Recovering Bank Charges - 1

Finextra, in common with much of the financial press has covered the issue of bank charges in depth and because of the press coverage I conducted my own investigation this weekend and was surprised to discover that my bank, the Alliance & Leicester, has charged me over 1,500 pounds in the last 2 years for overdraft, bounced payments and interest charges! 

So, I thought I'd ask for it back and track the experience in these community blog pages.

Let us put the issue in context though, I have had this current account with a 350  pound overdraft facility for about 2 years.  I use it to pay UK bills while I am overseas on contracting assignments.  I top up the balance at irregular intervals and there is no regular payment each month into it like a salary.  The account often goes overdrawn but not for more than a week as I then transfer some money to cover the overdraft and bring the account under control.

My only beefs at this point is that a) when I ask for a bigger overdraft the bank always say no, and b) the feeling that the charges are too high.To communicate with the bank I am going to use the templates that were covered by BBC news, but first, as the Consumer Action Group advise, I am going to contact my bank by phone and make them aware that I have a concern and seek their help in resolving it.

I shall keep you posted about how this story develops and if you have any thoughts or comments please post them using the links at the end of this entry or send me your comments.