Closing my Santander/Abbey account

anselld

Well, if you are in genuine financial difficulties across the board you should tell them and they are obliged to "be sympathetic" under the banking code, but it has to be a lot more serious than a £200 OD!

If you are just trying to avoid bank charges and interest - seriously, forget it. Or see how you get on applying for a fee-free overdraft or 0% credit card elsewhere.

bengal-stripe

wishface wrote: »

Why shoudl I not be able to have the account closed and that couple of quid instead go to pay off the amount.

You do live up to your user name, don't you?

bryanb

wishface wrote: »

I did not say I should have the overdraft waived.

You did say you wanted the charges waived though!

wishface

bryanb wrote: »

You did say you wanted the charges waived though!

No, I didn't.

izools

wishface wrote: »

This is going around in circles.

I'm sure it's not beyond the wit of a powerful multinational banking insitution to close an account and furnish me with the means to pay off a couple of a quid each month to the remaining amount. Don't you agree?

Whether or not they want to is entirely another question.

No bank in the UK will allow a customer to close an account whilst it is overdrawn. They operate in a very different way to credit cards, and with an overdraft the choices are:

1. Pay in full and close the account
2. Pay enough to ensure that you are far enough within the OD limit that interest won't bring you back over and you can continue to pay it off
3. Ignore the account for long enough that the charges bring you far enough over the limit that the bank register a default notice and pay what you can afford whilst simultaneously raising a complaint to reclaim unfair charges.

Is it charges or OD interest that you can't afford??

Dave_save

What Santander are asking seems to be reasonable:

From the Abbey Ts and Cs (now transferred to Santander so I presume these apply to you).

12.2 Obligations after your bank account is closed
12.2.1 If you, or we, choose to close your account, then:
(a) where your bank account is in credit, we will help you switch to a different
account, or give you back all the money in the bank account together with any
interest you have earned on it, less any pending Services Fees and/or interest
you owe us and less any payments you have requested before it was closed; or
(b) where your bank account is overdrawn, you must pay off immediately the
whole of the overdrawn balance on your bank account, all Service Fees and
all interest applicable to the bank account. Alternatively, on request, we

will help you transfer your overdraft to a different overdraft provider.

blueberrypie

wishface wrote: »

I can't afford to keep this bank account open. I can't pay more than a couple of quid a month. Why shoudl I not be able to have the account closed and that couple of quid instead go to pay off the amount.

Because you can't just change the contract you signed up to when you opened the account. You agreed to certain terms and conditions, and now you don't like them - that doesn't mean you can just change your mind.

Why should the bank allow you to borrow money for free? It would hardly be very good business, even if your record suggested that you were likely to pay it all off in the end.

TheEffect

Why not apply for a First Direct account and use the £250 interest free overdraft to pay off the Santander overdraft. Close the Santander account and slowly pay of First Direct.

wishface

I don't understand how that's actually any better?

bargains83

wishface wrote: »

what on earth are you talking about?

I can only assume you are being deliberately obtuse.

I can't afford to keep this bank account open. I can't pay more than a couple of quid a month. Why shoudl I not be able to have the account closed and that couple of quid instead go to pay off the amount. Quite where you think your money is being used here I don't know.

This forum is supposed to be used for people to get advice for just these situations, not for right wing lunatics to deliberately misread what has been said.

So you ARE saying you want them to close the account and just reduce your overdraft by the amount you are paying in without charging you the interest charges that are already being added on for being overdrawn. There is no way the bank will agree to this. You have run the debt up and have to pay it back under the terms you agreed.

Also bear in mind that by not paying money into your account to either clear or maintain this overdraft your credit file with the agencys will probably be recieving negative marks which will make getting further credit with any other financial institution more difficult and you will still owe this £200 and all the extra charges Santander have added so you are doing yourself no favours by sitting on this and doing nothing.

If you genuinely cannot afford to pay the overdraft off, your only option is to get an 'authorised' form of credit which you will pay off with agreed reasonable terms. If a friend or family member won't lend you the money then consider getting a credit card which will allow you to transfer funds into a bank account such as the Egg card, or one which will give you some credit card cheques at 0% + BT Fee, write a cheque to yourself and pay it into the Santander account to clear the overdraft.

You will then pay this debt off legitimately with the company you have transferred to, most credit cards expect payment of 5% of the outstanding balance so you will pay back £10 - £15 a month. Doing it this way will probably repair some of the damage you've already done to your credit history.