O/D Charges a Scam

[pjc27]

I have been in this country a little over 10 months now. I orginaly came here from Canada and do not have a whole lot good to say about UKbanks. From the start I was treated like an illegal refugee in trying to open up an account so I could pay my thousands in Uni tution fees. After being denied byBarclays for not having a Job which is sorta hard if I just arrived in the country a day earlier and am planning to start school. After trying Loyds TSB they gave me an Silver account which they lied their filthy faces off by saying that I would not be charged for overseas withdrawls which of course I realized I was. That was one of many issues

The real crime however came last month when I made a small transactions at the local tesco I was pretty sure I still had a little bit of money in my account. However of course because of the delay even on the internet I ended up going O/D on about 12 pounds. The transaction was 15 pounds.

I had to leave to do research for school and returned a few weeks later to find numerous letters which 95 pounds in charges with a breakdown of 6 pounds per day and a monthly feee of 15 pounds all for o/d

This raises two questions. In my 10 years dealing in banks with Canada unless you have O/D protection before hand even at a thrid party location as TSB claim are not responsible if you do not have enough money in your account the transaction will not go through. Why is that not done here? So they can charge a ridiculous amount that in 2 days adds up more than owe, and of course none of these charges were mentioned when opening the account altough I'm sure they are in the depths of all the paperwork they swamp you with.

The second question is how can the goverment allow for banks like this to charge 6- 20 pounds a day. In most cases there are reason people go into overdraft for example being a student or prehaps falling in hard times and if you are charged 7x your outstanding blance in a matter of a week how are people suppose to get back on their feet.

So in concluison the bank refuses to take off the charges. I however am finished school in a month and I told them I will not pay. The said this will effect my credit score even back in Canada and threatened legal trouble? I find this a bit hard to belive for its total truth as they woudln't look at my Canadian credit accounts when I was trying to open my account here.

Therefore if I'm not planning to stay in England do I just ingnore the charges?
Is there anything effective I can do over 95 pounds in charges?


Cheers

God Bless those who chose to take on the money mongers !

[GuidoT]

Welcome to CAG.

We know it is all wrong, the banks have a system that allows them to make unjustly make super profits.

This matter is presently trundling its way slowing through the courts and we expect a resolution next year on the lawfulness of these charges.

I do not normally say this, but I would pay off the £95, that way it will keep your credit history in good shape and stop any further charges from accumulating.

Then claim that sum back using the procedure here, although it will take some time and I would question if it is worth the trouble for a comparatively small sum, in particular if you are out of the country.

[Enron]

Yep, the banks operate differently here, if theres money to be made they'll either take it from people in credit by giving them a poor interest rate, or prey like vultures on those less fortunate.

My pet hate are credit card companies that up your credit limit without request, effectively giving you more rope to hang yourself if you are hit by hard times. I was litigating against Citi, had no intention of using them anymore, and they upped my credit limit to £15,800.

[dinklyink]

pjc27, dude, you have gotta be crazy to consider paying these [EDIT]. If you don't intend staying here then you have NOTHING to lose. They can't touch you in Canada, and there is no link between credit companies here and there. You are home free dude, leave problems like this to the people that live here and have to keep a good credit rating!

I'm sorry that you haven't had a better experience in England, but to be honest the whole country is going down the [EDIT].

[Rooster-UK]

If you don't intend staying here then you have NOTHING to lose. They can't touch you in Canada, and there is no link between credit companies here and there.

Don't bank on that! There have been a number of cases where a debt has followed debtors to other countries.

Just remember that most of the larger financial institutions have branches or associate companies in other countries.

[dinklyink]

Firstly I would like to clarify I'd never recommend skipping a debt. Since the one in question is purely related to unfair bank charges I wouldn't hesitate in telling these companies to go stuff themselves.

When you are in Canada if you give your previous address in the UK, then yes, it is possible they will link the two. Else you just conveniently 'forget' where it was you lived in the UK. Something like that anyway.

[pjc27]

I thought I would post here instead of starting a new thread.

So after going through all my options trying to close down the account getting an accurate answer if my credit would be effected back in Canada, I decided it would be best to pay the 95 pounds and see if I could get it back later on if I stuck around if not a lesson learned.

I came to the conclsuion that maybe I could get the bank to break down the 95 pounds over two months or something being a student with no source of income other than student loans from Canada they would help me out so I might have enough money to eat next week.

So I spoke to my branch Manager and he said he had no authority and to call 0845 300 0000, the same number I called the first time when I tried to dispute the charges and got a less then helpful employee. When I called this number again to see if the charges could be broken down over 2 or 3 months.

They said that I would have to call the customer service number not the same at 0800 389 8766.

So i explained my situation to an actually helpfull employee that if they could not charge me all at once and the fact that I thought it was unfair that the transaction went through even though the bank knew I did not have o/d protection.

The lady said that since it's my first time with o/d charges and this would be the only time they would drop all charges except a few pence of interest charges. I will know tommorow for sure if this is true or not.

Anyways I am still totaly disgusted that this happened in the first place and maybe for those in my situation if you try calling the customer service number and do not start going off on the person right away but see if you can get a little sympathy they might drop the charges if they are not to high.


I would like to thank all of those who took their time to advise me on this situation

Cheers

P.C.