Overdraft trouble

ellrond

Hi

My name is Rich and I'm an 18 year old Student to be (I start in September). I have a problem which, since I know that quite a lot of you are knowledgeable about these kind of things, you may be able to give me some advice on.

I recently started doing those free iPod type schemes. They really do work great; I have a free iPod on the way, and I also got $100 free to my PayPal account.

My problem has been with one of those companies that you sign up to to complete an "offer" on these sites. The company is True.com and they are based in America.

I cancelled my account with them (during their 30 day free trial) via email at least one month ago. However, on the 17th July true.com took $49.99 (£17.10) from my LloydsTSB current account which of course resulted in the £1 overseas transaction fee.

Since I was not expecting this withdrawl (I'm fairly good at keeping track of my finances to make sure that this does not happen) I did not have enough money in my account and I have now gone £16.34 overdrawn. I do not have an authorised overdraft.

This morning I received a letter from LloydsTSB advising me of this, and also advising me of the fact that they will be charging £30 for the privelidge of having this £16.34 overdraft.

Tomorrow I will be depositing money into my account to cover the overdraft but will not have enough money to cover the £30 charge until Wednesday (when I get paid from one of my two jobs) at the earliest (or failing that, the end of the month when I get paid from my main job).

Oddly enough, this problem has sort of arisen because I followed Martin's advice and got an ICICI HiSave account. This is where all my money is, but I can't get it out quickly enough!

My questions are:

1. If I cover the overdraft tomorrow morning (having only learned about it today) are LloydsTSB still likely to charge me?

2. If I explain the situation - and the fact that the payment came off a card which was supposedly cancelled when I upgraded my account - will they be more lenient? And finally

3. Does anybody have any advice on how I can get my money back from the American company? I am already writing a letter to them, since it is always better to send a hard copy than an email, but perhaps somebody else would have some advice for me?

I would like to thank you for your time and for any advice that you may have. I realise that most of you are spending your free time on here, and this is quite a lengthy post, but I am not one for getting into debt.

Rich

jessicamb

I'm not an expert but to me it seems irresponsible for the bank to charge you £30 for a £16 over the limit balance - call them and explain that the card should not have been used and that this has never happened before etc - everything you have written above - they might waive the charge.

Good luck

cantcope

I'd give them a call to explain. Tell them you never authorised the payment coming out and that the card was cancelled. If they dont waive the fee its worth taking a look at the Reclaim bank charges thread.

Good luck

ellrond

Thank you for your replies.

I'll be talking to them shortly. I'll let you know how I get on.

ellrond

I've just finished talking to the debit dispute team at LloydsTSB. The lady was very helpful.

She said that she will be unable to do anything, however, until I contact the company. Only then will they do anything about it which is fair enough I suppose.

She also said that if I call my branch and make them aware of the situation, that they will scrap the unauthorised overdraft charges.

FatJock

Rich,

Have yo got a student account with Lloyds? if not you could go to your branch and inform them that you are becoming a student in Sept and are thinking of depositing oddles of money with them (student grant / student loan / OD etc) but as a gesture of goodwill would they refund the £30 fine.

This is the time of year when banks start to jump through hoops to get student business.

Unfortunately I cant advise on the US$ refund.

Good Luck

FatJock

ellrond

FatJock wrote:

Have yo got a student account with Lloyds?

I'm afraid not. I've already set up my account with NatWest.