Unauthorised overdraft on Nationwide Flexdirect

noelphobic

I've just checked my Nationwide accounts online and found out that my Flexdirect account is overdrawn by £499.99.

This has happened because £500 is set to transfer every month to one of my Nationwide savings accounts. I have always made sure that the Flexdirect account is funded at the latest the day before but completely forgot this month.

The £500 debit is dated 18th March. I have transferred £500 back in to put the account back in credit and that is showing with tomorrow's date.

On checking the terms and conditions to see what I am likely to be charged I have found the following:-

'First time fee refund - we can all slip up sometimes and lose track of our outgoings. So the first time you let us know you've made a mistake, we'll refund any overdraft fees you've incurred.'

This is the first (and hopefully last) time this has happened.

It seems that I will have to wait until I have been charged and then ask for a refund, in which case the overdraft fees may cause me to be overdrawn again.

Has anyone been in this position and/or can anyone clarify what will happen?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Dobbibill

Ring them now and ask them to waiver them, that way they will never debit the account.

Most banks do a refund and/or waiver depending on when you ring them.

YorkshireBoy

noelphobic wrote: »

It seems that I will have to wait until I have been charged and then ask for a refund, in which case the overdraft fees may cause me to be overdrawn again.

No they won't, because they'll give you 28 days notice so you'll have plenty of time to fund the account.

But 2 suggestions...

1. Put another £15 in the account (unlikely you'll get 3 x £5 charges, but at least you have it covered if they do), and

2. I also fund a 5% regular saver, but because a) my Nationwide accounts only have £1 in, and b) because there's no need to SO the funds in, I make my transfers manually. That way, the only penalty if I 'forget' (on the 1st of the month) is a small loss of interest.

noelphobic

I messaged them yesterday and they said any fees incurred will be waived. They also said I have an agreed overdraft of £1500.00, which has confused me as the balance showing as being available is always the same as the actual balance.

They also said that the only fee charged would be a small interest payment, which will be refunded. However, according to their terms and conditions, there is a 50p per day charge for an authorised overdraft and £5 a day for àn unauthorised one.

I will be taking YorkshireBoy's advice in future and making all payments manually.