look down!

Aggie_R

• Current account provider - Halifax
• Overdraft limit before change - 1,500
• Overdraft balance at time - 2,000
• New overdraft limit after change - 0
• Whether this happened at an official overdraft review - no
• Any charges - yes, alot
• Whether you were notified - only told in passing when I phoned bank about something else and was told they were taking it off us, not letter or anything official

Had to open another current account to have my monies paid into to pay the bills as they would bounce all the direct debits as overdraft cancelled, am still writing letters backwards and forwards trying to come to an agreement to pay the overdraft back as they want the lot in one.

gemmagraphic

I have a student account with Barclays, and had an overdraft facility of £2000.

A month or so ago I had a meeting with my personal banker to discuss reducing my overdraft - I explained to her that I was stuck in my overdraft and hoped to take out a graduate loan in June which would see me in the red, and this all seemed to be ok.

However, last week when I received my student loan, I logged in to find my overdraft reduced by £500 - not a vast amount to some people but a lot to me. I rang the bank and spoke to my personal banker, whose response was that 'I shouldn't have had that money in the first place as it needed to be applied for and wasn't' - and she was the banker who had approved it in the first place! She then went on to say that she had no sympathy as I had spent all of my money on 'personal items' rather than those for college, although how she could judge this (Amazon, Waterstones, Council Tax, water bill...?) is beyond me. She also said I had been sent a letter.

The next day I received a letter saying 'we are pleased to tell you that your request for an overdraft of £1500 has been approved' - it said nothing about my overdraft being reduced at all!

I am putting in a complaint to the bank but can't see them giving me the money back. I feel like I have been robbed and as a trainee teacher living in rural Cornwall and having unforeseen transport problems this is a real issue. Please tell me there is something I can do, or another bank that I can rely on to not treat me like this (this is not the first time I have had to complain to Barclays)!

oldwitch1

I have had a Nationwide overdraft of £600 for over 10 years. 3 weeks before review date I was notified by letter that it was being reduced to £400. I had to find the extra £200 out of my pension that month as I was up to the £600 limit because of costs of utilities etc. I can see no way of reducing the overdraft at the moment.

olly300

• Current account provider - RBS
• Overdraft limit before change - £500
• Overdraft balance at time - £0
• New overdraft limit after change - £0
• Whether this happened at an official overdraft review - They stated in the letter they were reviewing the overdraft on all bank accounts. However my overdraft with them was previously reviewed yearly in July
  
• Any charges -nope
• Whether you were notified - By letter. (I should add I have 2 other personal current accounts with building societies, one with an overdraft the same size as RBS which I have never used. Neither of these overdrafts have been removed or reduced.)

Turkey_Machine

gemmagraphic wrote: »

I have a student account with Barclays, and had an overdraft facility of £2000.

A month or so ago I had a meeting with my personal banker to discuss reducing my overdraft - I explained to her that I was stuck in my overdraft and hoped to take out a graduate loan in June which would see me in the red, and this all seemed to be ok.

However, last week when I received my student loan, I logged in to find my overdraft reduced by £500 - not a vast amount to some people but a lot to me. I rang the bank and spoke to my personal banker, whose response was that 'I shouldn't have had that money in the first place as it needed to be applied for and wasn't' - and she was the banker who had approved it in the first place! She then went on to say that she had no sympathy as I had spent all of my money on 'personal items' rather than those for college, although how she could judge this (Amazon, Waterstones, Council Tax, water bill...?) is beyond me. She also said I had been sent a letter.

The next day I received a letter saying 'we are pleased to tell you that your request for an overdraft of £1500 has been approved' - it said nothing about my overdraft being reduced at all!

I am putting in a complaint to the bank but can't see them giving me the money back. I feel like I have been robbed and as a trainee teacher living in rural Cornwall and having unforeseen transport problems this is a real issue. Please tell me there is something I can do, or another bank that I can rely on to not treat me like this (this is not the first time I have had to complain to Barclays)!

As an aside, if you're a student at a university or college, I believe you are exempt from paying council tax, and you need to either notify your council or the university / college who will advise you how to do it. I've not paid council tax for 3 years while I've been at uni.

Anywho, this is me!

• Current account provider - Nationwide
• Overdraft limit before change - £1150
• Overdraft balance at time - £1100
• New overdraft limit after change - £850 (£950 after extending it via online banking)
  
• Whether this happened at an official overdraft review - It got reviewed in March, but no correspondance got sent to me. I believe they tried ringing my mobile, but as it didn't appear to be a UK number (started +845) I didn't answer - if they were desperate they could have sent me an email or a message via the online banking that it was being reviewed.
  
