Overdraft APR Calulation

Savvy_Money

To be fair to the OP, terms and conditions are often unread by people - this is how companies can find ways of adding charges or suddenly increase the interest rate, as many people either ignore or fail to understand terms such as variable or 'we guarantee to follow the Bank of England base rate plus 1.99%'. There is a trend amongst banks to state that their overdrafts have been made 'simpler' by introducing very high monthly charges for the OD. Many people were stuck having to pay an extra £20-25 per month as a result (especially if you banked with the Halifax). Yes you can switch accounts, but this will depend upon your credit worthiness etc....

If this was a one off I would contact Lloyds and ask for a refund (they tend to only do this once though), and if you've taken out a few of their products they are more likely to respond favourably to your request. If they will not refund the charge, if possible change to a bank that still charges a % fee for the overdraft - Barclays still do. The only other thing you can do is keep a buffer in a savings account, and check your account via online banking on a regular basis (every working day) - this will allow you to transfer the funds to keep your account in credit at the end of the working day.

Sending a letter can help, but if it is a rant it will be ignored - best to grovel a little and state "that you have always held the reputation of the Lloyds banking group in high esteem, and whilst your terms and conditions clearly state that a £5 charge will be applied on an overdraft, I appeal to your good nature if on this occassion you could refund me the charge, as I have always maintained my account up to this point in a good order, and it was uncharacteristic for me to be overdrawn on this account".

Good Luck

YorkshireBoy

stu007 wrote: »

And I'll shrug my shoulders and move the account elsewhere.

Which will mean you have to read the account T&Cs of many other providers before making an informed decision. Something which, by your own admission, you're not very good at.

However, to save you some time you should forget about Santander, Halifax, Yorkshire Bank, Clydesdale Bank, et al who all have the same or similar fee structure.

If you need to read all these T&Cs before you move you may as well read your Lloyds T&Cs and familiarise yourself with them?


EDIT: But to answer your question, its 4932.43% APR (the EAR will be much less of course, as that calculation doesn't include fees).

stu007

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Which will mean you have to read the account T&Cs of many other providers before making an informed decision. Something which, by your own admission, you're not very good at.

However, to save you some time you should forget about Santander, Halifax, Yorkshire Bank, Clydesdale Bank, et al who all have the same or similar fee structure.

If you need to read all these T&Cs before you move you may as well read your Lloyds T&Cs and familiarise yourself with them?


EDIT: But to answer your question, its 4932.43% APR (the EAR will be much less of course, as that calculation doesn't include fees).

Thanks for your concern....

However as it was the only time I've ever been in my overdraft, and I don't plan on doing so again - reading the T&Cs isn't overly critical.

talana

stu007 wrote: »

- reading the T&Cs isn't overly critical.

Quote of the week from anyone complaining about their bank. Lesson not learned I guess. So next time you incur any sort of bank charge or "unexpected" fee to pay, for any reason, you won't be complaining and claiming ignorance I assume?