NatWest bank are immoral.

[Stupot]

When I can back from Japan I had £10.20 in my bank account.  Before I had a chance to put any money in there I got a letter through the door saying that I was to be charged a £28 "Maintenance charge", because I had let my account go below £0.00 and I don't have an agreed overdraft... now I can fully understand why I might be obliged to pay a little something for letting that happen... but 28 quid???... a fiver perhaps I wouldn't mind.

Apparently it's a "Standard Charge".

Anyway, a few days later I got another letter through the door saying they were going to take another 38 quid... What for? I didn't go below zero twice.... thing is this was a separate charge apparently for the fact that they had tried to take a payment and my funds couldn't cover it...

Potayto Potarto.

So they wanted to take 66 pounds off me, two penalties for the same offense, basically.

Anyway, I rang up the bank, spoke to several people and managed to get a nice Brummiw bloke to rescind the 38 pound charge, which was bloody decent and you could tell he was embarrassed to be working for one of the biggest con syndicates in the country. But I still had to pay that first 28.

Anyway, after this debacle I've been borrowing off my mum to make sure it doesn't happen again.. but guess what... this morning I open an envelope and they (not even politely) state that they're taking £28 out of my bank again... without even telling me the reason for it.

They cant get way with it this time.  NatWest are morally bankrupt.  I feel a little bit guilty that I'm moaning about 28 pounds here and there, when they are ripping other people off for thousands, but it's 28 pounds I haven't got spare and if they dont back off for a few months until I can get my new job underway and start earning some money, then theyr'e gonna keep pulling this on me every month.

Cunts!

[Becky]

Banks have charges.  Read the smallprint.

[scotch]

Banks were recently chastised for underhanded penalty charging systems, and if it's a big enough problem, you can claim a lot of the worse ones back. It worked for some people I know. But yeah, the best thing to do is read what the penalties are to start with.

[lo_res_man]

of course banks are morally bankrupt. morals mean making sacrifices for semi (at best) arbitrary reasons, morality ain't gonna help you run a business. though I agree , it is wrong.

[Stupot]

I'm sure it is in the small print.  The fact is they're stifling me.  I've been a good customer of theirs for so long, but my trip abroad left me a bit skint, and they punish me for it... the fact that I had so little money in the bank when I got back was partly (though not entirely I'm sure) their fault.

My mum and sisters went on holiday to Greece last month and I went into the travel agent's with them.  At the Bureau de Change there was a little notice that had obviously been there for some time.  It stated that at some point during the summer NatWest were to hike up their charges for using your debit card abroad.

Of course I would have been in Japan when this happened but they made no attempt to let me know.  They have my email address, and they have my home address, they could always have informed my family and asked them to tell me... that would have been a great gesture, and a good sign that they look after their customers.

And not only that but the only place I could get money from in Tokyo was from the ATMs in the Post Offices.  Trouble is, although the machines would let me take money out, they would not let me check my balance.  I had to use mathematics to work out how much I was spending and I did include the NatWest charges in my sums, but I wouldnd't have known about their raise in the charges.

I was expecting to have over 200 pounds in my bank when I got back but instead I had 10.

I'm just feeling a little hard done by, and their impersonal uncaring approach bothers me more than anything.... you should read the letter, they don't even tell me what I've done to deserve the charge and they don't say anything like 'we're sorry to inform you, but...' No it's just a peice of paper saying you will be charged 28 pounds on a certain date, no reasons or anything.

Just seems like a lot of money to charge some for the fact that they havent got a lot of money.

[ThreeOhFour]

Stu my man, as someone who until recently worked for a bank, I know how silly the system can seem. I've seen customers been charged in excess of $300 dollars for being overdrawn once, and felt guilty about it - generally calling them or going to see your local branch is likely to have some result as you've found.

Unfortunately the reasons banks get away with such high charges includes the fact that first of all, all the other banks do it so people taking their money elsewhere won't benefit the customer financially, the fact that a lot of people are embarrassed about the fact that they overdrew their account and therefore won't complain about it and the fact that a lot of people are not very organised with their money and therefore have trouble keeping track of payments coming out etc.

It's a hard thing to have a definite answer for. On one hand - people shouldn't overdraw their accounts. On the other, the bank shouldn't let them. I believe perhaps the banking world could do with a bit of a shakeup. This sort of this is so common that I used to deal with it generally twice a week, and I worked in a smaller town thank most would believe exists.

[OneDollar]

If they take their £28 from your account, that'll mean another overdraft and another charge.

Interestingly I caught the BBC's Money Program yesterday, and these standard charges for unauthorised overdrafts were the subject. As far as I understand it there is a law that says banks are allowed to cover their expenses for extending you an overdraft, but they're not allowed to charge an amount that's inproportionate to the amount you were overdrawn by (obviously this applies in Great Britain). Lots have people have been hit by the same thing and are campaigning against it.

The standard practise seems to have been threatening the bank with legal action, going to court, waiting while the bank refuses to show up and then being granted all your charges back from the last six years. It got to the point where so many people were doing it that the courts have agreed with the banking ascociation to run a test case where they decide something like whether the banks can charge for overdrafts (but not the amounts). Until that case happens sometime early next year, you can only take the issue to court if you are in financial hardship, however the banks are still being allowed to charge you.

That's as much as I remember, but I was half asleep. I'm not suggesting you take your case of £28 to court, but you're not the only one unhappy with the system and something is starting to get done about it.

[SSH]

First Direct do an £250 interest-and-charge-free overdraft on their bank account. 

[lo_res_man]

I think thats even more dangerous.why can't they just not allow overdrafts. If your bank account don't have it, then you don't get it, its that simple. plus atm's should have more then 20's in them ( at least thats all they have ever had in any bank I've gone to in canada)

[Nikolas]

I think thats even more dangerous.why can't they just not allow overdrafts. If your bank account don't have it, then you don't get it, its that simple. plus atm's should have more then 20's in them ( at least thats all they have ever had in any bank I've gone to in canada)

Yes, this is insanely bizzare and immoral:

Bank: So? you don't have enough money for... this and that? I'll CHARGE you, just for... nothing.

I mean, why on earth is the bank bothering with this? If my direct debit bills don't get paid, southern electric, vodafone, or whatever else needs to call me and let me know. What's the problem with the bank?

I think that I've actually lost more than £100 thus far with this £28 shitty business, and will look into getting them back. 

[SSH]

Well, of course, Maestro payments are approved 3 days before the money comes out of your account so its quite easy to have valid transactions occur quickly enough to make you overdrawn. Would you really rather have Sainsbury's send round the heavies to get back that load of bread that you've already eaten but didn't have the money for?