• Any charges - adminstrative charge (£10), failed direct debit (£30, b*****ds), and more from Virgin Media (£10 and £20 respectively) when they tried taking their DD. Virgin Media have I think since removed their charges on my insistence when they rang me (I'll find out next month when the next DD is due), but Nationwide have not.
• Whether you were notified - By letter, dated early February, sent late February, further sent to me by my parents who didn't forward it immediately early March when the whole situation unfolded.
  

The entire thing has made me very wary about still being with Nationwide, as only recently I've been in credit for a week and a half whilst my student loan has been paid and the landlord only asked for rent the end of last week! Now, with that paid off, I'm about £650 in the overdraft, with pay from the work I've done over Easter due at the end of this month or the beginning of next month hopefully, which should get it up to £500 overdrawn. I rely on my overdraft for living, bills, and have done for the past 3 years. I have tried reducing it, but work has been hard to come by and the bank has given no indication that I'm in any trouble, except when I tried withdrawing some money for the weeks dues and found I wasn't able to (Sunday, and all the banks are shut) - only after some digging did I find out the overdraft limit had been reduced by £300, and I was in the blisters of hell until family could help me out. They did, and I now owe them a lot of money. Conveniently, they reduced the overdraft at about the time Virgin Media's DD was due (£26.43), which slapped on me a total of about £50 of extra "admistrative charges" from those 2 parties (VM and Nationwide).

I'm considering opening another account somewhere, but I have no idea where's best. Time to go digging round here I guess to find out.

macbreath

Mrs macbreath saw this thread and decided she wanted to share her love of all things HBOS - Below is her uncensored rant........

Current account provider: HBOS
Overdraft limit before change: £1000
Overdraft balance at time: £400
New overdraft limit after change: £0
Whether this happened at an official overdraft review: NO
Any charges: NOT AFTER I QUESTIONED THEM
Whether you were notified: NO

In Nov 2008 i decided to change my current account from Alliance & Leicester to HBOS. They made everything out to be so simple explaining that i would have an overdraft limit of £1000 until the switch was complete, that they would sort out all my direct debits, credits and standing orders via their transfer service, and that i didnt need to do anything! How great it all seemed - it turned out to be a complete nightmare!
I got married in June 2008 and so when i opened the new account i had to change my name with my old bank before the switch could happen (HBOS said i couldnt open an account in my maiden name). My old bank said they had an administration delay to change the name which would have a knock on effect on HBOS requesting the information. I then went back to inform HBOS of this and explained they would have to wait to request the info-they didnt and then the transfer failed.
Then once the Alliance and Leicester had changed the name-January, i contacted the transfer team at HBOS and told them that the transfer needed to be requested again-they did this and when i said it had taken a long time to change the name on my old account they assured me that an overdraft extension would be placed on the new account with HBOS out with their 20 weeks due to the individual circumstances.
In the interim i did admit i used the overdraft over the Christmas period-but not excessively.
Then i kept getting letters to say the tranfer was almost complete and so i was to do nothing as they would write to me again to say when it was-so i didnt touch or look at the account.
Then in March i get a letter from my mobile phone company telling me that my direct debit has failed. When i contacted the bank they said i had no overdraft on the account-but i had never received confirmation of that!
They were all set to charge me for the failed direct debit but i argued and they said they would waive it as a 'good will gesture' provided i bring the account back into credit within 7 days or i would be charged on a daily basis for an unauthorised overdraft!
I then looked at the account and noticed they had contacted all debitors but noticed they hadn't contacted ANY of my creditors-when i phoned my payroll at my work they had no information about any new bank details whatsoever. HBOS reply to this was my employer was under no legal obligation to comply with their request-granted yes, but if they never recieved any request they had nothing to comply or not comply with!!
Luckily i had money put aside and put this into the account to clear the overdraft so i would not get charged further but the whole experience has been a complete nightmare. I have now been in credit for 2 months with my salary (that i had to contact my payroll to organise i might add!) and still no response from HBOS. All of a sudden my old bank Alliance and Leicester don't seem so bad-i wish i had NEVER switched!

Turkey_Machine

Just to add to the "safety net" example, when I first applied for an overdraft for Nationwide Current Account, it was easy, far easier than I thought it would be. The initial reason for getting it was a buffer in case the student loans credit/debit for my 1st years accomodation (about a grand a term, but more each term) screwed up. Initially, I asked for £1500. How much was I given? £100. Serves me right really for not going to another bank with "student" preferentials. I'd extended it online to an eventual £1150, but was struggling to pay it off because I couldn't find enough work to cover it. Then the bank decided to reduce it to £850, when I least needed them too, as I was due pay at the end of the month, and told them so!