First Direct bank account free £250 overdraft question.

nealbanks

Hi, I'm a first direct customer and I'm about to ditch them due to silly £25 charges when I go over drawn for a matter of hours!! (Unauthorised)
I'm currently £247 overdrawn and I've moved all of my direct debits and wages everything etc to Nationwide.
My question is what would happen if I left the bank account sitting with no activity £247 overdrawn for a long period of time?
The overdraft is supposedly a free overdraft no interest charges. Would there be some kind of clause to say I have to put so much in there each month would they find someway to sting me with another charge. Advise appreciated. Thanks.

meer53

Thay can't sting you with another charge but they can close your account and demand repayment in full of the outstanding amount. This action will impact on your credit file.

See section 3 - clauses 1.2.8 and 1.2.9 in their T & C's.

dalesrider

nealbanks wrote: »

Hi, I'm a first direct customer and I'm about to ditch them due to silly £25 charges when I go over drawn for a matter of hours!! (Unauthorised)
I'm currently £247 overdrawn and I've moved all of my direct debits and wages everything etc to Nationwide.
My question is what would happen if I left the bank account sitting with no activity £247 overdrawn for a long period of time?
The overdraft is supposedly a free overdraft no interest charges. Would there be some kind of clause to say I have to put so much in there each month would they find someway to sting me with another charge. Advise appreciated. Thanks.

You fail to mention one very important piece of imformation....

What is your overdraft limit ?

Not sure what you mean by " silly £25 charges when I go over drawn for a matter of hours!! " as you have untill midnight on the day you are over your limit, to correct this before you would incur any charge.
And to incur this £25 you are going over you O/D limit anyway.

As to what would happen, you would soon recieve a call about paying the money back as you were no longer using the account. That is assuming you have a O/D limit. If you limit is less that £250. Then you will be incuring charges.

Gromitt

FD give (most) people a fee-free £250 overdraft, but they reserve the right to charge you £25 per year should you regularly use it, or £25 + interest for each month in which you exceed your fee-free overdraft.

If you have no activity, you may get the £10/month banking charge, followed by a request to immediately repay your overdraft (they can request this at any time).

nealbanks

Hi thanks for getting back to me with that. In reply to DALESRIDER I failed to mention that the overdraft limit is £250 (fee free) and the what I called silly charges are for going over by 1 or 2 pounds. For example I would normally check the account at the end of the business day. But if a transaction took the account over at 23:55hrs then I don't actually have a clue what's gone on until I put it back into credit the following morning and the.they charge me £25 quid for the privelage! Sometimes it has literally been pence! Unlike Natiowide First Direct don't show the true balance so your a bit clueless. Until its too late!! It's not a fair charge totally over the top that's why I'm moving my money to Nationwide as I feel I have more control over the account. Lastly the girl on the other end of the phone was telling me what was due to be debited from it!? Why cannot I see that sort of information as they can? If I could I would not go overdrawn which makes me suspect its all just another way to rob you blind. Again and again!! After what you guys have said it would be wise to pay the OD and close the account. First directs loss Nationwides gain I guess.

meer53

It's £25 for each informal overdraft request if you exceed any formal overdraft facility. Not £25 per month. The maximum fees that can be charged in any one month are £160.

There's no £25 yearly fee if you just have the standard £250 overdraft and use it. I have a higher overdraft which i use all the time, it doesn't cost me anything as i never exceed it. (Apart from the debit interest on £750 of it)

Best to stick within your limit if at all possible !

meer53

nealbanks wrote: »

Hi thanks for getting back to me with that. In reply to DALESRIDER I failed to mention that the overdraft limit is £250 (fee free) and the what I called silly charges are for going over by 1 or 2 pounds. For example I would normally check the account at the end of the business day. But if a transaction took the account over at 23:55hrs then I don't actually have a clue what's gone on until I put it back into credit the following morning and the.they charge me £25 quid for the privelage! Sometimes it has literally been pence! Unlike Natiowide First Direct don't show the true balance so your a bit clueless. Until its too late!! It's not a fair charge totally over the top that's why I'm moving my money to Nationwide as I feel I have more control over the account. Lastly the girl on the other end of the phone was telling me what was due to be debited from it!? Why cannot I see that sort of information as they can? If I could I would not go overdrawn which makes me suspect its all just another way to rob you blind. Again and again!! After what you guys have said it would be wise to pay the OD and close the account. First directs loss Nationwides gain I guess.

