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The Herald reports that HBOS' new charging structure - in force from tomorrow - will cause serious problems for many customers. Being overdrawn for HBOS customers by up to £2,500 will cost £1 a day, and for more than £2,500 it is £2 a day. For unauthorised overdrafts, it will be £5 a day – with no monthly cap.More than 50% of the UK population use their overdraft facility on a regular basis, and choosing the wrong facility could cost unwitting borrowers hundreds of pounds a year, according to moneysupermarket.com.
Its research suggests that 17% of us are permanently overdrawn and 13% use an overdraft more than six times a year. For these customers, an agreed overdraft with no charge except interest rates is likely to be a much better option than the new “simple” daily fees.
GLC's Principal Solicitor said: “The bank says it’s simple – it is, but ultimately the problem is it will only benefit those customers who can bring down their overdraft within a couple of days. If you can bring it down quickly it isn’t going to cost you very much, but the vast amount of people who go into overdrafts and unauthorised overdrafts are in financial difficulties. The reason for that is if you have either lost your job or your partner has, or you have lost your overtime, or you have got ill, and you are in a bit of a sticky position or have fallen on hard times, in that situation you are not in a position to find a lump sum of money to bring yourself back into the black.”
The full story is in today's The Herald here.
This new charge system is really going to screw me! I am currently in my authorised overdraft and have been since I was a student, I used to get a lot of charges from the bank that I paid because it was my own fault for going over the authorised overdraft. For the past 6 months I have been managing to not go over and therefor no charges which I thought was great but now it is going to cost me at least £42 a month due to the intrest and the £1 a day charge and I have no way of paying off my overdraft in full (currently unemployed). With only receiving jobseekers and paying towards other things i'm afraid I wont be able to afford this and end up getting a £5 charge a day which can lead to the charges being somewhere in the region of £155/month (not including intrest). I think this is very unfair as I have been trying to stay within my limit and get back on my feet but now it just seems I am totally screwed!!
ReplyDeletewhen we were on holiday, my wife used our Halifax joint account card instead of her Halifax credit card by mistake. After we went back home i saw the banks letter asking us to pay back £250 unauthorised OD, so i paid the money back. after a month i received this letter from Halifax saying my account is £59 OD i thought it’s a mistake because i new that we did not use our card and few days later they called saying that by then i owe them another £80 and its going up £5 a day. I can’t afford to pay now and i don’t know what will happen but i find this worst than the loan sharks.
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