Bank Charges at Santander

gerdydog

Hi,

I recently had some direct debits to be taken from my account but had forgot and the money was not there to pay them. One of them was for only £12.

I now have 4 "INSTANT OVERDRAFT REQUEST FEE - UNPAID" charges on my account at £25 each and £25 and of "DAILY ARRANGED OVERDRAFT FEE" charges also. This is a total of £125 in charges which is more than my actual charges that I had not paid. They have automatically taken this out of my account which means that I am now £125 worse of this month. It's like they are trying to make it as hard as possible to pay off their charges and have enough left to pay my bills again. Should there not be a maximum limit on the amount of charges they can take from you in a month?

Thanks for your help!:(

CKhalvashi

This sounds like Lloyds.

Charges should be proportionate, so this can be mentioned, but first ask if they'll waive them as a gesture of goodwill. Threatening to move your banking elsewhere (I have accounts with 6 banks/bs's, all of which are profitable, but they don't know that) may help the matter.

CK

innovate

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Threatening to move your banking elsewhere may help the matter.

That's a really bad piece of advice. Threatening anything is bad at best of times, and particularly silly when you are on your back foot.

Apart from that, banks aren't keen on customers who can't settle their charges within a reasonable time. They will be happy to see the back of them, and they will send debt collectors after them. That will make matters just even worse.

The OP needs to speak urgently with Santander and come to an arrangement. May be it will be possible to get some of the charges removed if it was a first "offense" and if you ask nicely. Threatening will get you nowhere, however.

opinions4u

gerdydog wrote: »

Hi,

I recently had some direct debits to be taken from my account but had forgot and the money was not there to pay them. One of them was for only £12.

I now have 4 "INSTANT OVERDRAFT REQUEST FEE - UNPAID" charges on my account at £25 each and £25 and of "DAILY ARRANGED OVERDRAFT FEE" charges also. This is a total of £125 in charges which is more than my actual charges that I had not paid. They have automatically taken this out of my account which means that I am now £125 worse of this month. It's like they are trying to make it as hard as possible to pay off their charges and have enough left to pay my bills again. Should there not be a maximum limit on the amount of charges they can take from you in a month?

Thanks for your help!:(

The maximum charge per month is linked to the extent of the account mismanagement.

Not by value, but number of transgressions.

If you don't make a habit of it, a polite apology from you and a request for charges to be waived should help here.

Better account management on your part will assist in future.

innovate

gerdydog wrote: »

Hi,

I recently had some direct debits to be taken from my account but had forgot and the money was not there to pay them........

I now have 4 "INSTANT OVERDRAFT REQUEST FEE - UNPAID" charges on my account at £25 each and £25 and of "DAILY ARRANGED OVERDRAFT FEE" charges also.

How recent was this? From the figures you mention, and looking at the Santander fees & charges document, it sounds as if you have been in arrears for a couple of months? Why did you not spot this immediately after the payments bounced? Don't you use the low balance alerts (email and/or texts) they offer? Don't you look at your statements? Don't you have online access to your account?

gerdydog wrote: »

It's like they are trying to make it as hard as possible to pay off their charges and have enough left to pay my bills again.

They are doing exactly as they said they would in the terms that you agreed to when you opened the account. Go and talk to them, say you didn't know what you were doing, ask for some help, and they may let you off some of it if this is the first time this happened.

gerdydog wrote: »

Should there not be a maximum limit on the amount of charges they can take from you in a month?

There is.

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223430984175&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600