Been charged £22 for being £1.90 overdrawn for 1 day, what can I do.

getmore4less

Plenty of time to set up the account with the charging structure you want.

The reserve came in around Aug 08 and the letters went out in June 08

Every statements since has had the reserve and overdrafts limits listed.

in order(OD/reserve both optional)

Overdraft no fees, interest

Reserve £22 for every 5 working days no interest
(Both have a £1 buffer)

returned/Gauranteed transaction £8 each max £40pd.


The sensible thing though is to not run your account close to your limits and fail.

natweststaffmember

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

What loss? The charge is for you breaking a term of a contract you signed up for.
The legal position of bank charges differs to what you are saying. The charge is for consideration and not for breaking a term of a contract which would be unlawful and is unlawful). What the bank have done does not amount to a penalty for a breach of the contract.
If you do not like the terms ask for an account with a cashpoint card only with no direct debits or standing orders.
You will then not get charged.

You can ask Barclays to remove the reserve from your account and you will only be charged £8.00 for transactions returned and interest on any excess.

natweststaffmember

Lokolo wrote: »

Which you can not agree to buy cancelling the product you have. They don't make the changes and tell you after. They inform you before hand and give you the choice. If the customer doesn't like it and doesn't do anything about it, its their fault.

Or Royal Mail's for not delivering the post, or the dog for eating the post, or the OP for not reading it. They clearly didn't receive or read it properly but for one charge??
Normally on the reclaims board you can advise that if it was the first occasion and you had a good banking record that the bank would refund for the first mistake.

Sgt_Oddball

Lokolo wrote: »

Which you can not agree to buy cancelling the product you have. They don't make the changes and tell you after. They inform you before hand and give you the choice. If the customer doesn't like it and doesn't do anything about it, its their fault.

What you say is true - if you were talking about car insurance renewal, a mobile phone contract or even changing your supermarket shopping.

But the point is, banks occupy a privileged place in society (including 100s billion pound bailouts from government). This is because people are inherently cautious - this is a serious issue after all, when personal finance/security is concerned - about taking their banking elsewhere.

Barclays and others are completely aware of this general reluctance to switch accounts. Cynically, they take advantage of this to further their profits.

The only solution is to move your business elsewhere but attitudes take a long time to change!

Lokolo

Sgt_Oddball wrote: »

What you say is true - if you were talking about car insurance renewal, a mobile phone contract or even changing your supermarket shopping.

But the point is, banks occupy a privileged place in society (including 100s billion pound bailouts from government). This is because people are inherently cautious - this is a serious issue after all, when personal finance/security is concerned - about taking their banking elsewhere.

Barclays and others are completely aware of this general reluctance to switch accounts. Cynically, they take advantage of this to further their profits.

The only solution is to move your business elsewhere but attitudes take a long time to change!

Exactly. If your local supermarket started doing something you really didn't believe in, would you still shop there?

Or Royal Mail's for not delivering the post, or the dog for eating the post, or the OP for not reading it. They clearly didn't receive or read it properly but for one charge??
Normally on the reclaims board you can advise that if it was the first occasion and you had a good banking record that the bank would refund for the first mistake.

And if the OP had read it, would this thread be likely to exist? No.

natweststaffmember

Lokolo wrote: »

Exactly. If your local supermarket started doing something you really didn't believe in, would you still shop there?
The supermarket is not a good analogy to have since a supermarket is not exactly a utility and a bank account is that. You cannot really get a job without a bank account, you cannot claim state benefits without a bank account, etc,etc,


And if the OP had read it, would this thread be likely to exist? No.

On that point I would agree with you had the read it and understood it rather than automatically being opted in. In the US, they have introduced regulation so that you have to OPT IN to overdraft services otherwise everything gets declined. The OFT alleges that this will happen in the UK in the OFT report yet that is utter nonsense.
Barclays policy was that you have to OPT OUT because you were opted in otherwise. I think the OP though will probably look at a refund based on their first charge....

bristol_pilot

focae wrote: »

I get it...........this is now known as the 'only post a reply if you are nice to the OP and don't offer any criticism whatsoever' forum.ou.

The reason that advice is unhelpful is because it is inaccurate, nothing to do with being nice to the OP. Going in to close the account will very often get some or all of the charge refunded and so will a referral to the regulator.

focae

bristol_pilot wrote: »

The reason that advice is unhelpful is because it is inaccurate, nothing to do with being nice to the OP.

What is inaccurate about advising someone to pay the fee and move on?

The truth of the matter is, the OP probably did what the majority do - when they get a communication from the bank, it is too much trouble to be bothered to actually read the detail, so it gets 'filed'. It is only when something material happens i.e. they get charged for overdrawing in this case, that they actually sit up and pay attention.

So ultimately the advice was helpful - pay up and move on - and learn from the experience.

rubbersoul

Sgt_Oddball wrote: »

I wonder how much extra this is earning for the bank?

Well they've had £900 from me in Reserve fees... I have mental health problems so when the letter came about opting out of the reserve scheme i didnt,
1. Because I rarely went overdrawn (twice in 5 years)
2. I wasnt in the right frame of mind to think about the consequences of such a service
3. I wasnt actually in a state of mind to deal with anything...

The result, I slipped into it once, instant fine, limited budget reduced by £22... getting benefit paid every two weeks, so if I ran out of money at the wrong point I was guarenteed 2 charges.

The day I set up a bank account with someone else was when they took £110 from £210 I had to live on for two weeks, food, rent, bills etc. I've a new bank and have money to eat which is great, and I'm complaining through the FOS because Barclays wont negotiate with me.

To the OP, they are very unlikely to refund anything, cancel the reserve immediately and open an account somewhere else.

sexystephsmith

Hi

I was in a similar situation in that I went overdrawn by a minimal amount for one day. I went into the bank and spoke with the customer services desk. The lady here was rather rude and abrupt and was insistant that the charge would not be cancelled. After a few minutes of speaking with her, I insisted that she go and speak with the manager. The manager waived the charge and I got a refund : )