Natwest overdraft charges query

Deloria87

I have a little question before I call Natwest and sound like a massive tool

Since March I opted to change the bank where my salary gets paid into because I was losing around £100 per month in unarranged overdraft fees because they were taking interest charges before payday from an empty bank, which I got frustrated with. I’ve been meaning to go in and set up some sort of payment plan which pays off my overdraft but unfortunately a few health issues (and being pretty pregnant) has stopped me getting around to it so the charges have been going up, which I knew about and was “happy” with but again was aiming to go into the branch this Saturday and sort something out with them.

This months’ pay has been paid into the Natwest account in error and not my joint Barclays one...so now I’ve lost £450 in charges in one go, brilliant apart from this weekend was also nursery shopping as baby is due in 4 weeks. Before anyone says “well you knew about these charges” yes, I did but there’s also no way I’d be able to pay £450 of charges in one go when from next month I’ll only have an income of SMP + partners wages and the same bills. What I would like to suggest to Natwest would be the possibility of refunding the charges, freezing the account and setting up a monthly payment plan with them paying off the overdraft which would be around £50 p/m until December when I return to work and will probably go up to £100 p/m if not more should I be able to afford it. Does this sound reasonable and is it likely this might happen?

noh

Deloria87 wrote: »

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. Does this sound reasonable and is it likely this might happen?

No it doesn't sound reasonable but you can only ask.

BillJones

If I understand rightly, you did not agree the previous state of affairs with Natwest, you simply stopped paying your wages in, refused contact, and have simply let the charges mount up?

If so, I'm not clear how moving banks has saved you any charges at all, it sounds as though, if anything, it has accrued more and larger charges than you otherwise would have. Is that right?

Anyway, if so, and you've now inadvertently covered some of the unarranged overdraft, then I agree with the above, it's not reasonable to ask for anything back from them. There is no harm in asking, of course.

Deloria87

Yes Bill that's right, but it wasn't that I "refused" contact, I just struggled to get around to it due to pregnancy illnesses.

After these responses I wasn't too expectant of anything but asked anyways and they have refunded £276 of charges and cancelled next months charges and agreed a new statement date so that I will be aware of the interest payment dates. They've also suggested that I don't close/freeze the account but to pay £50 a month in to cover the interest and a little bit more each month so I've set up a direct debit to do that before the interest dates.