Uncontrollable charges

Steppio

Hello everybody,

I have a problem in that I have recently become self-employed, and due to the nature of my work (web-development), it has taken me some time to set everything up, and I currently have no income. This problem is exacerbated by Natwest; I've asked them 4 times now to turn on the feature that warns / texts my mobile when my account is about to go over the overdraft limit, yet without fail each time it has not worked. Every month i end up getting a letter 5 days late, at which point I owe a minimum of £30. This might not seem a lot but when i have no stream of income it becomes a lot. Of the multiple of times I have called them, one time they dropped the charges, but each time since they have simply told me there is nothing they can do. I have attempted to extend my overdraft limit but they will not let me (it's £200, and i've had the account for 10+ years).
Does anybody know if there is a way I can freeze the account and pay it off with monthly instalments? After the way they have treated me I have absolutely no interest in banking with them in future and simply want the account closed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Thank you

Quentin

You won't be able to "freeze" interest charges till you clear the O/D, but simply open a new account elsewhere (if you can) and stop using the Nat west one if that's your objective.


Once you cleared off the debt you can then close the account

Steppio

Thanks Quentin. I have a Barclays account that i use, however this Natwest one built up on overdraft charges when i moved house; they'd been sending the post to my old address despite me changing my address in-branch. Since then I just havent been able to get it back down from the £200 overdraft; the charges are about £10 a month. It is mainly my fault for forgetting about it, but now the situation is pretty dire.
I'll call them up again and see if there absolutely anything they can do for me, if not i'll have to bite the bullet and just keep paying it until i have money to pay it all back and close the account.

TBagpuss

in the mean time, make a habit of checking your account ionline daily and before making any payments/witdrawing cash, to avoid going overdrawn.

If you have DDs or SOs going out of that account, make yourself a spreadsheet to remind yourself when they are due and how much they are, so you can ensure that you don't exceed you O/D limit.

it's a pain that the bank has not set upo the text feature correctly for you but you can make the checks yourself manually to avoid putting yourself in the position where you go overdrawn.

Steppio

Thank you both for your advice. I called them up and made a complaint regarding the lack of warning messages being sent, despite having the warning messages enabled, and while they couldn't stop this months charges they have refunded last months, and also refunded the amount that my call cost. It's a result!

Thank you for your time

jonesMUFCforever

A web developer who can't log into internet banking to check his balance??

FireWyrm

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

A web developer who can't log into internet banking to check his balance??

I usually check all three of my accounts and reconcile against YNAB every morning between coffee and considering where to actually start with the days tasks.

OP the bank are unsympathetic because overdrafting is largely your own fault. You could easily avoid it by checking your accounts daily and using finance software. The texts are a nice feature, but I find they dont actually work all that well. I am supposed to get a balance status text message every Monday from Halifax and I have never done so. I dont know why and they cannot explain it. It really isnt a good idea to rely on text messages to warn you that you are about to go overdrawn.