gregorygarver.com

[curmudgeon1202]

When changing mortgaes last month, my broker used the bank details from 5 years ago in applying for my new mortgage. My old current account is essentially now just a savings account with only a direct debit to AOL coming from it. I have now been informed by the bank concerned that as my account is overdrawn I have two charges of £30 to pay. i.e. both the AOL debit and my mortgage debit caused my account to go beyond the agreed overdraft limit. On top of this I have an overdraft charge of £28 for breaching the conditions of my overdraft. I find this particularly galling as the bank cou;ld have avoided all these charges had they refused to honour the direct debits as they were taking me over the agreed overdraft limit of £ 100. Apparently honouring this agreement only works one way. However the thing that really gets my goat is that the account rarely had more than £ 100 in it at any time over the last couple of years and has been used purely to pay AOL over the last two.

[JamieB]

Hun this has happened to me before with Nationwide so what I did was I just wrote to them telling them that I don't understand why they have charged me when I asked for the direct debits to be stopped ages before and that this must their error for not doing as I'd said and they refunded the money that they took, once refunded I reinstated the direct debit lolJust found this on the watchdog site I had a feeling I'd seen something about bank charges on that http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/insurance_and_finance/insurance_20070404.shtmlit tells you what u can do and a letter u can write xx

[goldwing]

Firstly, i'm afraid the fault lies squarely with yourself or your broker for not ensuring the details were correct. But i do sympathise with you. Banks are unable to monitor every single account to judge what purpose this account is used for. I'm sure you will agree that an account in use as little as yours does not warrant the individual scrutiny neccessary to assess what you use your account for. If your bank had not honoured the direct debit, you could have been charged a return fee and also late payment and interest charges at the other end. Banks cannot predict in advance cash credits or withdrawals. So for instance, if a payment leaves your account in the morning, you potentially, have up until the end of the business day to credit the account with a transfer internally, or cash deposit, without incurring charges. It is your account and you are responsible for the operation of it. The bank operates on your instruction. It is not their place to scrutinise every transaction just in case you have made a mistake! Having said this, it is obviously a genuine error, and most banks will probably agree to refund some or all of the charges. Especially if, instead of blaming them, you admit it was clearly a mistake at your end!

[bostonianinmo7443]

Strictly speaking Merecat is right but if you go into your branch and talk over your frustrations with the customer adviser there - they may consider refunding you the £28. Its worth a try. My mum did it when she paid her credit card over the internet and it took 4 days to clear but this took her past her payment date. She explained that she didnot know this would happen and it would take 4 days. although it is clearly explained on the statement the bank refunded her charge as she has been a customer with them a long time.Worth a try....