bank charges for 16yr olds

debandnige

We opened a bank account for my daughter who lives away from home during term time as she needed to have access to a cheque book. We duly opened an account with Nationwide and she inadvertantly went overdrawn and had two cheques returned with charges of £60 in total. Of course, as she doesn't earn any money I'll have to pay the charges for her. It was a naive mistake on her part as she still hasn't worked out the machanics of banking yet. When I tried to contact bank on her behalf. They won't discuss her account with me (which I do understand) but my arguement with them it would be cheaper for her to have an overdraft, as I can check her account and put funds in if necessary. They say she can't as she isn't 18, it seems grossly unfair to give a 16 yr old some of the benefits of a current account but not all. They won't give an overdraft facility but they are quite happy to take £60 from her. When I said that it can't possibly be right that it costs that much to return a cheque, they stuck to their guns. What can I do now?

jennifernil

How about opening a joint account with her, then they might give an overdraft, and you could manage the account easily.

Re the charges, I think she could challenge them, there are several threads about this on here.

Gorgeous_George

Instead of an overdraft, why not put £100 into the account and tell her not to go below.

It's not difficult to avoid going overdrawn and she needs to learn but I think Nationwide should write off one of the charges at least.

Personally, I'd ask for a 100% refund or move the account - but I'm unreasonable.



GG

dexters_mum_2

Certainly I'd ask for a refund and maybe ask the branch if they could have a chat with your daughter and show her the basics of sensible banking, I know that when I opened a young persons bank account that gave me a chequebook they arranged an appointment and I found it really useful.

Bossyboots

Its no good berating the bank for not giving her an overdraft. She is under 18 and therefore by law they cannot give her credit, which is what an overdraft would be.

She could write and ask for her charges back. There are several threads on these forums in relation to this and if you do a search and they should have links to other sites with all the info and template letters required.

If you want some input into this account, you are either going to have make it a joint account as suggested (not an option if this is 16+ account only available to under 18s) or your daughter is going to have to write to the banking authorising them to speak to and/or correspond with you.

System

I would say try to get the charges back, but they may refund them and close the account.

As for the cheques, she can go in and get nationwide to draw a cheque on the account for her. The funds would be withdrawn at that point, but at least they wouldn't bounce!

Just a thought...