£200 charge for .03p overdrawn!

englisho

Hi

My son (20 year old) lost his job last summer and so stopped using his bank current account.

Unbeknown to him, he was .03p overdrawn. He also changed address around the same time but didnt inform the bank (as he wasnt using the account).

Last week he had a letter passed to him from his previous address from the bank. They have been charging him £20 per month for an unauthorised overdraft, resulting in the .03p overdrawn now standing at £200.03 overdrawn.

Anyone had experience of this please?? or advice on what can be done.

(Bank is the NatWest)

lizzielondon

i don't have any info to help i'm sorry, but how did he go 0.03p overdrawn??

englisho

lizzielondon wrote: »

i don't have any info to help i'm sorry, but how did he go 0.03p overdrawn??

It was last year, but he thinks he used his card to spend the last of his wages and bought something that was 3p more than he had in the bank.

lizzielondon

oh sorry i thought you meant 0.03p not 3p

onlypaddy

Unfortunately your son had an obligation to inform the bank of the change of address, whether he was using the account or not. If he did not intend to use it, he should have closed it.

It could have been worse, some banks charge much more than £20 per month.

Unfortunately in these situations, NatWest's computers will not register the amount of the overdrawn balance, just that he was overdrawn.

My advice would be to complain in writing - in the current climate wrt bank charges its likely to fall on deaf ears, but they may be lenient if it is a first offence. I don't agree with the level of charges either, definitely could have been worse

lizzielondon

don't bank charges have to reflect the actual cost to the bank of going overdrawn? i'm sure i heard that somewhere

something similar happened to my OH, and his bank waived it- he's not with Natwest though

good luck

williamD1964

Having banked with nat west, I know that they can vary from being very helpful to very useless. My advice would be go into his branch and speak to them one to one. apart form that, you could always threaten to go to the papers.

ERICS_MUM

To start with, just go into the branch and ask them if they could refund the charges as the original o/d was so small. Or write a brief polite letter. There really is no need to complain or threaten with going to the press until (unless) the bank has confirmed in writing that they absolutely will not refund the charges.

It's the computer that spits out the charges and staff will not know who has been charged/why nor the size of the o/d.

Just a general comment and certainly not critical of your son in particular, but this really does highlight the need to check your account statements regularly and advise of any changes such as address etc.

Good luck in getting it sorted out.


Linda

natweststaffmember

lizzielondon wrote: »

don't bank charges have to reflect the actual cost to the bank of going overdrawn? i'm sure i heard that somewhere

something similar happened to my OH, and his bank waived it- he's not with Natwest though

good luck

Bank charges do not have to reflect the actual costs to the bank. I doubt they would waive the charge since he moved and didn't change address, and he ignored letters sent to the address. Furthermore, if he had a card he could have checked the balance at the ATM. I suspect his account may already be with collections and therefore the bank will be unlikely to do anything face to face but they would be able to put him on the telephone to arrange repayment of the overdrawn amount.