I'm so upset - Bank have left us screwed

Bakeybadoo

I feel sick, I can't think logically, I'm just so upset so I'm just going to rant.

Our bank (Abbey) took out £205 in charges for various things. My money goes in tomorrow, we need that to live on and it's totally swallowed immediately by this.

It's taken us over our overdraft limit. Which in itself will incur MORE charges next month.

I've tried so hard, I've worked out a budget for paying debts off and essentials and living until the next lot of money and bang, it's all gone.

We had negotiated a settlement with one of our creditors and I was on a high that we were going to pay 1 off and also we had enough to purchase another car as ours is being returned to the dealer to write that debt off. Now it's not happening. Either of them.

We called the bank and they said that it was all explained on the back of our last statement. Well, first off, we never saw it. On the back? !!!!!!, who looks on the back if it's not the norm for stuff to be on the back? Second off, everytime we've had a letter about a charge, we've called them and they said it was a glitch, there were no pending charges on our account and to ignore it.

If we have over our overdraft, we pay cash in the same day and we call to inform them and they've said that it was fine. Again, no charges would be applied.

Now this. I honestly feel like curling up and never coming out.

We have opened a 2nd account with Co-Op recently and were just waiting for the details and were going to transfer everything as Abbey is notorious for it's charges and when challenged, it closes your account. I guess we weren't quick enough. And I have another 2 lots of money due in Tuesday and Wednesday, I have no way of stopping them as they are already in the system.

It's not helped by being a Sunday, so we can't speak to anyone in person or anyone higher on the phone until tomorrow.

oakdale_minx

Hi there - I'm not sure what help I can give for the immediate situation, but, I think you should start the process to get your bank charges back. You can claim back 6 years worth. It takes a while but is worth it. i'm with the Abbey and they refunded me £4,700 worth of charges this week. And they haven't closed my account. Have a look on the bank charges board on MSE or have a look at http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk to get the letter templates you need.

Good luck, I'm sure there will be some other along who will have some good advice about sorting out the immediate problem.

GirlRacer_2

I agree with OM here. Start the process. Its not going to be an immediate fix to your situation but once you get your charges back you can get your money back into some kind of order.

Good luck

raq

I also agree. I just had £1,674.00 charges from Halifax and it felt wonderful after 4 1/2 years worth of charges. At one time I also had over £150.00 worth and it completely screwed us up. At the time I just had another baby so I could have really done without it.

Easy to say don't worry as I have also been there on enough occasions. Sure you'll sort it out as soon as the banks are up and running

Frugal_Fox

Bakey,

I'm so so sorry to hear this. I can understand how you are feeling. This happened to us too. Its awful and so demoralising.

Firstly - can you telephone them at all? If so, can you arrange a temp. increase in your overdraft - mainly to prevent those further charges.

We banked with Halifax and unfortunately they were not willing to do this for us - I guess we were too much of a money making venture for them!!

It was this that tipped us over the edge and have led to us going via CCCS whose first bit of advice was to open another account and have the wages paid into that. Do you wages go in tomorrow or can you stop them? If you can't - cancel all DD, SO etc etc and withdraw ALL of the money you can from this account. Least you will have it. Yes you may incur further charges - but you can then go down the reclaiming route - something we are in the process of doing. If you can't withdraw all of the money can you transfer it to any other account - savings etc. It does not have to be a current account, just get what you can out of the 'nasty' account!

Do the same with the other moneys on Tues & Wed.

I'm now with the co-op and they are lovely!

I'm sorry I can't offer you any more help, but I've been there. It is an awful time - but it WILL get better.

Stay in touch
FF

Frugal_Fox

What I also meant to say....

Once the money is out of this account, obviously you will continue to incur charges unless they increase the overdraft limit - however you will just have to pay them back as and when you can.

What money do you have to pay out on bills - can any of these creditors accept a reduced payment from you. What ever happens you must leave yourself enough for transport and food. It may sound blase, but you have to eat and you have to be able to get to work.

If it helps contact an organisation like CCCS (charity) just to talk things over. Keep posting here too.

Broken_hearted

Abbeys carges are lower than they used to be.
The complaints number for Abbey is 0845 600 6014, £205 seems a lot to be charged one go.

Bakeybadoo

Frugal_Fox wrote:

Firstly - can you telephone them at all? If so, can you arrange a temp. increase in your overdraft - mainly to prevent those further charges.

They won't up our overdraft, we were over £10 a month ago and they suggested a temp. overdraft increase to cover it but then saw on the system that we weren't allowed any more.

Do you wages go in tomorrow or can you stop them?

It's my Incapacity Benefit, the Child Benefit goes in Tuesday and DLA on Wednesday.

Nothing should go out this week BUT the charges will swallow at least 2 of those payments up straight away. Leaving us virtually nothing to live on until my husband gets paid on Friday.

We do have a phone bill that needs paying out of whatever is left over. Which I don't think we'll have enough to cover. So will incur charges on that bill because of this fiasco.
Can't withdraw any money as there will be none left. But whatever IS left out of all of the 3 payments, we will withdraw that straight away.

Thanks for your advice, much appreciated. You are right, it's the feeling of being kicked in the teeth and being unable to do anything about it.

Bakeybadoo

Broken_hearted wrote:

Abbeys carges are lower than they used to be.
The complaints number for Abbey is 0845 600 6014, £205 seems a lot to be charged one go.

They are £30-£35 a pop. We had several from the looks of it.

gilly1964

The telephone banking number for Abbey is 08459 724 724. It will be worth a call to see if they can increase your overdraft to avoid incurring further charges.

As another person has said £205 does seem to be a heck of a lot.

Does the breakdown make sense?

I believe Abbey charge £20 for going into unauthorised od, then £30 for a transaction which results in unauthorised OD and then £35 for each bounced item.

HTH
Gill

gilly1964

Bakeybadoo wrote:

They won't up our overdraft, we were over £10 a month ago and they suggested a temp. overdraft increase to cover it but then saw on the system that we weren't allowed any more.

Try calling again as the scoring system may come up with a different result this time round.

All the best
Gill