Need advice: Three years of bank charges & interest on a closed account

Hi folks,

Hoping someone can give me some advise here.

I have received a letter from an old bank claiming that I am £250 into my overdraft. Now by this I was confused as I had thought I closed the account 3 years ago so I phoned them up and the guy said that he could only check back 1 year and all he could see was an Overdraft charge of £6 + interest every month and that to close the account I would need to settle up the total cost.. I left it at that for now.

Now my thought here was that this account should've auto closed as I tend to switch to new account deals.

After many failed attempts I have managed to log into online banking to have a look myself. I was able to view statements from 2012 onwards.. Now I narrowed it down to find there was a BACS payment made in September 2016 which was the amount to bring the balance to 0.00p. However the following month is when the interest & started, which then followed every month after and then the charges on top.

As the account has not been used for 3 years, to which I thought it was closed. I have also moved house since then and change phone number so have not had any communication from this until now (old address is still the parents address).

Where do I stand here? Is there any way of talking to the bank to try and avoid paying the accumulation of interest and charges on an account which I thought was closed? Or am I best to pay it off and bang my head off a wall for letting this happen??
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  • Brewer20
    Brewer20 Posts: 395
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    How did the bank find you (you had a letter from them) if you've changed address and they only had/have your old address?


    I'm guessing you've never had any mail forwarded from parents?


    You shouldn't be able to see old account details online if it's a closed account, a mystery??
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 30,375
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    Malc8519 wrote: »
    After many failed attempts I have managed to log into online banking to have a look myself. I was able to view statements from 2012 onwards.. Now I narrowed it down to find there was a BACS payment made in September 2016 which was the amount to bring the balance to 0.00p. However the following month is when the interest & started, which then followed every month after and then the charges on top.
    A zero balance doesn't necessarily stay that way if you'd already recently been overdrawn (or had a payment refused, etc) leading up to that, but the resultant fee or interest hadn't yet been applied to the account. What can you see from the account conduct in the month or two leading up to zeroing the balance, i.e. anything that would eventually result in charges being applied in arrears?

    If the charges were legitimate then you're unlikely to have a leg to stand on, but if they weren't then that would make your position stronger.
  • Malc8519
    Malc8519 Posts: 12 Forumite
    Brewer20 wrote: »
    How did the bank find you (you had a letter from them) if you've changed address and they only had/have your old address?


    I'm guessing you've never had any mail forwarded from parents?


    You shouldn't be able to see old account details online if it's a closed account, a mystery??

    I changed address as I moved out of my parents house, but had not received any statements. I had only got letters now as it has went to debt management as there had been no activity on my account and it was overdrawn. The account which I thought was closed clearly wasn't as more I have done digging it looks like I may have only payed it off to clear the balance, then the interest occured the following month.
  • Malc8519
    Malc8519 Posts: 12 Forumite
    eskbanker wrote: »
    A zero balance doesn't necessarily stay that way if you'd already recently been overdrawn (or had a payment refused, etc) leading up to that, but the resultant fee or interest hadn't yet been applied to the account. What can you see from the account conduct in the month or two leading up to zeroing the balance, i.e. anything that would eventually result in charges being applied in arrears?

    If the charges were legitimate then you're unlikely to have a leg to stand on, but if they weren't then that would make your position stronger.

    Thanks for the reply. Yes the payment I made into the account was the exact amount to pay of the remainder of the overdraft, so the interest would have been from being overdrawn from that month.
  • 18cc
    18cc Posts: 2,120 Forumite
    Well assuming that you did go overdrawn because of the previous month's interest you hadn't paid then the bank charges are of course fair and in line with the account terms and conditions

    however you may be able to get some of them back there is a guide here

    https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges/
  • Kentish_Dave
    Kentish_Dave Posts: 842 Forumite
    How did the bank confirm the closure to you?
  • Malc8519
    Malc8519 Posts: 12 Forumite
    How did the bank confirm the closure to you?

    It's not closed. I thought it was. My mistake.
  • aau1
    aau1 Posts: 19,401 Forumite
    Malc8519 wrote: »
    My mistake.

    Exactly, the bank haven't done anything wrong
    Apparently, everybody knows that the bird is [strike]the word[/strike] a moorhen
  • He's never said they have

    The advice requested was

    Where do I stand here? Is there any way of talking to the bank to try and avoid paying the accumulation of interest and charges on an account which I thought was closed? Or am I best to pay it off and bang my head off a wall for letting this happen??


    I'm guessing not so easy to get a goodwill gesture from the bank now it's in the hands of a debt collection agency
  • Terry_Towelling
    Terry_Towelling Posts: 2,279
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    I'm guessing not so easy to get a goodwill gesture from the bank now it's in the hands of a debt collection agency

    Looks like the account status is 'debt management' rather than the debt having been sold to a collection agency.

    Can't understand why there weren't letters sent to you earlier and why such letters weren't forwarded to you by your parents. No matter, it looks (to me) as if your only option is to throw yourself on the bank's mercy. Explain that you thought you'd cleared everything, closed the account down and moved house and ask them if you can just pay the interest that followed in the month after you brought the balance to zero.

    I suspect there is a 'fat chance' of them agreeing to that, so you may be forced to negotiate upwards. At the end of the day, if you have no legal footing for not paying, you have little to lose by trying to negotiate it down.
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