Well annoyed, banks are crap. Have they screwed over my little sister? Is this fair!?

JimmyTheWig

OP, from the sounds of what you are saying about how young and naive your sister is, I think it is a good thing that she won't be able to get a bank account with an overdraft.
At this point, at least, the banks will be behaving reasonably and responsibly.

I think that I am more on your side, OP, than many who have responded. To get into this much debt just by not opening letters is a terrible shame. But I don't think that there is much you can do.

The first thing I would do is to dig out the terms and conditions and work out if what the bank have charged has been correct. We are all assuming that it is, but what if the bank has made a mistake?
It may also be worth speaking to other banks and asking what they would do in similar circumstances. If you can gather evidence to show that the bank acted against industry standard practice (even if within their own rules) then you might be able to get somewhere.

The next thing to do is for you and your sister to have a good think about who is at fault here.
Assuming that the bank have followed their correct procedures (and you'll get plenty of help on here if they haven't) then all you can say is that the bank should have done more to let your sister know what was happening. But given that your sister wasn't opening the letters they sent, what more could they have done?
The main fault is not opening the letters. The only person to blame here, unfortunately, is your sister.

Thirdly, you may like to take up some sort of "make banks more fair" campaign. Having established firstly that the bank followed its own and industry standard rules and secondly that the main fault lays with your sister for not opening her post, you may want to find ways where the banks could have done this better. You may want to take these suggestions to the press and/or your local MP.

Fourthly, how young and naive is your sister? Is she ready to go to university? Is she ready to be living without your parents? Will she remember to switch the iron off after using it and not leave the gas on the hob switched on over night? Will she be able to cope with everyday bills? Will she be able to get herself up in the mornings and get to the right lecture hall at the right time on the right day?
It would be better for her if all of this was considered before she goes. If the answer is that she might struggle with some of this then you need to look into what help might be available to her and if that help is not enough then maybe put it off for a year or two?

opinions4u

kevin52 wrote: »

It is a sad fact of life that in the main only poor people pay bank charges and fees.

Fact? Really?

It's usually people who don't budget and / or spend wrecklessly.

Some are poor. Many more are decent earners who are just stupid when it comes to managing their money.

Maestro.

Gromitt wrote: »

I had a similar lesson and shock when I was young (about 19), but it was much easier though and went a little like this:

Withdrew too much out of the ATM.
Got stung for £35 'unauthorised overdraft' charges
Next ATM withdrawal was declined.
Asked for statement and noticed 'OD' marker,
almost crapped myself,
went into bank and said !!!!!!?
Borrowed cash from parents,
Ensured account was now in credit,
Begged bank to refund charges (which they did),
Paid parents back,
Learnt to always remember to ask for a balance before withdrawing funds ever since.

Same thing happened to me a few years ago. Overdrawn by about a pound I think and paid £25 in charges. Didn't ask for a refund, my own fault.

Only time it's ever happened and now I see on my statements that there is a free buffer of £25 - might be a feature for all their new customers, I don't know.

meer53

OP, your sister withdrew cash from the ATM when she must have known that there wasn't enough in the account to cover it. Does she know that you can view your available balance at the ATM ? Maybe teach her in future to check ?

In March last year, the £25 credits started to show on her account, if as you say she had ignored notification of the charges being made, why did these start to be paid in by your Granny ? Was Granny aware of the situation too ?

I think the bank have been more than fair in refunding the £408 in January, your sister has to take some responsibility i'm afraid.

PhishFood_2

I think the best you can do is have your sister write a grovelling letter and see if they will refund some of the charges, you might be lucky.

On a similar vain when I was 19 I miscalculated very slightly and ended up leaving a Halifax Current Account 97p overdrawn. I can't remember exactly what happened now, it wasn't due to charges it was due to me not being able to add up lol!

I was going to America for a year and my statement arrived after I had already left and my parents didn't bother opening my mail while I was away (doh!?)

I returned to a huge pile of letters from Halifax, the outstanding balance was around £1000! The same day I went straight to the branch and they were very nice and sympathetic and refunded all the charges. I totally accepted it was my fault and actually didn't go in expecting to have all the charges refunded - I still have the same account today

This was in 1996 though!!

HeadAboveWater

p00hsticks wrote: »

No, PROVIDING YOU PAY THE FINE AS SOON AS YOU ARE ASKED TO...

...I have some sympathy - it's a very hard lesson to learn (I know, I learnt it myself, although I wasn't quite as big an ostrich as your sister). But I think it will help her most in the long term if she accepts that it is her fault and makes damn sure she never lets things slide in the same way again. I did, and it was the most useful lesson I've ever learnt - and apart from a mortgage (paid offf in my 30's) I have never been in debt again.

Well said I'd say the majority of people, like myself, have had to learn the hard way.

SantEmp

I can see what you're saying, but these are the lessons we're forced to learn sometimes. The banks firmly outline their T&Cs before you open the account and she had to have known that she was borrowing what she didn't have and wasn't authorised to borrow?

I'd call the collections department of the bank in question and see what they have to say. I've known hundreds to be knocked off if you guarantee you'll pay most of it in installments.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for the student A/C though, it's her own fault at the end of the day.

Gordon_Gekko

A sorry tale. She should be more vigilant.

[Deleted User]

Rupert_Bear wrote: »

I worked nearly 9 years in a complaints dept for a very large institution and I did have flexability to offer compensation and waive certain charges BUT if the customer was foul mouthed and bad tempered and had attitude I just switched off and towed the companies line. So if anyone does have a gripe better to be nice and you will get a lot further.

This is so true.

In reply to the OP saying it's unfair, indeed, it could be argued that the cumulative fee is a lot compared to the original issue - but given the fact that a bank is a business, a saying sticks out at me:

"Every day, a smart man and a foolish man meet. And when they do, business will happen."

Consider this though - if her bank account had a clause in the Ts and Cs that said "We will pay you £1 for every day your account is open", they didn't pay it, and she found that clause 5 years later - do you think she'd be asking for 1825 days of £1s back? Of course she would.

cardiffgrad1

I wonder if someone who isn't mature enough to open their post is even ready for university.
I don't see the OP complaining that the bank refunded £400 of charges.
I used to work in a call centre for a bank and it genuinely surprises me how many people are shocked and disgusted at banks for wanting to make money. They are businesses, that's what they do! They are not there to cuddle and support people.
Look at it this way - we buy things for £25 at Tescos. Now, we all know that Tesco didn't pay £25 for that item, in fact they probably paid considerably less. But we wouldn't march up to the Customer Service Desk and shout, "How dare you charge me £25! I demand you let me have this for free!"