Just decided to start my first thread here on this forum... I found this forum while searching for info about 'unpaid direct debit fees' which i'd just been debited £30 from my Nationwide Flex account. I had a balance of £1.07 in my Flex account when a direct debit for £3.16 was charged to my account. 28 days after the direct debit failed my account was charged £30 'unpaid direct debit fee' and this left me nearly £15 overdrawn! So i visited the local branch of the Nationwide to be told that a local branch cannot reimburse a charge once it's been deducted from your account. A letter to their main office was required to request them to review the decision to charge me £30. 20 or 30 minutes was all that was required to compose a reasonable letter to their main office. I printed it out and returned to the local branch to hand the letter in - for them to forward to their main office. So to put dates on all this: 12th May - My account is charged £3.16 and my account balance is just £1.07 so the direct debit fails. 9th June - Nationwide deduct £30 'Unpaid direct debit fee' from my account leaving me £14.56 overdrawn. 12th June - I hand in a letter to my local branch requesting their main office to review the charge, a bit of a sob story letter you all understand!! ;-) 18th June - Looking at my account online i see a 'Correction' credit of £30 and the details screen says 'Refund of unpaid direct debit fee'. I'm happy that the Nationwide can be human and sensible - but i wonder just how few people do complain and claim a refund of such charges? I'd suspect just a very small percentage of such charges to be contested and the majority being 'nice little earners' for the banks and building societies! warwound.