Alliance & Leicester Shocker - Urgent Advice Needed

on_way_to_fame

I have a premier current account with A&L. I have been outside the UK for the last 12 months or so, and will be so, for a fairly long time. In Feb, my A&L Balance went to -£9 for about 21 days, as I do not have any overdraft arranged with the bank, I was charged a fee of £55 for this on 8th March.

Atyer my balance had gone into negative, I made sure I bought it to positive on 28th Feb by transferring enough money from my other account. However, when the bank took out the £55 on 8th March, due to this charge, my balance went back into negative by £13, as I did not have access to Online banking, I did not realise this.

Therefore, at the end of the month, the bank charged me another £100 for being in negative on 6th April. I was finally able to check my account today and saw that I was negative -120 because of all these charges. But the real shock when I clicked on "view charges to be applied". According to that on 5th May, the bank will take out another £155 from my account for:

INSTANT OVERDRAFT REQUEST FEE £25.00
INSTANT OVERDRAFT REQUEST FEE £25.00
05-May DAILY UNARRANGED OVERDRAFT FEE £100.00
05-May UNDER FUNDING FEE £5.00

The 2 Direct Debits were returned by the company as they were not due but the bank will still charge me £25 eacj for those, plus another £100.

So in all, I have been charged over £300 in fines for being £9 in debt. This seems totally ridiculous to me and I am at a complete loss for what I should do. Also the fact that I am not in the UK, makes things very difficult for me. I asked a friend to depsoit £100 into my account, for something, before I checked my account, so I guess that £100 would be used to write off these fines. I am not sure what to do about the balance..and if there is any way I could claim this money back.

I would really appreciate any help on this.

Thanks
Ash

Premier_2

Have you read the very informative MSE article on the matter? Link at top of page.

In it, it suggests that you conatct the bank who, if it's the first time, may waive the charge as a goodwill gesture. The charges you indicate suggests more than just one charge has occurred, but even if you could get one charge waived, that would be a start wouldn't it?