- 08
- Nov
If you have been unfairly charged for going over your overdraft limit you might want to think twice about writing to your bank and asking for your money back. Although you have the right to claim your money back and the charge is illegal, banks are starting to fight back. Banks are now threatening thousands of people that if they complain about the bank charges their bank accounts will be shut down.
What banks are doing is akin to bullying tactics and is in breach of industry guidelines which state that banks should not threaten customers with charges.
The problem of complaining about bank charges is especially dangerous for customers with large overdrafts. The charge comes from going over your overdraft limit but this inevitably means that you are more than likely heavily overdrawn and don’t have the financial means to pay back your overdraft. The bank then threatens you with closing your account and implicit in this threat is that you will have to pay back your entire overdraft back immediately.
This kind of behaviour is in blatant disregard of the Banking Code which clearly states that banks must treat customers fairly, particularly when they are in financial difficulty.
The whole banking charge fiasco is currently in the high court so we should all find out soon enough what is going to happen. If you are thinking of complaining about that £20 the bank charged you, be aware that you might have to fight.
Customers who have already had the plugged pulled on their overdrawn accounts or fear it may happen would be wisest to apply for a cheap loan. Most people are ignorant of the APR charged on their overdraft and would be able to clear their debt faster on the lower APR charged on a personal loan.
