I have had an Alliance & Leicester account since I was a minor I am now 22.
In all the time that I had the account I have never had any trouble at all. Unfortunately I recently went overdrawn on my account while I was travelling in Australia. The same account which I used to save up for months to travel after finishing uni
.The first occurance of charges began in August 05 and this continued until December 05. As you can imagine it was difficult to keep upto date with my account statements with being overseas and it was expensive to make use of my telephone banking regularly.
In this period I incurred a total of 10 charges for being overdraw totaling £250. Ignorance on my part led me to believe that my cash card would be refused if I tried to withdraw an amount which exceed my current balance.
I was later informed upon returing to England by a rather jolly customer service rep that my account had a £100 buffer to aviod any 'embaressments'.
This really bothers me because at no point did I agree to or want such a service, but in reality I was probably informed by the bank in some way by means of their annoying leaflets bundled with my statements.
What also really annoyed me was that when I was in credit and withdrew money leaving me for example £20 in my account a previous charge would be applied taking me overdrawn again and I would subsequentally be charged again. It became a vicious circle.
I was made aware of some of these charges while overseas by my parents and they helped me a great deal by putting some cash into my account to put me in credit, even giving me a little bit extra to help me out but given the fact Alliance and Leciesters unauthorised overdraft policy charges me £25 for the first 2 days overdrawn and then a further £25 if it reaches 5 days its difficult to know exactly what state my account is or even have a chance to recover.
It is now February 28th and my account is 11p in credit after having the final £25 charge taken.
I have read this forums FAQs and believe that I may have a chance of recovering my account charges in full but I am weary of proceeding as it was initially my own fault. However it does appear that I have been unfairly treated and I would greatly appreciate it if anyone can offer any suggestions as to how to proceed or any insight as to whether I will be successful.
Sorry for such a long post.
Thanks
[A&L] Since when did I have an Overdraft? 
