Just Been Paid Already Skint. Think I Might Need Some Help!

bank_of_slate

Good for you Lancs!
I've had the Natwest basic account for around a year now, it has a Solo card, no cheques or overdraft and I can use it in shops and online. They keep asking me to upgrade but I'm quite happy with what I've got, I know that the money that goes in there every month is mine to spend, I can't go overdrawn and the bills come from the main account.
...Linda xx

LancsMacca

That's what I hope it will be like for me, I know that I need to look at this account closer than I have with others in the past!

Just got an email from moneysupermarket after using them to look for a credit card, just filled in a couple of questions and they gave me a free £20 voucher for Virgin Wines. :j

Not much of a wine drinker but if it's going cost me anything I'm not complaining!

Edit: You have to choose 12 bottles of wine totalling over £59.98. Clever!

bank_of_slate

Exactly!
Or you can save it to give as prezzies!

The simple accounts are easy to keep track of because it's impossible to go overdrawn with them.
You've come a very long way since the first post at the start of this thread...just read it again and see!
...Linda xx

LancsMacca

Well I've managed to get a current account from Yorkshire Bank, all sorted now, they tried offering me a loan for what I owe at the moment but I've turned it down, think that was a good move.

suze200

Alliance and Leicester is an EVIL bank

They have changed their O/D on current accounts specifically to avoid being stung for unfair bank charges.

This is how:

You get an overdraft at 0% interest – sounds great

If you go overdrawn you get charged 50p/day (max £5/month) -not too bad you might think. BUT if you work that out as equivalent % interest the figures are huge.

Say you every have a £100 O/D and are in the red up to that limit for at least 10 days every month. Over the year charges £60 which is equivalent to 60%

If you went overdrawn by 1 penny for 1 day every month it will cost you £6 or 5000% (yes I know, technically there’s no such thing as more than 100% but I’m making a point.)

If you only went 1 penny in the red every month (for at least 10days) that 12p would cost you £60 or 50,000% THAT’S right FIFTY THOUSAND %

As earlier posters have found if you go over your O/D limit by just 1 penny it will cost you £5/per day. Do that for 10 days every month for a year and 12p costs you £600. I can’t work out the % because it’s too enormous.

So you hardly need to be reckless spender to be hit with huge charges and there is absolutely nothing you can do as the charging structure is VERY VERY clear in the overdraft T&C(however you have to really hunt around the A&L website to find them). This makes the bank far more money than say 15% interest as then you only get charged that on the amount you actually borrow, rather than a daily rate.

BUT I HAVE YET TO TELL YOU THE MOST EVIL BIT……….

From being small my son has always said he wanted to be an engineer he grew up. We were encouraging him to go down the A level and degree route as he is easily bright enough. However despite our best efforts to persuade him otherwise he left school at 16 to start an engineering apprenticeship with one of the leading pharmaceutical companies. His reasoning was that he didn’t want to get into debt and this way he would be paid to learn and still get a degree as, for the best apprentices, this was actively encouraged by his employer.

He decided on the A&L Premier 21 account for his salary to be paid into as this was one of the few current accounts for under 18s offering a debit card, which meant that he wouldn’t have to carry a lot of cash around all the time. As an under 18 if there was no money left in the current account (happens very occasionally since he passed his driving test and acquired a girlfriend) the card was refused if he tried to withdraw cash or use it in a shop. So he’d borrow a bit from me, never more than £10

However he reached 18 on 13 May and has just been hit with £33 charges. When he complained he was told it was because he gone over his overdraft limit. When he said he hadn’t got an overdraft they said oh we’ll give you a limit of £100 then. He had been 22p overdrawn for 11 days because as soon as he was 18 they stopped block the card if the balance was zero ! (the daily rate for exceeding your O/D is £3/day on this account)

He has learnt very valuable lessons…ALWAYS READ THE T&C VERY CAREFULLY, as the information was there and DON’T GO OVERDRAWN if you can possibly avoid it. He now banks with Nationwide!!!!!!!!!!!

LancsMacca

Thank you suze. I agree with you entirely, I'll be paying my balance off asap and they'll never see my custom again!

