I have been struggling with bank charges for years, yes i am in debt, yes i am on a very tight budget and yes i go overdrawn and get charged. Like most people I have no problem with the bank not paying my bill if I have insufficient funds but I do object to paying £36 for the "pleasure" because that then puts me further behind and the chance of something else going wrong increases. Hence more charges hence more behind i get. Yes its in part my own fault but the fact is if I had lots of money the banks would bend over backwards to accomodate me and I doubt very much that I would pay any charges. To the point that we sign a contract with the terms and conditions laid out. Yes we do, however what choice do we have. I could understand your argument if some banks did not charge and I chose a bank that did. But I have no choice all banks charge the same and as I am working and my wages need to be paid into a bank account I am left trying my best to juggle everything. I could pay my bills in cash as they come but then I get penalized again becasue its more expensive if you dont have a direct debit set up. In short the banks know we have to use them and they are exploiting that position, if there was another way to do things I gladly would. I do try to balance eveything but when you only have a finite amount of money coming in a finite amount of bills going out then any charges exceed my outgoings and mean I have more going out then coming in, so which bill do I not pay? And before you ask I am with the CCCS in an attempt to sort out my problems so I am living on the thightest budget possible with no frills. I would like to go to the bank and try to talk to someone, but as everything is done by computer and the old fashioned bank manager that was allowed some discretion to think for him / her self is long gone thats another option thats no longer available. Im sure many will agree with me that banks and debtors in general always go after the people that can least afford it and have gotten into trouble. Yes my problems are partly my own fault but inflexible and irresposible banks have not helped. Just one example I have a loan I could no longer afford the repayments for due to a change in circumstances. I rang them immediatley and they said well tough you have to keep up the payments. They then started charging me, of course, and then they callled and offered me a new loan secured on my house, which the original loan was not, for the next 25 years which would have taken me to the age of 70!!!! when i refused they threatened court action, luckily I then heard about the CCCS and they helped me and then suddenly they dropped all charges and reissued the loan knocking of the interest. However they have not quite given up as I still have to pay an axtra £6 a month becasue they are not happy with the payment they are getting via the CCCS. Sorry to rant on a bit but I do not mind banks in general but they are very inflexible (when you have no money) and run a very tight monopoly with no other choices. Regards Paganheart