Overdraft charges

This topic has 10 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 7 months ago by claire.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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April 12, 2020 at 19:15 #150693

Hannah
Participant

I’ve just been charged for going into my overdraft, not much, but I don’t have the money to cover the costs as I’m waiting for Universal Credit payments to come through.

April 13, 2020 at 10:21 #150703

Amy
Participant

Hi, I got a letter through from my bank yesterday saying that if you go into the first £500 of your overdraft you won’t be charged. Not sure if this is applicable for every bank yet but may be worth checking out.

April 13, 2020 at 11:22 #150711

Sam Smith
Participant

My bank (Barclays) seem to have frozen overdraft charges. For now anyway. It may have been an automated thing done in error? May be worth reaching out to them and seeing what they say.

April 13, 2020 at 13:56 #150719

Annie
Keymaster

Hi Hannah,

The FCA’s latest guidelines are that the first £500 of an overdraft should be interest-free for now. Some systems won’t have caught up with this, and you may have accidentally been charged. However, if you went into an overdraft and didn’t have one agreed with the bank beforehand, they can charge you for that. The same goes for if you go over £500 (or, if your agreed limit was say £350 and you went over that) – you’re still going to get charged interest on the amounts above the limit.

Definitely give your bank a call to see if they can refund the charges!

April 17, 2020 at 09:11 #150819

Hannah
Participant

From what I can see on my online banking I am still being charged so the system mustn’t have caught up yet. Will definitely give them a ring and see if they can refund the charges though, thanks.

April 18, 2020 at 19:25 #150859

Stan
Participant

I also received an email from Barclays telling me overdraft charges were suspended. Good to know.

April 23, 2020 at 22:26 #151023

Michael
Participant

I think the most important thing is to be upfront with your bank or any other financial services provider. If you think you are going to exceed a limit or miss a payment try to tell them this before it occurs. Banks get bad press for their actions, in a lot of cases this is justified, however the sooner they know of a circumstance the sooner it can be discussed and dealt with. Once it has happened the conversation tends to be different.

April 26, 2020 at 13:33 #151057

Annie
Keymaster

Michael’s right – especially right now, banks are being urged by the FCA to demonstrate increased forbearance. They’re getting thousands of calls every day right now, and most customers are finding that it’s easy to ask for payment holidays – and that they’re not feeling ‘judged’ for doing so.

Interestingly, I wonder if the stigma of debt will change over the coming months?

May 20, 2020 at 09:27 #151453

sarah
Participant

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Yes Lloyd’s is 500 before they starting charging u too</p>

May 24, 2020 at 14:04 #151536

claire
Participant

Hannah wrote:

I’ve just been charged for going into my overdraft, not much, but I don’t have the money to cover the costs as I’m waiting for Universal Credit payments to come through.

I thought banks were scrubbing charges during this time, what bank is it? im sorry to hear this. I hope you get the universal credit soon, and that the bank can be reasonable and scrub it on this occasion.

May 24, 2020 at 14:07 #151537

claire
Participant

Annie wrote:

Hi Hannah, The FCA’s latest guidelines are that the first £500 of an overdraft should be interest-free for now. Some systems won’t have caught up with this, and you may have accidentally been charged. However, if you went into an overdraft and didn’t have one agreed with the bank beforehand, they can charge you for that. The same goes for if you go over £500 (or, if your agreed limit was say £350 and you went over that) – you’re still going to get charged interest on the amounts above the limit. Definitely give your bank a call to see if they can refund the charges!

that’s great info thanks:) I was a bit unsure of the way it worked for non agreed and agreed overdrafts. I just assumed that all banks had stopped charges during the pandemic. now I have a better understanding.
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