Barclays Graduate Additions overdraft charges

Sanha1234

Any advice greatly received.

I received a letter from Barclays in the summer of 2014 stating overdraft charges would be changing to a daily fee. At the time i had an overdraft of circa 2.5k. I was working part time through an agency with a large government organisation, and due to nature of the work, and my experience, it was likely i would get a full time post and i have now been working full time permanently for 12 months.

The daily fees in question would have been £3 per day. My wife and i sat down and did an income/outcome expenditure and realised we could only afford £70 per month for overdraft fees. I duly contacted bank and explained the situation. The bank and i came to the conclusion i could not afford the repayments which at 3 per day would equate to £90-93 per month. They set me up on a repayment plan of 70.20 per month.

I have subsequently discovered, aside from my obvious stupidity in not checking at the time, that the graduate additions account carries a daily charge of £1 per day. This would have equated to the charges i was paying at the time under the old interest charge.

Should barclays have informed me that i was not due to pay around£90 per month at the time? I have spoken to the collections department and they are unable to tell me if the charges should have been the lower amount at the relevant time in summer 2014 and i was told that they would have to raise a complaint as they could not answer the question. By paying the extra £40 we have been in general hardship as we have new baby at time. They have also added a default to my credit rating which has prevented us getting a mortgage recently.

grumbler

'Additions' seems to be a premium accounts with benefits like roadside assistance, mobile insurance etc., and you don't say how you have got it. Unless you were missold it, did you expect to get the benefits for free?
If you were missold, didn't know about the benefits and didn't use them, then you can possibly claim the charges back: Reclaim Packaged Accounts

takman

But if you had just payed off the £30 a month in interest you would still have the full balance due and it would never go down. Now that you have a repayment plan at least the amount owed is going down.
From the sound of it your finances are really stretched so I think the repayment plan was the best option.