Santander "DAILY ARRANGED OVERDRAFT FEE"

mrviner

Hi,

My Santander (previously A&L IIRC) Premier Direct Account has been recieving some "DAILY ARRANGED OVERDRAFT FEE"s recently.

As you can see below, I removed the entire balance, not anticipating any fees, as the high interest rate was at an end. My automatic monthly churning of £510, to keep within funding rules, then accidentally kicks in and the account was in the red for 4 days.

Some 37 days later an overdraft fee is taken, unnoticed by me. Then again in January they take even more due to continued negative balance.

Obviously it's my fault and I'm not really complaining for such a small amount so my question is, how much should I fund the account today to end this mess. Ideally I'd be left with a zero balance. I know I could close the account but that must be done in person with all paperwork etc.

So what is the logic of £2.22 & £6.72 and what will the next charge be?



Thanks,
mrviner

jen245

You can close old A&L accounts over the phone. The arranged over draft fees are 50p per day capped at £5 per month so there will probably be another £5 deducted

YorkshireBoy

mrviner wrote: »

So what is the logic of £2.22 & £6.72

The logic? Well they're your running balances, ie...

28p less £2.50 is -£2.22

and -£2.22 less £4.50 is -£6.72

and what will the next charge be?

The charges to be applied are 50p per day, capped at 10 days per statement period...NOT per calendar month.

So the credit required is £6.72 plus charges to be applied (once you've worked them out from the above).

YorkshireBoy

jen245 wrote: »

capped at £5 per month

I believe it's per statement period, so could be £10 per calendar month in a worst case scenario depending on statement date.

jen245

Yes, it is per statement period, but with A&L, statements are generated and fees taken on the same day each month, so you'd never pay more than £5 per month. My statement used to be generated on the 14th of every month, and fees taken on the 6th of the following month after the statement date (just checked my old statements)

YorkshireBoy

jen245 wrote: »

you'd never pay more than £5 per month.

I understand that, but the OP may have to settle charges for 2 'monthly charging periods' (as they call them) in order to close the account this month...and that could be a tenner in their case.

jen245

Yeah I see what you mean, if he has stayed overdrawn, after his statement is generated, then he'd have the £5 (if he's been o/d for more that the 10 days in the past month), plus however many days o/d since his statement.

mrviner

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

The logic? Well they're your running balances, ie...

Fair enough, I actually meant to paste in the fee amounts not the balances.

It seems like it's hard to predict the next fee. So I've transferred in 20 squid, will wait a month or two to be on the safe side then transfer everything out.

May even close it if I can go through my mountains of paperwork to find original docs...

jen245

Why do you need the original docs? Just phone them when the last fee comes out tell them you want to close the account. They'll ask you to send you card and cheque book back. Job done. That's how I closed mine

tellmeitsfriday

They refused to close my old A&L account over the phone. I tried a few times aswell just to check I didn't get a newbie.

However, the lady in the branch who finally closed my account was lovely. Quick, apologetic... She even checked whether there were charges due (50p in my case) and adjusted the balance accordingly. She gave me my closing balance in cash, and printed out a little slip to prove it was closed.

It might be more simple if you are prepared to sacrifice a lunch hour

Milarky

This is an annoying aspect of how bank account fees (if you run the account empty and simply check to balance daily to top up) work - they notify you of a charge from the previous period but them take that later from the same account rather than allowing the customer to settle up directly. Thus the customer loses track unless they take pains to deposit the amount of charge and make a note to 'ignore' that amount in the account until the bank 'relieves' them of it.

If bank charges are 'legal' then they ought to offer all customers this option (of immediate payment from a third party account)