Peeved re bank charges. Can I do anything?

[mockeveryweek]

Firstly, I know this is my own fault but was a genuine error.

At the end of last month I used my card for 2 transactions. 69p to amazon for a kindle book and 77p to iTunes for an app. Inadvertently, I thought a £50 transaction had cleared but it hadn't and those 2 transactions overlapped so they went out after the £50. My budgeting was a bit off last month and that £1.46 took me over my agreed overdraft.

I have now been charged £25 each for those transactions plus an unauthorised overdraft fee of £35. A total of £85 for the sake of £1.46.

I know the charges are laid out and I know I should have checked more carefully but bloody hell, £85 quid!!!

If I ring Santander are they going to say tough shit?

As an aside, does anyone bank with a bank who are a bit more lenient??

That is awful!! I have Natwest - I don't think they make those kind of charges. When I was with Lloyds I found them to be utter shits and was at times charged £100 for being a few pounds over drawn.

I thought you could claim money back for unfair charges - have you looked on Money Saving Expert?

No if you are less than £12 overdrawn (although that mormally means within your overdraft limit) they will refund all charges (I work for them!) problem is charges are automated so no one sees them till a customer points them out. However, if you haven't had charges refunded in last 12 months they should do it as a one off for you. If they say no ask to go through to complaints as they have higher thresholds for refunds!

I have looked at it before from my crap with money days and I did get some back.

I haven't had any charges for a long time as I got good at budgeting. This just seems a massive penalty for a minuscule amount.

May look at a Nat west account. Thanks.

Ohhh thanks eandh that's very useful. I will ring ASAP.

That is outrageous - but Santander are bastards. I have only dealt with them on a store card that I took out to get a discount, and they were so bad I won't ever use that card again - no discount is enough to make me deal with them! I use Barclays and have never had a problem in over 20 years, they have always been approachable even when I was very broke!

Hmm. We do already have a Barclays account that we try to keep emergency money in. Perhaps another account with them would make sense. Can anyone advise about closing a bank account when you have an overdraft you can't afford to pay off?

Have to say although I work for them (by default as took over my previous company) my main banking is done through Natwest (was dh bank when he left school and I had current acc for part time job when I did a levels so naturally opened a joint acc there never had any problems or charges!

My friend tried to close a Santander account, but there was a -£5 balance, and even though they knew it was their error, they didn't sort it out and refused to close the account with an 'overdraft'. She moved everything to a Barclays account herself instead of transferring the account, but twas a nightmare.
Sorry eanh

I thought all banks were the same but have found the customer service at Natwest a whole lot better than Lloyds.

Just ring them and explain you made a mistake. If you are really nice on the phone, you may get a nice cashier who will reverse them.