natwest r mean and evil and i hate them :(

[jinglybits]

just found out have charge me 28.oo for going 4.38p overdrawn for just one day last month. thats less than 12hours. have banked with them for 9years and don't think i've received 28.00 in interest payments in that whole time. how can they justify this for one nights 'borrowing' by me. got the letter yesterday so went into my branch today to complain, and was spoken to extremely rudely at enquiry desk in front of everyone. they wrote to me and changed my student/graduate account to a card-plus a few months ago and told me to all intensive purposes it was the same, and as i always used to have an overdraft arranged i assumed this still stood anyway (not that i ever usually go overdrawn). the 'banker' at the enquiry desk told me i would have to bring in written proof of this overdraft agreement for them to consider wiping the fine , it was given to me 7years ago for goodness sake, shouldn't they have a record anyway?! am a lone parent and am so broke right now, i hate them i hate them :..(

Change to First Direct - they'll give you £25 (I think?) for joining plus it's free overdraft facilities AND friendly helpful staff - that recoups almost all your charges. Then tell Natwest to shove it

Just checked - if you apply online to first direct they give you £50. Sorted

automatic fee free £500 overdraft too...

Message withdrawn

HSBC and Barclays need shooting for this kind of behaviour too. Money goes into my acc @ hsbc every 2 weeks and I have incurred £50 of charges for the sake of 2 lots of £1 for less than 12 hrs this month.

Barclays keep taking the P with DH and have let cancelled dd's go out which took him over his od and hen fined him for the privledge three time this month.

Another satisfied First Direct customer here. I have only needed to use the branch network once (to pick up a bankers draft). I post cheques to their Leeds address and they seem to get processed very quickly indeed.

On the two occasions when I've been charged, I've just called them, given an explanation, and they have removed the charges.

That said if you do routinely over-run the overdraft limit the charges seem to be totally penal.

Jingly,that is a fucking outrage!!!
Bastards!!

Def. write and also mention that if you do not get redress you will be going to the local papers and the big dailies (most of which have consumer Q&A things on the w/end)

Even if you don't finish your letter off with a looooong list of cc'c

Citizens Advice Bureau
Daily Recorder
Telegraph
Times
Local MP

etc etc

I always do this-generally works.

thanks all! have tried the call centre but apparently the type of person i need to speak to is not in over weekends?! will have another go with calling the national line and speaking to the bank manager on monday. will definately change banks now anyway, thanks for all the positive things about first direct, i would have had no idea who to move to but now i think i will go to them, if the worst comes to the worst at least their joining fee may cover my crazy bank charge! ...thankyou janH for digging up all that info for me x.

Pleasure, jb

Hope you can switch to FD without too much hassle!

I second Moondog's suggestion re: threatening to talk to press / MP - even threatening to go to your local paper should be enough.

If you threaten to go to the pres, the bank's PR department will get involved.

You have a good story, you were only overdrawn for less than12 hours, you're a lone parent struggling to make ends meet and the charge is a bit disproportionate to the amount you were overdrawn by and they switched your account but didn't tell you the original terms and conditions had been changed.