MSE news: Abbey hits bank charges victims with huge backdated fees

tiredmum3

Another thing I have noticed with abbey is how selected their systems seem to be when decling or paying direct debits when there isnt enough money in the account. we have our mortgage and current account with the abbey and you can always rely on the fact that they with decline to pay the abbey mortgage so sppoky this means that they hit you with a £35 charge for returning a unpaid direct debit but you then get a lovely letter from abbey mortgage saying they havent been paid and you will have a £32 charge added to your mortgage. BTW A)does anyone know whether these can be reclaimed. has this happened to anyone else with a current account and mortgage with abbey or just me.
thanks

juliana_2

my husband rang abbey to find out why he had no money, he was told that abbey was being nice to him by not charging him for the last 4 months to help him get out of debt , only we had left money for the charges in the account then all of a sudden they took £100.19 for back dated charges, if they really wanted to help him please tell me how taking a hundred pounds in one hit rather than the monthly 15 was going to help us, as now we cant afford to live this month , when i complaind to them i was told that if we didnt want a charge we shouldnt have a overdraft

great idea but in pratice we have to live in our overdraft just to servive right now . especially as each time we try to climb out of trouble we get deeper into it , like the latest con we walked into , my husband was worried about his job so wanted to start a plumbing course. he said he would have a tutor with a 5 to 1 ratio with students , we payed 300 for the books and got a 8000 pound loan over 5 years from them but via barcleys bank , to then find when he got the course there are only tutors on the 3 times you go to visit them on a 2 year course and no other help , whats he suposed to do with a few books , now we pay 125 a month for nothing , why cant we get a break ???

lilfoxy

Can I just mention my little tale of events with Abbey. Long story short had joint account (I say had as I will explain later) Hubby self employed back 2005, not enough cash in bank per month, things slow business wise and I gave up my job full time to look after mentally ill mum, but still worked part time- 2 kids, overworked & stressed hubby!
The bank reduced our overdraft facilities twice even though they were aware of difficulties facd and subsequentely lots of overdraft fees & charges as a result, got DMP set up and things were better.
In 2007 read about ubnfair charges & decided to claim went down proper channels had all original paperwork dated back to 2001! Posted letter in July......
Waited for reply .....
Had 2 letters since then
Should I have complained to the FOS?
I have downloaded a financial hardship letter from the MSE site but is it worth sending as I believe we fell into that criteria way back just not aware of it back then.
Please advise
From a frustrated Geordie lass

lilfoxy

Coincidentally got a basic bank account with HSBC never missed a payment always in black (hooray!) Buta couple of years ago We did not make our mortgage payment in time - paid money in same day it was due out- charged £30 for the pleasure! At the time there was an asian woman complaining about the very same thing they waivered hers! At the time I did not have the bottle to protest -shall I now ? As when we became a little financially stable went into HSBC to open an account savings and was knocked back so no interest was charged on my quite little stash I had built up in my basic bank account.
I am now looking to switching banks because of this!

flam147

simon_templar wrote: »

You are putting words in my mouth, i did not mention how much the charges were or if they were fair or unfair. You need to wake up to the fact that a bank charges for overspending. Be it 1p or £60 it is still a form of borrowing without permission and a jolly expensive way to do so.

Banks charge for pure Greed to pay massive bonus for people taking risky deels to nearly bankrupt the uk.
the banks want you to get in a mess so they can charge you.

if i was to give you £5 then you had to pay a bill of £4 for me you would still have £1

how the banks do it is try to pay the £4 first then charge you £38 then they put in your £5 making you £33 in debt in some cases before the bank notifies you the £33 can be £400 - £500

people on very low incomes can go without food to pay bank charges which
must be done as Sir Fred must have £650,000 pension a year to put the food on his table!!!

flam147

lilfoxy wrote: »

Coincidentally got a basic bank account with HSBC never missed a payment always in black (hooray!) Buta couple of years ago We did not make our mortgage payment in time - paid money in same day it was due out- charged £30 for the pleasure! At the time there was an asian woman complaining about the very same thing they waivered hers! At the time I did not have the bottle to protest -shall I now ? As when we became a little financially stable went into HSBC to open an account savings and was knocked back so no interest was charged on my quite little stash I had built up in my basic bank account.
I am now looking to switching banks because of this!

in my view Basic bank accounts are unlawfull in as you are not allowed to overdraw but the bank can overdraw you by £500 in bank charges

i was under the impression that contracts have to be balanced?

natweststaffmember

flam147 wrote: »

Banks charge for pure Greed pay massive bonus for people taking risky deels to nearly bankrupt the uk.
the banks want you to get in a mess so they can charge you.

if i was to give you £5 then you had to pay a bill of £4 for me you would still have £1

how the banks do it is try to pay the £4 first charge you £38 then they put in your £5 making you £33 in debt in some cases before the bank notifies you the £33 can be £400 - £500

people on very low incomes can go without food to pay bank charges which
must be done as Sir Fred must have £650,000 pension a year to put the food on his table!!!

You are looking at the consequence of a bank charge and not the cause.
The cause is the lack of income going into the account to cover the money going out. The consequences is bank charges. For 2006 where data exists for bank charges, they made £4billion out of a total of over £40 billion in profits so that means only 10% which to be totally honest is nothing to do with bonuses so your point is not based in facts. Furthermore, in the recent HoL Test case appeal it was stated that 30% of those charges paid for "Free if in credit" banking model. so that reduces further, the pure profit incorporated within that £40 billion quoted figure.

flam147

natweststaffmember wrote: »

You are looking at the consequence of a bank charge and not the cause.
The cause is the lack of income going into the account to cover the money going out. The consequences is bank charges. For 2006 where data exists for bank charges, they made £4billion out of a total of over £40 billion in profits so that means only 10% which to be totally honest is nothing to do with bonuses so your point is not based in facts. Furthermore, in the recent HoL Test case appeal it was stated that 30% of those charges paid for "Free if in credit" banking model. so that reduces further, the pure profit incorporated within that £40 billion quoted figure.

fair point but imho credits should be applied before Debits and DD should be the last Thing to go out at the end of the day and why should people in debt and on low incomes pay for Millionares bank account (robin hood in reverse)

natweststaffmember

flam147 wrote: »

fair point but imho credits should be applied before Debits and DD should be the last Thing to go out at the end of the day and why should people in debt and on low incomes pay for Millionares bank account

I do kinda agree with the logic behind it. The problem is more the interplay of charges that is worse rather than when a credit is processed. One charge can lead to another one and so that is the main issue. If they were a millionaire then they are partially paying for their bank account with low interest rates on their current account and in fact, most people who do have high wages also have high overdrafts to which they pay interest on.

flam147

i would be interested in your view on banks allowing basic bank accounts to overdraw by £500 which you are supposed to have the piece of mind that you cannot get in debt with a basic bank account?