Smile bank charges

pumpkinmatisse

Hello
I had no broadband for a period of time after I moved home so I was a little lax on checking my bank account. I thought I must be near empty on my Smile current account but as my card wasn't declined I continued to use it - assuming I had more money than I thought (I was owed some money by family which I thought might have been paid in).
Anyway, a few days later I realised I had run up an overdraft of £95, or thereabouts and on Friday - 5 weeks later - I was charged £100. £20 as a service charge and £20 per day I was overdrawn. These charges put my account £90 into an unauthorised overdraft that I was able to clear today but assume I will be charged another £20 service charge, plus two lots of £20 again.
I have queried the charges with Smile and asked if - going forward - they could decline my card when there is no money in the account. I have been told this is not possible and that the charges stand. I have said I am unhappy and will be back in touch, asking if I can see the company policy on debit card use in the meantime.
Obviously I have an element of culpability so I don't really expect to get any money back but....
a) is it normal for banks nowadays to let you keep spending when you have no money in the account?
b) is there anything extra I can do or say to Smile?
Thanks

meer53

Smile T & C's
Overdraft services:
You can request an overdraft or an increase to an existing overdraft either formally
or informally.
Formally – you can request our overdraft services in advance and if we agree to
your request we will tell you your overdraft limit and confirm the terms of the overdraft
in writing.
Informally – if you have not formally requested our overdraft services as above, you
may still request our overdraft services by undertaking a payment or withdrawal from
your account, even though no overdraft limit has been agreed or where the payment or
withdrawal would cause you to exceed any agreed overdraft limit.
If you request an overdraft informally in this way then we will limit the amount of related
charges you could incur in two ways:

dr_adidas01

pumpkinmatisse wrote: »

Hello
I had no broadband for a period of time after I moved home so I was a little lax on checking my bank account. I thought I must be near empty on my Smile current account but as my card wasn't declined I continued to use it - assuming I had more money than I thought (I was owed some money by family which I thought might have been paid in).
Anyway, a few days later I realised I had run up an overdraft of £95, or thereabouts and on Friday - 5 weeks later - I was charged £100. £20 as a service charge and £20 per day I was overdrawn. These charges put my account £90 into an unauthorised overdraft that I was able to clear today but assume I will be charged another £20 service charge, plus two lots of £20 again.
I have queried the charges with Smile and asked if - going forward - they could decline my card when there is no money in the account. I have been told this is not possible and that the charges stand. I have said I am unhappy and will be back in touch, asking if I can see the company policy on debit card use in the meantime.
Obviously I have an element of culpability so I don't really expect to get any money back but....
a) is it normal for banks nowadays to let you keep spending when you have no money in the account?
b) is there anything extra I can do or say to Smile?
Thanks

Yes banks are not responsible for you spending money you don't have its in the T&C's of most banks current accounts that they will at their discretion allow payments to be made even when you have no funds, and that this may cause you to go into overdraft and incur fee's.

Having no broadband isn't really an excuse for not checking your bank balance, you can use cash machines and also go into any branch of co-op and get a printed statement.

Perhaps the moral of this story is to check you have available funds before spending and never assume anything!!

You'll just have to pay the fee's and learn from your own mistake!!

Stuart_W

Yes, this type of charging is pretty much standard.

To avoid this in the future, you could always set up text message alerts to let you automatically know if you've gone below any certain limit you decide.
http://www.smile.co.uk/mobile/text-message-banking
(doesn't require a smartphone - but if you've got one, use the banking app instead)