[LIFTED] [LIFTED] [LIFTED] [LIFTED] [LIFTED] [LIFTED].

After planning to go up to Donington this weekend, I can't.
I've just checked that I had the funds to travel (two tanks of petrol, plus food & drink, about £120 say) there on Friday, and ta-da!

My bank have taken from my account:
£1.43 in 'interest' for being over drawn.
£12.95 'subscription' fee for my account.
£28.00 Account 'maintenance' fee.
£60.00 Misc. charges (I'm presuming £20 a go for the above three charges going past my overdraft limit.)

Total in charges to the bank - £102.38.

Which leaves me stuck here at home.

[LIFTED] [LIFTED] [LIFTED].

I don't mean to belittle your situation, Alex, but it could be worse - see your Facebook inbox.

Mark

I know man, read your message as I was about to finish that post.

Lodge a complaint about the charges - if the OFT wins that test case you'll get them back.

EDIT: And while you're at it, get an arranged overdraft for the future!

awww dude that freakin sucks!!!, try on the download forums to see if you can get a lift, if you want iam sure i could try and help you at download with drinks

other than that, i could also say ask some friends or family if they could lend you some money for the weekend,

really sucks you cant come donnington!

I have a limit of £250, I was about £255.15.

Call them up an keep them on the phone until they tell you you can have the £60 back.

Whenever this has happened to me I have always complained and always got the money back.

Check out Martin Lewis' website, money saving expert or something. Tells you how to get your bank charges refunded as well as a load of other good stuff.

Simple way to get bank charges removed. Ring up your bank and say you want a form for transfering (even though you don't need a form, it just demonstrates your intent) your overdraft to another bank as you are opening an account with another bank with a better overdraft, in the same breath say that you also want to close your account shortly after.

Say you are sick of bank charges and being treated like a number

They will wave your bank charges in a flash and mumble something about managing your account better by liasing with someone at the branch or something like that.

Which always seemed stupid...The computer back-ends could quite easily refuse you anymore money, so why don't they?

They often do. For example, they block a payment of £5 and then charge you £20 for blocking it and £20 for writing a letter to you telling you, and then charge another £20 because the charges put you over the limit anyway - and then another £20 to tell you about that.

That's a real example from a Natwest student account with an interest free overdraft, and £5 standing order to a charity that wasn't actually authorised and never got paid.

I would definately call and complain !

I'd also want a complete breakdown of the charges levied against your account for when you decide to take the matter further, if they don't back down.

Well, I spoke to the bank.
Spent 25 minutes on the phone going over things.
As this is not the first time this year I've been in this situation, they're point of view was 'We told, you haven't sorted it, not our problem.'
Then they pointed out I had £30 direct debit due today, and that would also incur a charge as it'd take me past my limit.
'Not if you hadn't taken £100+ in charges, it wouldn't.' I replied. To no avail.

So, end result, I'm no further forward, I'm incredibly upset by futility of trying to out of my overdraft and I can't see a way of changing things.

Is there anything on the moneysavingexpert.com site about such matters? Or maybe Trading Standards or the financial ombudsman?

It's gone way above Trading Standards. The OFT are pursuing a test case through the courts, if they win then everyone who has paid penalty charges would be entitled to claim a refund as they are deemed "unfair".