Very well said. I must be a young socialist then, as I agree wholeheartedly. As a libertarian I disagree that you need to be a socialist to find poor / preying behaviour repugnant but I would suggest the answer they continue to get away with it is few British people until now have challenged their behaviour by switching to banks without these policies. Bend over and bit the pillow seems to be the attitude - would you take it from your local supermarket ? No - you would be down to the local alternative. These charges happen because we let them make them year after year without demanding more. Far too many people just accept poor customer service whether its in the NHS, banks, government, etc etc - usually the reason is lack of competition and/or government restrictions. If you are not happy then take your business elsewhere ! Do you really think introducing more government into the mix as socialists seem to is really the right answer ? Surely the right answer is for Joe Public aggravated by bank charges to move to institutions willing to change even if part of another bigger bank - does anybody really think the customers of IF, Smile, etc etc get shafted on a regular basis ? Great customer service is a good way to get people to do business with you - if certain banks choose to ride their customers to meet their financial targets then their chickens will come home to roost. I've moved to IF for virtually everything now and the only reason I keep an account with NWB is to deposit money on the high street. Vote with your money and don't take it year after year ! rbrears : The personal ethics of the bank senior management may very well be disagreeable but since when was "kicking people when they are down" a recipe for success ? My brother is a call-centre monkey at NWB in Wimbledon and he really hates his incompetent management (cf David Brent's evil twin brother) and the ever increasing targets but he is voting with his feet and getting mortgage advice qualifications in order to leave and give people advice thats worth a damn. How would it work in your government-oriented socialist worker's paradise ? Queues, incompetence and those at the top never being held to account I suspect - at least fleeing customers tells bank shareholders that their management couldn't organise a p***-up in brewery

Open alternative accounts ! As a student you should be able to get some freebies from alternative banks. Personally I have transferred my business mostly to IF linked to my mortgage but I do have an MBA loan account with Natwest which might put a bit of a dent in my cc limits if they decided to close all my accounts. Anybody think they might try closing ALL my accounts ? Or does it depend whether the person handling my refund is vindictive - having had an account with them for 22 years and paying vast amounts of interest they would have to cut off their nose etc ... I also do believe they have a customer value number so maybe paying up is cheaper in the long run.

The referral charge is in addition to the over-limit fee - its a pity I've just found this site as I had quite a few charges 7 - 8 years ago and since then I've been borrowing and begging money to cover the occasional overdraft to avoid these charges - grrrrrr 586rJKEE4