I got A&L to send me a copy of my T&C's and its there clear as day, if you go over your limit there's a £5 daily charge. What it doesn't say in there is how they apply these charges. If it's a daily limit surely this should be applied daily not cummulated into one huge £130 charge with another huge £110 charge to come! We'll see what happens with that.

I get paid on thursday! It seems so close now, nothing else to go out, next month should be much better, on top of things and my debt should go down and I sohlud have money spare as well.

suze200

LancsMacca wrote: »

Thank you suze. I agree with you entirely, I'll be paying my balance off asap and they'll never see my custom again!

I got A&L to send me a copy of my T&C's and its there clear as day, if you go over your limit there's a £5 daily charge. What it doesn't say in there is how they apply these charges. If it's a daily limit surely this should be applied daily not cummulated into one huge £130 charge with another huge £110 charge to come! We'll see what happens with that.

I get paid on thursday! It seems so close now, nothing else to go out, next month should be much better, on top of things and my debt should go down and I sohlud have money spare as well.

Good luck with beating your debts. A&L is definately a bank to avoid unless you can beat them at their own game. Someone called Grade_A_Reject is doing this on the thread "Is A&L an Evil bank" and actually making a profit out of them with his O/D! :T

LancsMacca

I got a letter from A&L today telling me I've had an higher than usual volume of fees applied to my account over the last month and advised me on a few things I could do to avoid this.

Thought this might be their response to my dissatisfaction of the fees charged. I've phoned them up and they say a response is yet to have been sent yet and this was just a general letter.

The person who I spoke to said I was likely to be offered part of my fees back when the response comes back.

If this does happen what should I do? Providing it's a decent amount should I cut my losses and accept or should I chase them for the full amount? The letter they've sent says that the fees they've applied have been applied correctly.

I also got my new card from Yorkshire Bank today so I'm happy with that. Get paid tomorrow so I will start cutting down what I owe on all my accounts, concentrating on my MBNA account the most. With the overtime I've got and the payrise earlier in the month I should be bringing home a lot more than normal!

I'll try find that thread suze, I would love to get every single penny I possibly can get out of them!

LancsMacca

Finally a day off to get everything in order!

I got paid on the 26th, didn't get as much as I was expecting, on top of my basic pay I got an extra days pay for working on a bank holiday bringing the total to just over £1000. The overtime I did will be paid next month instead.

Now June is over thought it'd be a good idea to repost an SOA for the last month.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1006.23
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1006.23
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 190.28
Rent.................................... 150
Management charge (leasehold flat)...... 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 0 (No payment made in June, DD goes out 2nd July)
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0 (No payment made in June, final payment in May setting up new contract this month)
Internet Services....................... 3.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 56.25
Clothing................................ 7.00
Petrol/diesel........................... 100.51
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 89.25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0.80
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 22
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10.15
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 8.99
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Postage.................................. 5.70
Books.................................... 15.98

Total monthly expenses.................. 660.90

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 5500

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Secured Debt.................. 7000.....(139.53)...0
Total secured debts........... 7000......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
MBNA...........................2465.67....100...... .26.5
Capital One....................999...70........21.6
NatWest........................1169.59...0........ .0
Alliance & Leceister...........136.78....20........3.5
Barclays.......................488.68....20........ .3.5
Total unsecured debts..........5259.72...210........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1006.23
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 660.90
Available for debt repayments........... 345.33
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 210
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 135.33

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 5,500
Total Secured debt...................... -7,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,259.72
Personal net worth...................... -6,759.72

To add to this I was charged £180 by banks and £61.44 in interest! I will be charged an extra £110 in bank charges from A&L but I'm hoping these may be refunded by them.

LancsMacca

I've had a response now from A&L. Basically the letter says that they have logged my complaint, they feel the charges are fair and aren't going to do anything further until the test case is heard, from the letter it says the 27th July.

What should I do now? Wait until then or write to them further asking for the charges to be refunded?

I was given a really useful spreadsheet my mate created to calculated what I'm spending, it also gives you a daily budget depending on how long of the month there is, it's a really good motivator to look at things a lot closer and not to spend money. It's really helping me this month to keep my spending down!