I got an interesting email from my bank today. I've always liked them but now they really are playing fair with their charges in my opinion:
We have reviewed and updated the way that we calculate and apply informal overdraft charges and unpaid item charges on your smile current account. These changes are effective from 3rd July 2009.
At the moment, if you request an overdraft informally (that is to say by making a payment or withdrawal from your account which would take you overdrawn or over your agreed overdraft limit, without agreeing this with us first) we may charge you some or all of the following charges:
We are making three main changes to the way that these charges are calculated and applied, as follows:
helping with infrequent charges
However carefully you manage your account you may occasionally go overdrawn when you hadn't intended to, resulting in charges. In future, we will automatically waive these charges when you request an informal overdraft, providing that:
putting an upper limit on charges
In 2007 we placed an upper limit on our Informal Overdraft Service Charges of one Monthly Service Charge and four Daily Service Charges per month (which is currently equivalent to £300 per quarter).
We are now improving this by:
We have reviewed and updated the way that we calculate and apply informal overdraft charges and unpaid item charges on your smile current account. These changes are effective from 3rd July 2009.
At the moment, if you request an overdraft informally (that is to say by making a payment or withdrawal from your account which would take you overdrawn or over your agreed overdraft limit, without agreeing this with us first) we may charge you some or all of the following charges:
- Informal Overdraft Service Charges (the Monthly Service Charge and Daily Service Charge), which are charged when your account becomes overdrawn or the overdrawn balance increases, respectively
- Unpaid Item Charge, which is charged when we have returned a cheque, standing order or Direct Debit as we have been unable to pay it.
We are making three main changes to the way that these charges are calculated and applied, as follows:
helping with infrequent charges
However carefully you manage your account you may occasionally go overdrawn when you hadn't intended to, resulting in charges. In future, we will automatically waive these charges when you request an informal overdraft, providing that:
- you have maintained your account in credit (or within any agreed overdraft limits) for the previous 366 days, and
- you return your account to credit (or inside an agreed overdraft limit) within 6 working days.
putting an upper limit on charges
In 2007 we placed an upper limit on our Informal Overdraft Service Charges of one Monthly Service Charge and four Daily Service Charges per month (which is currently equivalent to £300 per quarter).
We are now improving this by:
- limiting your charges to £150 per quarter (if we have provided you with any refunds during that quarter then this amount will increase by the amount of those refunds)
- including Unpaid Item Charges in addition to Informal Overdraft Service Charges within this upper limit.