Natwest overdraft question

med_tech3

I have a query over my overdraft on my Natwest account. I have a £50 overdraft which I never intend to use. It is just a bit of insurance for the end of the month in case I get a bit of extra spending.
Last month I had such a month and so on the last day before payday I purchased some groceries and paid by card. My account balance was about £2.50 in credit but I provisionally used about £25 of my overdraft (my available balance was £25 including the £50 overdraft). The grocery bill was in my pending transactions. The next day my pay went into the account and the bill came out a day later. My account balance never went below £2.50.
A couple of weeks later I received a notification of charges and I looked through my account statement and on the day where I had £2.50 in my account it had now changed to -£25.00 and they charged me £6 fee.
My question is:
Can they charge you for overdraft use if you only use it to guarantee a payment as I did?

Thank you

[Deleted User]

You didn't use it to guarantee a payment.

You used it.. full stop, for a purchase.

eskbanker

med_tech3 wrote: »

My account balance was about £2.50 in credit but I provisionally used about £25 of my overdraft (my available balance was £25 including the £50 overdraft). The grocery bill was in my pending transactions. The next day my pay went into the account and the bill came out a day later. My account balance never went below £2.50.
A couple of weeks later I received a notification of charges and I looked through my account statement and on the day where I had £2.50 in my account it had now changed to -£25.00 and they charged me £6 fee.

Your statement is the definitive version of what happened and when.

If you're taking account balance and pending transactions from online banking or app, they're provisional figures that can't be relied on as accurate at all times.

med_tech3

Thank you for your replies.
It makes sense now. As soon as I use it - I USE it.

Luckily I rarely need to use it.

[Deleted User]

med_tech3 wrote: »

Thank you for your replies.
It makes sense now. As soon as I use it - I USE it.

Luckily I rarely need to use it.

Correct, regardless of a transaction pending.

If you dipped into it on the day you used it, then it was used.

18cc

Note that in the very near future they will no longer be allowed to charge you the £6

eskbanker

18cc wrote: »

Note that in the very near future they will no longer be allowed to charge you the £6

Depends on your definition of 'very near' I suppose but the new rules don't take effect until April next year, so still seven months away.

When they do come in, it seems inevitable that once fixed daily fees are banned then banks currently using this model will simply impose interest charges instead, which will probably (but not definitely) be to OP's advantage in this sort of very short-term borrowing scenario, which of course is largely what overdrafts are intended for....

SlovakianGuy

med_tech3 wrote: »

Thank you for your replies.
It makes sense now. As soon as I use it - I USE it.

The good thing is, if you go into overdraft but you manage to pay the money back on the same day before 14:30, you won't be charged anything at all. Even if you get into an unarranged overdraft.

Not sure about other banks, but it works this way with NatWest.



My arranged overdraft with NatWest is £500.
Once I set up a future dated payment of £1500 and somehow forgot about it (it never happened to me before). A few weeks later I set up the same payment again, for the same date. Luckily I checked my account on the day when money was supposed to go out and noticed I was in unarranged overdraft. I immediately contacted NatWest via their online chat, some girl looked into the issue and told me that I did set up two payments of £1500. I just paid back the money from my other bank before 14:30 and was never charged a single penny for using the overdraft that day.

I didn't expect NatWest let me to set up 2 future dated payments for the same account. With TSB for instance, if I set up a future dated payment for some account, I can't set up another payment for the same account until the first payment is made.

born_again

The charge will depend on the date your shopping debited.
Pending transactions are not taken into account for charges.