Santander charges - fair?

[jo5ephedward5]

I wonder if anyone can help.

 

I’ve been helping my cousin straighten out his finances as he’s dyslexic and doesn’t understand his statements – I suspect he’s also got dyscalculia as numbers just don’t stack up for him.

 

He has a Santander account and when I log online for him it says the product is a ‘preferred in credit rate account’ but I can’t seem to find any information on this account online.

 

He’s banked with Santander for about 18 months and although he has a £100 overdraft facility which he’s dipped in and out off on occasion he’s generally had no chargers bigger than a few pounds here and there for the overdraft facility; that was until last month when he started getting paid monthly instead of weekly.

 

He basically went form getting paid £200 a week to making the last £200 last 5 weeks so needless to say he went over his £100 limit. The charges so far are as follows for last month:

 

Daily unarranged fee £30

Daily unarranged fee £20

Paid item fee £25 [for a £6.19 debit card transaction]

Paid item fee £25 [for a £26.00 debit card transaction]

Paid Item fee £25 [for a £51.51 Direct Debit]

 

He’s given me access to his online banking and when I first logged on his account was £133 overdrawn – I’ve increased his overdraft allowance to £200 to minimise the charges and I’ve paid a chunk of money in to bring it back into credit, however on the 25th of this month the following charges are pending:

 

Daily unarranged fee £75

Paid item fee £25 [for a £51.51 Direct Debit]

Paid item fee £25 [for a £5 debit card transaction]

Pain item fee £25 [for a £42.66 Direct Debit]

 

I assume there will be some charges next month too as he was over his overdraft limit until today and 2 direct debits have also been paid out.

 

So for now he’s going to be OK with my help, and I’ve opened him a basic account elsewhere which I’ve set up a weekly standing order from his Santander account to give him his disposable cash – I guessed this would protect his bills money and take away the room for error.

 

The question I have is are these fees he’s been paying justified? £75 a month for an overdraft facility seems steep – when I had a £3000 OD with Nationwide I think it was only £19 a month in interest! Not to mention being charged £25 for a £5 payment which they could have declined!

 

All insight welcome.

J

[jo5ephedward5]

...after much digging it seems like this type of account is no loner offered and that they sent out this letter in Nov / Dec 2012 stating that as of Feb 2013 the charges for this type of account would increase considerably from that originally signed up for - which also explains why he's gone from a couple of pounds per month in fees to the 'maximum' £150!

 

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223428601620&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600

 

I know he was moving house in Dec 2012 so theres a every chance there was an overlap in address as he says he's only ever had statements off Santander - the sad truth is if he'd received this letter he still wouldn't have understood it.

 

I'm assuming this change in fees was an attempt to push people to the 123 account?

 

Unless anyone has a better idea I'm going to write to Santander on his behalf, tell them that he's not had the letter, state his position and see if we can get a refund on the excessive charges - I'll keep you posted.

 

J