The 8 pence overdraft

[Gob]

Bank charges new parent family £1,700 in fees for going 8p overdrawn

By Colin Fernandez
Last updated at 9:31 PM on 26th October 2010

They were only overdrawn by 8p. But that trifling amount has left Angela Hannibal and Wayne Green with more than £1,700 in bank charges – and may even cost them their home.

Miss Hannibal, 21, who has just had a baby, opened a basic current account with Lloyds TSB when she was 15.

When she was 18, that was upgraded to a ‘silver’ account which offered her travel insurance, mobile phone insurance and breakdown cover for an £8 monthly payment.

But in January 2009, after the monthly service charge was taken out, Miss Hannibal was left with an unauthorised overdraft of 8p and was told she would have to pay the bank a charge of £170.

Struggling with bills and rent, the 21-year-old offered to pay the bank back at a rate of £30 a month. But she has had to pay a series of further unauthorised overdraft charges – at about £170 a time.

In total, the couple, whose daughter Ashlyn was born two weeks ago, have repaid £1,000 in instalments. But they still owe £700 – and the debt is rising at a rate of £10 a day.

Miss Hannibal, of Colchester, Essex, said yesterday: ‘Apparently I went 8p overdrawn in January 2009 and since then the charges have just mounted and mounted.

'I was completely shocked when they asked me to pay £170 back. I was scraping around and set up a payment plan and have been using my wages to try and keep up with the payments. It’s led to real financial hardship for us, especially with a new baby.’

Furthermore, Mr Green, 23, was made redundant from his job as a builder in August.
And the couple have been ordered to leave their three-bedroom home because of the rent arrears.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z13VR9q2hm

[Reality Bytes]

Obviously she hasn't been following the news then or doing any kind of research about unfair bank charges - even a call to the CAB would have gotten her the information she needed to fight the charges - all she ever needed to do was send the bank a registered letter stating her intent to reclaim unfair charges and they would have to freeze the account and stop applying further charges until the matter was resolved. Many people have successfully reclaimed these ridiculous unfair charges and its been all over the press and news here for months.

[Gob]

Thanks for that RB.

Without wanting to sound like I'm defending her & him, not everybody pays attention to the news, (I do, as I'm a news junkie.)

I do believe that the bank is as much as fault as they are, for sheer greed if nothing else.

But, while I beliebvve anyone who ends up paying a grand + over an 8p overdraft is at best a moron, at worse too irresponsible to have a bank account, I thionk she should act in some way.

She could organise a public withdrawal, by as many people as she can get "outraged", from the bank branch in question, they'd soon act then.

(Or maybe this news report will have a similar effect?)

[Reality Bytes]

I completely agree with youy about the bank Gob - I've been in her position myself however, the reclaiming unfair charges issue has been a major news item for a very long time, there are entire websites dedicated to helping you fight the banks.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/ ... k-charges/

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/bag.php

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bank-charges

Those are just a few of the more well known ones - its been high profile news because trading standards, the ombudsman, consumer direct etc took the banks to court and won (twice) only to be overturned by the supreme court so now it's gone to the European courts.

I know not everyone follows the news or knows their rights, but this woman clearly at some point kicked up enough fuss to come to the attention of the Daily Mail. Whether she was aware of the campaigns or not most people when facing a £170 charge for an 8p overdraft would be outraged at the unfairness and start trying to find ways not to pay it especially since they were struggling financially. I'm also a little suspicious that we aren't being given the full story (which of course is not that unusual for the Daily Fail) - if she had an agreement with Lloyds for repayment that usually means they freeze the debt yet the story says she is being charged £10 a day interest on £700 - those figures cannot possibly be correct thats a rate of over 40% a month as much as I despise the banks I find that bit very hard to swallow.

[loCAtek]

Maybe the DM needs it's own forum; Daily Mail Sack O shit!