Banking mutterings

[annwfyn]

I just received a letter from Nationwide.

Well, I received two letters from Nationwide. One was offering me an £850 overdraft, four months after they withdrew my overdraft facilities with two weeks notice and tried to sell me a loan to cover it.

The other was informing me that from the 1st November, unauthorised overdraft would work a different way. Apparently, the minute you go into unauthorised overdraft, you get charged interest at a rate of 9.9% and 'all other preferential rates are withdrawn', with the implication being 'in perpetuity'. So, if you take the £850 overdraft and go £1 overdrawn, from then on in you have a new interest rate on your entire overdraft.

Honestly, I think I preferred the £30 bank charge.

So very very unimpressed with Nationwide. I need to change banks, so badly, and it's so much dam work*


*By which I mean 'damn work if you're as incompetent and slightly scatty as me'. I know that most people can manage to change bank accounts quite easily.

Comments

[sea-cucumber.livejournal.com]

I don't think it is easy to change bank accounts at all! Lots of horrible forms, and actually being able to get to a bank at a time they are open when at work most of the time is really difficult :(

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

That's not how I read it at all! The £850 overdraft would be authorised and thus no risk of withdrawn preferential rates. But if you went £851 overdrawn then, yeah, you'd be buggered.

Smile.co.uk will sort you right out with all the letters and stuff.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Yes - that's how I read it too. I just explained it badly.

Basically, it seems slightly obnoxious to set up a policy which offers no forgiveness and long term bad interest rates should one have a single month of bad budgeting.

I think my sense of justice says it is unreasonable to penalise someone who goes into unauthorised overdraft by £1 on a single occasion to the same extent as the person who is going into unauthorised overdraft every month by £30 or so.

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Seconding the Smile recommendation - they don't just have online banking, they're also available 24/7 on the phone IIRC.

Plus you can put cheques in at Co-Op banks/the post office, so you're not utterly cut off from the sort of thing you usually actually need a walk-in branch for...

[wildrogue.livejournal.com]

I quite like Natwest - they have a £30 charge but otherwise are pretty good about things and have been quite nice to me.

My little brother, who is biased because he works for them, recommends HSBC as being very stable because they are one of the largest banks in the world. As he puts it - they can't offer such competitive deals as some of the other banks, but they can offer stability and a long history of good service.

You can get accounts transferred very quickly these days.

[purpleheather.livejournal.com]

HSBC have messed me around too many times for me to be confident recommending them. I've been with them for 7 years, and in that time they've lost cards in the post, messed up the postal addresses to use for me about 3 times, spent 3 years sending statements for one of my accounts to an old Uni housemate, including updating her name when she married, and caused me serious financial issues by charging me £50 for unathorised overdrafts. This Friday (payday) I'm switching to Alliance & Leicester.

[wildrogue.livejournal.com]

I did say he was biased. That's pretty bad, even for the average bank.

[purpleheather.livejournal.com]

*nods* I think I've been unlucky!

[blueberrycowboy.livejournal.com]

I can definitely empathise. I've been in the situation where I've missed a month's payment on my credit card, and Nationwide have sent me nasty red letters. I've then paid double (i.e. two months worth of credit card bills) and all of a sudden they're writing to say they're pleased to increase my credit limit by something ludicrous like £1000. Jeez, either you're desperate for the money or you're not, know what I mean?

[purpleheather.livejournal.com]

*nods* I've had ridiculous things like this from my bank - my credit card limit is absurd! I had about £600 - £1000 just sat on it for years, and got annoyed at them when they upped the limit.

[chrisvenus]

Well, surely 850 is a pretty good buffer that you shouldn't get anywhere near that... I assume from what you said that you have no overdraft so you'll have to be spending 850 pounds you don't have before it becomes a problem...

Personally I figure that all banks are probably much the same in these things so I don't worry too much about changing bank if my bank does something to annoy me. :)

[becky-spence.livejournal.com]

quite a few have a transfer service these days - Halifax I know makes an offer that if you move accounts and use their transfer service, and keep the account for 3 months, after that time they'll credit you with £100. The transfer service is a single form granting the new bank permission to contact your old bank, and then they get all the info on your DDs and standing orders, and just move them all for you. Fairly straightforward as I gather - did it when I changed my business account with HSBC.

[purpleheather.livejournal.com]

Banks, AFAIK, have got to offer you a transfer service for direct debits, standing orders, etc.

Check out Martin Lewis's article about the best UK current accounts - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts

He is currently recommending Alliance & Leicester as the best account for those who are overdrawn. Check with your new bank how much you will need to pay in each month, and also with your old bank to make sure you're covered while you transfer over. As Martin says, keep the old one open for a few months, to make sure that you haven't missed anything.

[twisted-times.livejournal.com]

Intersting website - I'll have to take a good look through it at some point soon. I'm currently with Abbey but might be tempted to change as I've has a few run-ins with them over the years.

[purpleheather.livejournal.com]

Aah - Martin is great - he's the guy who does the money slot on Radio 2 etc, and does good recommendations.