Bank Charges NatWest - A Good Result.

eddie864

I'm often one to moan about bank charges, especially as I live on disability benefits and struggle to manage my account properly. So I contacted CCCS for advice and this month I've restructured how my payments are made and while this month is a bit tight, from next month things will run much more smoothly.

So I ran out of money for 10 days last month and went £8 over my agreed £50 overdraft. I struggled for those 10 days but eventually my benefit came in a cleared my debt. So today I discover that my 10 days of being £8 overdrawn had cost £60 charges and an additional £6 for an unpaid direct debit. I had managed this month to stay just inside my overdraft and was fine for when my benefit comes in on saturday. The extra £66 charges will put me over my overdraft limit and cause a further £12 charges leaving me £78 short for the next two weeks!

I phoned NatWest and got through to their hardship team and explained that I had these charges, that they were going to cause more charges and that I was on benefits with a young child and I was going to really struggle because of it. That I didn't want to spiral into more debt and had worked hard with CCCS to work my finances out. He couldn't authorise it himself but he spoke to a manager and they cancelled the charges and agreed to cover the charges until my benefit is paid on Saturday.

It is my fault that I went over my overdraft and clearly NatWest have a right to charge (although I think the costs are unreasonable) for me borrowing money without arranging it. But it shows that if you talk to your bank and explain clearly the problem and what you are doing to fix it, being clear about hardship issues etc. they are prepared to help. I am so relieved.

Rafter

Good result eddie,

Personally It is hard to see how the costs and risks to the bank justify anything more than say a £5 charge for this period of time and for the scale of your unauthorised overdraft.

Personally I'd like to see a cap so the charges and interest can never exceed 50% of the unauthorised amount - so £4 in your case!

R.

henna123

glad they managed to help you , they were not quite that helpful to me unfortunately, I requested them to consolidate my two loans (both with them) I didnt ask for any extra, just wanted to consolidate and lengthen the term so that my monthly payments were less whilst off work, they refused so I ended up having to phone them to arrange a repayment plan through their financial help as I could not afford to repay whilst off work. They then said that at the end of the 6/12 months they could possibly consolidate the loans!!

eddie864

Sorting out my finance has been a battle. I have two credit cards, one of £1250 outstanding and the other £400. I've also an overdraft of £800 owing to Barclays. I've been paying minimum payments for ages and getting nowhere with them.. My credit rating is poor because of late payments although I've never had a default. So I couldn't get a loan to consolidate my debts. I'd much rather have just one payment a month to find rather than have standing orders to the three I have. But you just have to work at it. I want to be basically debt free apart from things like car finance in the future.

@Rafter. I agree, the bank charges are not transparent enough and seem far in excess of their real costs.

@henna123. I don't understand their rationale for deciding their loans. It would be much easier if their policy was clearer to understand.