First Direct will expect you to monitor your account balance and to know whats due to debit. If you keep track of your balance, what you spend and what direct debits and standing orders you have, then you would know whether you would be overdrawn or not.

nealbanks

Yes that's all well and done but if The bank make it deliberately awkward from lack of information on the internet banking then I think £25 is over the top and out of proportion to the amount you go overdrawn. Like i said previously sometimes it can just be pence. Don't be offended MEER but you sound like you work in a bank. From my experience Banks offen pray on people with lack of money by slapping totally out of proportion fees on you. I myself have a wife whom is studying for Uni and two small children. It won't be long before the money starts rolling in again and charges that are totally over the top and dare I say instigated by preventing you from seeing your true balance make me feel totally under valued as a loyal customer. This shouldn't be how banks make money. It's unfair. I hope they carry on doing it because eventually all their customers will draw the same conclusion I have. And get out of there while they can lol.

meer53

nealbanks wrote: »

Yes that's all well and done but if The bank make it deliberately awkward from lack of information on the internet banking then I think £25 is over the top and out of proportion to the amount you go overdrawn. Like i said previously sometimes it can just be pence. Don't be offended MEER but you sound like you work in a bank. From my experience Banks offen pray on people with lack of money by slapping totally out of proportion fees on you. I myself have a wife whom is studying for Uni and two small children. It won't be long before the money starts rolling in again and charges that are totally over the top and dare I say instigated by preventing you from seeing your true balance make me feel totally under valued as a loyal customer. This shouldn't be how banks make money. It's unfair. I hope they carry on doing it because eventually all their customers will draw the same conclusion I have. And get out of there while they can lol.

Fair comments, and yes i do work for a bank. I can see both sides.

I agree it's difficult sometimes to manage, i'm a single parent with 2 kids, my ex stopped paying my maintenance last year and i find it very hard.

BUT, charges are explained by the banks clearly, how and when they're applied and how much they are. I'm old enough to remember the days before telephone and internet banking, :eek: and have always managed to keep within my limits by keeping track of my spending without having to rely on them. If you felt the charges were over the top, you had a choice.

The trouble is these days, people want to blame banks for everything, from "extortionate fees" to "forcing" people to borrow money they had no realistic chance of paying back. Now things have changed and people don't like it.

You have to do your research and find the best bank for you, it's no good blaming your bank for doing what they said they were going to do is it ? IMO there's not much between the banks, if you manage your account well, you won't end up paying them anything !

Gromitt

meer53 wrote: »

There's no £25 yearly fee if you just have the standard £250 overdraft and use it. I have a higher overdraft which i use all the time, it doesn't cost me anything as i never exceed it. (Apart from the debit interest on £750 of it)

Thats not what I've got here from FD. They don't charge me anything per year, but they do state "We may decide to charge you £25 for renewing your annual overdraft, depending on your usage of your overdraft.". I've never used my overdraft, so I've never been charged.

nealbanks wrote: »

Yes that's all well and done but if The bank make it deliberately awkward from lack of information

I agree its crap on FDs part, but it is possible to see your current "real" balance by clicking "Pay bill" next to your current account. This is the same amount as the customer adviser will see. Personally, I have my own overdraft of £250, so if my account ever drops below £250, I panic, but if a big bill comes in, I know I can still pay it without incurring any charges.

Like i said previously sometimes it can just be pence.

But its still a request for an informal overdraft, which is why the charge.

Rather than changing banks, did you ask the customer services advisor if it would be possible to change the overdraft amount ? This would have caused only one £25 as only one request would have been presented, rather than each time you exceed the £250 buffer.

eschaton

At the end of the day, FD give you a free £250 overdraft, not £252 or £253. If you go over then you would expect really to pay any fees due as laid out in the T&C's.

They aren't robbing you, you just aren't managing your money.

My FD overdraft is rarely below £200 and normally as close to £250 as possible. After all the £250 although not much adds onto the £000's borrowed free from credit cards and earns interest elsewhere.

My balance is often £249.xx or near enough. If the day came that I went over it through not managing my money then it would be my own fault, not the bank.