Natwest Overdraft charges

bozo83

Hey everyone, and thanks in advance to all those that offer me some help.

I've got an account with Natwest and I had a payment go out that left me approx £8 overdrawn. I'm currently temporarily living in Germany, and I assume that I would have received a letter warning me of charges about to be added to my account, but I didn't receive it, that's my fault.

The thing is when I got paid at the end of the month Natwest took approx £180 in charges, which, once all my other bills come out left me overdrawn again, so this month I see that they have charged me slightly over £400 in charges, a sum of money, that I just simply cannot afford to pay. It seems that I'm forever going to be in debt to Natwest as the charges they are charging me I'm never gonna be able to cover and still pay all my regular bills.

Charging me £400+ per month in charges for an un-arranged overdraft of £8 seems rather excessive. But, is it fair? Can they actually charge me this?! Or, Can I claim back the £180 I have already paid them and make them remove the charges which are currently sitting in my account unpaid?!

As a personal note, my wages now get paid into a different bank account with a different bank, where I was apparently £25 over drawn for 5 months and they charged me 57pence!!

Thanks. Pete.

thumshie

Looking at their web site it seems high, just for the overdraft:
http://www.natwest.com/personal/current-accounts/g6/rates-charges.ashx

I make it that it should be £6 per day you remain overdrawn. Even going by the charging scenarios near the bottom:

6 A payment from your account takes you into an unarranged overdraft. You are overdrawn for 21 days in a row during the month and you make 12 more payments from the account while you are overdrawn. £126.00

Were there also returned items or other charges??

bozo83

Hey, thanks for your reply.

So I've checked my statements etc...

it would appear that they charged me:
£132 on 05/04/2011
£186 on 06/05/2011
£120 on 03/06/2011

Which I guess matches in with the £6 per day charges. Can they actually charge me that much? That's day-light robbery!!

Thanks again. Pete.

noizeuk

The charges are legit and as stated on the terms and conditions. You would have been notified of the change in charge structure in the same was I was (by post).

My advise is to NOT bury your head in the sand and get onto the bank and speak with the lending/charges teams who will review your accounts. Nothing in guaranteed of course but if you leave it, they're more likely to say "you ain't managed your account effectively and have not took control of your own finances". If it is your first set of charges, you more likely to receive a gesture of goodwill and they have the ability to write off the charges.

stclair

This is the leaflet noizeuk is referring too:

http://www.natwest.com/olb/mandatory_message/downloads/changes_tandc_031110.pdf

If you call 02380 226443 press option 2 then option 4 someone will be able to discuss your account with you.

You may also want to register for Act Now Alerts too:

http://www.natwest.com/global/act-now-alerts.ashx