The Banking System

By fletch Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Towards the end of last year I decided to get into a better financial shape and so I had a few very frugal months during which I paid off and cancelled my credit card, saved up enough to clear a large low interest overdraft in a second account that had been around since I started university – (don’t get me started on fucking student loans). I also cleared the much smaller overdraft in my current account and had the overdraft facility removed.

I reasoned that I didn’t need it. All I was doing was using the bottom of the overdraft as my zero-marker and staying consistently “in debt” despite not actually needing to be. I was looking forward to being able to hit “the bottom” and not go any further.

Clearly my fiscal spring clean took a couple of hits along the way. I had to shell-out six weeks deposit and a first months rent on a new flat, and Christmas got in the way a bit but in general I’ve been pleased with my progress despite it taking a bit longer than it should have done. My net worth was actually positive!

Anyhow, today I got hit with £125 worth of charges from my bank that I discovered is for six unauthorised overdraft charges since the December! Two things; 1) I don’t have an overdraft 2) why did they charges only just come through?

Well guess what.

Removing my overdraft hasn’t actually achieved anything. I can still go overdrawn, only now I get charged for it. The bank don’t have an account that stops giving out money when it’s empty! Incredible! It seems that when I removed the overdraft facility I only removed the formal overdraft and that there is a default informal overdraft on all accounts that YOU CANNOT REMOVE!!

If I’d stuck with the overdraft and stayed in their debt, I’d actually be £125 better off. Incredible.

It’s no fucking wonder that people get themselves into giant debt spirals they can’t get out of. What happened to only being able to spend the money that you have got? It’s a completely ridiculous way to live life. Luckily £125 isn’t going to send me out on the streets and although it’s really fucking pissed me off, the buck absolutely stops with me and if I want to avoid charges I need to avoid going into the overdraft – I get it, but the banks aren’t only just not helping, they’re actively encouraging you to fuck-up.

To add insult to injury, all of the transactions that resulted in a charge are smaller than the charge itself! £22.58 in costcutter? That cost me £47.58. Outrageous.

Rest assured I’ll be following the unauthorised overdraft charges test case quite closely.

Adverts

Hello! Fletch.cx has been going since 1999 in one form or another, yep incredible, when will it end? For more of my bullshit see last.fm, lluckj.com, facebook and if you really want a constant avalanche of musings, observations and lies then follow me on twitter..