2.52 Overdrawn and extortionate charges

Nicky321

My son is a PT Uni Student on IB JSA. He has a student account with £1000 Overdraft. Obviously he has been living in his O/D due to lack of money. He went on IB JSA in May 2011 and went back to Uni in Sept 2011. He was advised by the local Job centre to sign off Job Seekers as he wasn't entitled to it. He applied for Student finance too. In October he signed back onto JSA as he was entitled to it. Just before Christmas he received £265 from Student finance (award for full year). So basically he has been living off his income of £31.00/week + top up of IB JSA to make it upto what the government says he needs to live on.

Anyway unfortunately and unknown to himself he ended up going overdrawn £1002.52 on 16/1/12 and realised this on 17/1/12 and paid in enough money to bring him back within his limit. Today he has received a letter notifying him of this ( going £2.52 over his overdraft limit) and notifying him they have provided him with an Unplanned Overdraft to cover the payments they made, and for this reason, they will charge him interest at the Halifax Unplanned Overdraft borrowing rate. Also he will be paying a £28 Monthly Overdraft Fee for each monthly billing period, his next billing period starts on 2nd February 2012. Obviously these charges will have a rolling impact over the next months due to this amount being over half his weekly income.

Is there anything he can do about this charge?
I feel charging £28.00 + (interest) in unjustified for £2.52

Please help.

dunstonh

Is there anything he can do about this charge?
I feel charging £28.00 + (interest) in unjustified for £2.52

He can ask Halifax but he is totally reliant on their goodwill.

The other thing you can do is use it as an example to him to realise that he has to control his own finances closely because if he leaves it to others they will charge him.

Nicky321

dunstonh wrote: »

He can ask Halifax but he is totally reliant on their goodwill.

The other thing you can do is use it as an example to him to realise that he has to control his own finances closely because if he leaves it to others they will charge him.

I understand that, but this charge will take roughly 50% of his weekly income, if they had refused the item I think it would have been a charge of £10

meer53

Nicky321 wrote: »

I understand that, but this charge will take roughly 50% of his weekly income, if they had refused the item I think it would have been a charge of £10

If it was a card payment that took him over his limit, these can't be returned by the banks, they are guaranteed once they are authorised.