Will the bank charge me?

md123

Hi

Not sure if I should have posted this in the reclaim you bank charges forum but as I haven't yet been charged I thought I would post it here. Please feel free to move it if required.

Last week I got a letter from the bank saying that I was overdrawn by £7 and I would need to pay a £30 charge on the 17th (today). I phoned up and spoke to someone to see if this charge could be waived, he said no as I had been overdrawn last month and they had to pay the same direct debit and I had phoned and had the charge waived then as well. I asked to speak to someone higher and was put through to the complaints department. The next man I spoke to said the same that they were not willing to drop the charge as it was the 2nd time it had happened. I apologised and said it was my mistake, the direct debit came out of my account a few days earlier than I realised and I had forgot to amend my records at home. He still refused to withdraw the charge. I then told him that I knew these charges were unlawful and that I should not be getting the charge and I would be writing a letter to them. He said that was well within my rights and I could do that.

I haven't as yet wrote a letter to them, but today I went into my account and the charge has still not come off. Is there a time limit for a charge coming off or can they take it off a few weeks later if they want. I am now worried I will spend the money at some point resulting in a further charge.

Sorry about the length of this post. Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks

Older_but_not_wiser_2

I can almost guarantee that the charge will be taken from your account in the next day or two - don't spend the money.

thesaint

They are within their rights to charge this to your account, having made the exact same mistake last month, I can agree with their action.

You can claim it back, and I believe you would win, but remember they may close your account and any others you have with them.

moonrakerz

thesaint wrote:

They are within their rights to charge this to your account, having made the exact same mistake last month, I can agree with their action.

You can claim it back, and I believe you would win, but remember they may close your account and any others you have with them.

Aren't you contradicting yourself there ??

angelatgraceland

Well its in their "terms and conditions" I would guess but not necessarily legal! Yes I also believe the charge will go through. Write direct debits on your calendar or something and check it every day. Write it down for about 3 days before it is due so that you have time to sort out payments. You cannot realy expect payments to be made if the money is not in the account-hence they penalise you(a ridiculous amount) for the inconvenience. Good luck-try to claim it back anyway.

Astaroth

It is not illegal but may be unenforceable.... the OFT is yet to decide what is acceptable charges for bank accounts - their £12 relates purely to credit cards.

At the end of the day it sounds like they waived it the first time as a guesture of goodwill and now you have done exactly the same thing again they havent. How many get out of jail free cards are you expecting?

If i remember correctly my bank used to charge the fee 14 days after the "offence" but it has been a while since I had one. Prehaps it may be an idea for you to read your terms and conditions a) to find out the answer to this query b) to remind yourself what you actually signed up for

thesaint

moonrakerz Quote:
Originally Posted by thesaint
They are within their rights to charge this to your account, having made the exact same mistake last month, I can agree with their action.

You can claim it back, and I believe you would win, but remember they may close your account and any others you have with them.


Aren't you contradicting yourself there ??



I don't believe so, where's the contradiction?

changkra

I actually have more than one bank account and one building society current account. If my direct debits come out of one of my bank accounts they can come out up to 5 days earlier than the date specified but the following month they will come out either on the correct day or 5 days later. Now i moved my direct debits to my building society account because they come on on the date specified not 5 days earlier or 5 days later. Obviously if its a weekend and the date falls on a Saturday it will be taken on the Friday and if the date is a Sunday it is taken on Monday. If you have trouble with making sure money is in your account due to this reason then switch to a building society account and keep your bank account for other usage.

changkra

thesaint wrote:

They are within their rights to charge this to your account, having made the exact same mistake last month, I can agree with their action.

You can claim it back, and I believe you would win, but remember they may close your account and any others you have with them.

The OFT actually cracked down on banks closing accounts in the of those who reclaimed their bank charges last year, sorry cannot remember the month but it was before September. They told them NOT to close an account because they had refunded the bank charges, no matter how much. If they do close the account it has to be for an entirely different reason. If yo9u want the link i will root it out and post it, but i will have to look for it, so give me time

thesaint

The OFT may have cracked down on this, i'd not heard this, but I believe you, no need to find the link on my behalf.

If the banks are not closing accounts then the O.P can have some comfort if they may close the account, then what?

Is not following the terms and conditions a reason? I suspect the banks would say it was.

changkra

Yes you are quite right terms & conditions. If the bank does close the account then they have to find another valid reason for doing so, they can still close the account for bank charges being recovered but it is frowned on quite severely by the OFT. I do know for fact that LLoydsTSB in particular have stopped closing accounts for charges being reclaimed. All this did was to cause an influx of people suddenly changing banks and hopefully within a month and also avoiding charges at the same time, which wouldn't be easy to in this case.