Student Account Overdraft Being Withdrawn Without Notice!

lollylamb1

I am going into my second year of university and have had a student account with Abbey for the past year which had an interest free overdraft of £1000 which i was told would increase to £1250 this year and so on. Although i had been overdrawn for quite some time i had been regularly putting money in from wages etc.

I went to the bank to transfer my hard earnt wages from a summer job into this account from another account.

After this had been done i went to use my debit card and it got declined. I later found out that my overdraft had been removed without warning because they apparently dont think i have a regular income..which i dont since im a student!!

This means that i technically lost all my earnings from the summer! Not only that but i think they will be charging me interest for each day since my balance is still overdrawn and cheques are going out which will bounce and i will have no where to live at university!

I have seen my bank and they have appealed against this crazy decision which has been made! But this takes 2 days!

I am completely distraught mainly becuase i believe the bank has stolen my my wages! And if they had warned me that the overdraft facility was to be removed then i woudnt have transfered such a substantial amount which it seems like i have completely lost!

I dont understand why the overdraft was removed in the first place since I am a student and unlike many other student i know i actually have been working during the summer!

Could somebody please give me some advice about this

I am determined to get my summer wages back and my overdraft :mad:

HopeAndDriftWood

Does it state in your terms and conditions (last years, as thats when you signed up) that you need to use the account x number of times per month?
I know quite a few people had Natwest and RBS overdrafts withdrawn, as they weren't meeting the 3 credits and 1 debit requirements. It's worth seeing if yours had something similar.

If not, wait for the results of the appeal, and see what they say. "No regular income" doesn't sound like a good enough excuse to close a student account, although I'm sure people will be around shortly who will know more!

MrsManda

The T&Cs for Abbey state that you have to use your student account as your main bank account. Do your students loans etc... go straight into this account?

It may be because they've decided that because your wages go directly into a different account you are not using your student account as your main account. In which case they 'reserve the right to reconsider our relationship with you by cancelling any Student Overdraft Allowance (see below) on your bank account or closing your bank account.' You can find these details HERE under section C2

PARIS_5000

Do you pay your student loan into your abbey account.

giantmutantbroccoli

I used to regularly fall foul of my Abbey student account. The Ts&Cs may be different on yours, as I got my student account 5ish years ago, but I suspect it's the same thing that's causing you trouble. You have to put a "significant amount" of money through your account every 90 days, to prove that it's your main account - even if you only have the one bank account. When I asked, a "significant amount" turned out to be £10 (every 90 days). As I never had a job while I was studying, the only money that went through was my grant and loan, so I would often get letters threatening to take back my overdraft unless I started putting this amoutn of money through.
What I don't understand is how this could have happened without warning. I always got a letter whenever there was a problem (and I got a lot of letters Are you sure the letter hasn't been lost in the post or something?
Getting the bank to appeal against it is the best way to go, but unfortunatly you can't "make" them give you your overdraft back. I suspect your best bet would be to open a new student account with a different bank and get them to transfer everything. They'll use your new overdraft to pay off your old one, and assuming the new overdraft is for the same amount (or more!) you'll get that much left of your new overdraft to spend.
It's worth remembering that the overdraft is still a debt, even if it's interest-free. If you put money into your account while it's overdrawn, it comes off the overdraft - so at that point it's not really your money, it's theirs.

melancholly

go to a branch and speak to a real person - preferably a university branch where they have experience of this