£17 Overdrawn, £113.25 to fix it...

[leavethisplace]

On the 16th April 2008, on my Current Plus account with no Overdraft Facility, I accidently forgot that my Virgin Media Payment of £17 was going out. Fortunatly I check my account fairly often, and on the 22nd April I paid that £17 back into the account.

 

It went unnoticed, but my memory hadn't gotten any better, and on the 16th May 2008 I managed to let that payment go into the red again, but again it was rectified on the 21st May and I thought nothing more of it. Then, on the 30th May 2008 I was lumbered with a charge of £28.

 

I rang NatWest, asked them why this had been charged, they explained that I had gone overdrawn without authorization and I had been charged. I explained that I had put this money back into the account as soon as I could. I tried to reason with them and explained I'm a student on very low income, and I can't actually afford to pay this fine off.

 

They refused point blank to budge, wouldn't refund me. I stopped all Standing Orders and DD's on the account. 30 June I was charged a further £28 as I still couldn't pay of the charge.

 

I am now in a position to pay off the above debt, and close down the account. I walked into my bank today to ask how much it would cost me. She printed off a "Closing Balance Breakdown". It came to £113.25

 

I asked how this is possible. The Customer Service Rep told me that because now charges were paid off by the 5th June, a £28 charge would be applied to my account on the 30th July. Also, because the charges had not been paid off by the 5th July, I would also recieve another charge of £28 and the end of August - so an account already £55.81 overdrawn in charges only was now being fined a further £56 to make £113.25

 

The way in which we are being snowballed and steamrolled is disgusting - for going -£17 (which I made every effort to rectify) I'm now at -£113.25

 

I have the address to write a letter, and appeal, but just what should I be saying to them? Surely they're not demon minded enough to think £113.25 is a "fair charge" are they?

[yourbank]

The bank will only refund if there is a bank error. There wasn't and so I would read the FAQ's here and then start the process.

Did they offer a small overdraft facility to avoid future charges?

[leavethisplace]

They offered me no such solution, in fact they offered me no resolve at all. When I went into the bank and sat down with a financial advisor he said there was nothing he could do - it was pay or be fined again.

[yourbank]

Then you know what you need to do, Read the FAQ's on this site and start the process of reclaiming bank charges.

[leavethisplace]

Many thanks!