Bank changed my account to one with overdraft fees without telling me

lexicoco

Im sure I will seem quite thick so some people, but I'm usually not.

I changed my Santander young persons account to a student account in November 2013. I wanted that account for the interest and fee free overdraft as my only source of income is my student loan.

During the course of the year I went over my arranged overdraft, and this led to a cycle of overdraft charges totalling £700 pounds. In the middle of this month, I got another unauthorised overdraft charge and I finally got annoyed enough to call them.

During this call and a subsequent visit to the branch, I found out that my account had somehow been changed from a student account to a current account only a week after I opened the student account. I had no idea about this and hadn't received any info of the sort from the bank. The lady in the branch said there was no record of who had changed it and I definitely hadn't requested it.

The change meant that instead in in interest and fee free overdraft and a capped at £50 unauthorised fee, I was getting charged a £20 overdraft fee and an unauthorised fee of £6 a day with no cap. So as much as i tried to cover the fees, i would get with new ones the next month, this took a large chunk of my student loan, so ive basically been living in poverty. I know i should have noticed this sooner, but I dont have online banking and simply thought i was very bad with money.

My question is what do i do now? I called their complaint line and have just emailed them my version of the template letter asking for £700 in fees back. The lady in the branch also asked me to bring in a letter from my uni confirming my student status. I also asked them to change my account back to the student account, but i dont know if it will work, because being constantly overdrawn + student with no income means my credit is !!!!. Do you think I have a case? Should I do anything else?