is it worth chasing?

Financially_Backwards

Hi guys, my names Chris and im a university student in my 2nd year.

Like most uni students i got persuaded into opening a so called "student" account with my bank (which is actually worse than my normal savings account thus i dont really use it) and the only reason i agreed was the lure of a "free overdraft", something the bank assistant said a few times to me. I thought it may come in handy if im ever stuck for money, so i said ok.

Now 2 years later i made a stupid mistake. I set up my paypal to the wrong bank account and ended up buying a cheap £3 phone cover using my student account, which had no money in it, not that it ever had (i use my savings account plus an isa for the stuff i havent touched yet). The next thing i know, i have a nice £10 charge, taking my balence down to around -£13. I thought ok, that was daft, and paid it off, only to find ANOTHER ten pound charge, this time for having -£13. Now im not stupid, because i know paying that one off will net another £10 charge, and thus to avoid that i need to pay in £20. that would mean ive paid £30 for going £3 underdrawn!! the bank refuses to refund the charges, and i KNOW that the admin fee for them is £2.50 ish, so is it worth taking it further? It seems they are looking for excuses to charge me more, at a nice 500% interest rate! All this from what my advisor said would be a FREE overdraft!

voiceofreason

Financially_Backwards wrote: »

Hi guys, my names Chris and im a university student in my 2nd year.

Like most uni students i got persuaded into opening a so called "student" account with my bank (which is actually worse than my normal savings account thus i dont really use it) and the only reason i agreed was the lure of a "free overdraft", something the bank assistant said a few times to me. I thought it may come in handy if im ever stuck for money, so i said ok.

Now 2 years later i made a stupid mistake. I set up my paypal to the wrong bank account and ended up buying a cheap £3 phone cover using my student account, which had no money in it, not that it ever had (i use my savings account plus an isa for the stuff i havent touched yet). The next thing i know, i have a nice £10 charge, taking my balence down to around -£13. I thought ok, that was daft, and paid it off, only to find ANOTHER ten pound charge, this time for having -£13. Now im not stupid, because i know paying that one off will net another £10 charge, and thus to avoid that i need to pay in £20. that would mean ive paid £30 for going £3 underdrawn!! the bank refuses to refund the charges, and i KNOW that the admin fee for them is £2.50 ish, so is it worth taking it further? It seems they are looking for excuses to charge me more, at a nice 500% interest rate! All this from what my advisor said would be a FREE overdraft!

Doesn't it say somewhere in the T&Cs for student accounts that you have to actually pay your loan into it?

Financially_Backwards

voiceofreason wrote: »

Doesn't it say somewhere in the T&Cs for student accounts that you have to actually pay your loan into it?

nope, balence started at zero, i havent so far needed a loan since im on my own money and thats that! im sure the bank would have commented by now if i did have to pay my student loan into it (well, if i had one, wich i will soon sadly!)

natweststaffmember

Financially_Backwards wrote: »

nope, balence started at zero, i havent so far needed a loan since im on my own money and thats that! im sure the bank would have commented by now if i did have to pay my student loan into it (well, if i had one, wich i will soon sadly!)

I am going to guess the bank, RBS??
Did you apply for the overdraft?
Did you make sure the overdraft was on the account?

Financially_Backwards

Although this was years ago, I will add what happened because I WON! I went into my branch and asked to close my account, plus to withdraw my ISA savings and close that account and then finally close my savings account - a full pull out of RBS. They agreed to drop the charges and close the student account and that was that! Lesson - be calm, polite but mean.