OK, paid the 27p and asked for the charges to be paid back. Today got this letter: Dear Mrs Dolly Account No: xxxxxxx I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 9th February and note the comments rgarding the charges made to your account. I am sorry you are dissatisfied with the charges and feel that they are unreasonable. However, to help clarify the situation can I please draw your attention to the enclosed Terms and COnditions and flex account interest rates and charges leaflets. These terms and conditions were agreed to on 23rd July 2001 when the account was opened. I am also enclosing duplicate statements as requested showing all transactions made on the account since it was opened. I hope this explanation is satisfactory. However, in line with our internal complaints procedure detailed in the leaflet provided I can escalate your concerns to my senior manager. Got loads of sheets of statements, the leaflets as mentioned. It was sent from the Customer Services Manager at my local branch. No mention made anywhere of the 27p! Onto step 2 then! Onwards and upwards!! Edited to add: have just totalled up all the charges since opening the account and it stands at £1508.61, not including the 8%. Thanks xx

Wow. I wish you all the best, I really do.

Well, I took your advice Stephen and sent them a cheque on Saturday for 27p along with a copy of the letter due to charges over the past 5 years. Will let you know how it goes - not expecting them to bow down without a battle but you never know. Thanks again.

Thanks Stephen, that is great. Also have other charges over the years, namely when they decided to clear a cheque for about £180 and then 3 weeks later decided that it had not cleared at all and that it was written from a cancelled chequebook, debited the money from my account which left me over the limit with a few small DD's not coming out. How on earth can they do that? How can they say a cheque has cleared, give you the money only to take it away again?

Oh they asked me this morning what I planned to do - as I was in a rush and the baby was yelling (good girl, trained her well ) I said I would look into it....so I have, here!! Funnily enough I have never received a letter from either them or from a debt collection agency about it which did strike me as odd at the time.

20 mths ago I stopped using my nationwide flex account. I never got statements for it, just once a year I think, and never really did much withit - paid money in, had a few small DD's coming out that sort of thing. Anyway, I went into the branch this morning to pay some money into the childrens accounts and it flagged up that they needed to speak to me about my account. Apparently when I last used my account - July 2004 - I was 27p overdrawn. Want to know what my balance is now...... -852.55 Looking at the printout she gave me, they are charging me 30 a month for unauthorised overdraft usage plus an interest charge of around 27.28 a month, which obviously increases each month. I guess I need to write them a letter?!

Thanks - might see the manager and test the water!

Hi all, Firstly thanks for this site and for all the great advice that you give. I have had my Lloyds TSB account all my life (I'm 33 now) but over the past few years have incurred, like so many, charges. This hasn't really happened in the last 12mths but I went through a period where charges were eating up a lot of the deposits, if you know what I mean. I really would like to try and claim these back but wouldn't really like to lose the account - I go to a small branch where I know the staff and over the years they have been fantastic - even the manager! What do you think the chances are of claiming but yet still retaining the account? Many thanks x