Nationwide - overdraft charges - can I get them back?

annakat99

Some background.... I opened up a Nationwide flex account before I went away travelling for a year as it was meant to be the best one to use abroad. I also became a joint account holder on my boyfriend's flex account at around the same time. To be honest, I only opened an account in my own name as a back up (incase we were to part ways on the road) and it has never really been used, we paid for all our travels through our joint account.

Before I went away, I took a Santander credit card (also a good one at the time for spends abroad) which I set up to DD for the full amount from my flex account. I stuck a lump of money in the flex account to cover CC spends.

When I returned home, I found that I was a few pounds overdrawn on my flex account (me not calculating exchange rates correctly I guess), and had a £40 fee for being overdrawn for 2 months in a row. I paid this off, grudgingly, after checking with the lady on the phone exacely how much I needed to transfer into the account to bribg it back into positive (however, I didn't want to transfer too much in as this is not my day to day account). I thought it was all OK, untill I had another £20 slapped on me for another overdraft charge, taking me back overdrawn, meaning I will probably get another overdrawn charge next month. Talking to the guy in the call centre this time, he tells me that there's no way that they can see what charges are going to be put on my account.

I've stuck in a bit more money, and I think I'm now back in credit and should be OK, however I've given Nationwide £60 of my money, and maybe another £20 this month (we'll wait to see what the statement says). Is there anyway I can claim this back as the fees seem ridicuously steep!

Also - i want to close the account, it's been more hinderance than help. However I'm told that I can only do this in a Nationwide branch. Getting to a Nationwide branch is a right royal pain for me, so it looks like that won't be happening for a while.

Any advice gratefully accepted.
Anna

blueberrypie

I'm not familiar with Nationwide's practices, but...

In general, fees are charged a month in arrears - meaning that if you go overdrawn this month, you'll be charged at the end of next month. That's likely why you got the next £20 charge.

You should be notified of these charges, probably on your bank statement (whether on-line or paper). The safest thing to do, assuming you can't get to a branch to close your account, would be to put enough money into the account to cover any potential charges, and leave it there until you have been in credit for a couple of months.