Herrendous Hike In Barclays Overdraft Charges

[nellypope]

I've just received a letter (leaflet really) from Barclays Bank informing customers of their new Overdraft charging policy. I'm not sure I'm reading this correctly, so was wondering if anyone else has received this today and can make sense of it. It penalizes you heavily if you use your OD regularly. At the moment I barely qualify for any charges I use my Overdraft every month it's only set to £100. But with the new changes it reads as though I have to pay 75p per day, for every day I use it, by my reckoning I was paying maybe 0.60 pence per month, this will now go up to around £22 per month! Is this right?

[slaney]

Looks like it...depends how many days you are overdrawn.
http://www.moneywise.co.uk/news/2014-03-26/barclays-ups-overdraft-costs-simplifies-charges

[rockyracoon]

Halifax charge a £1 per day that you go overdrawn, it used to be free.

[factor-fiction]

0.6 pence a month seems extremely cheap- that's only 7p a year.
Even at 60p a month I think that seems remarkably low.
You can threaten to take your overdraft elsewhere and see if they can reduce the charges but I think you may have to leave them. There are some good alternatives around

[Hymie]

I bank with Barclays and have the £100 overdraft facility on my current account. This £100 is an ‘authorised’ amount –going overdrawn by up to £100 will incur minimal charges; as you have discovered from regularly having a negative account balance.

Exceed this £100 limit and you will be in unauthorised overdraft territory, incurring swingeing penalties (someone has to pay for my free banking). I suspect if you read the small print, the charges will relate to unauthorised overdrafts.

[Hymie]

Last week I received information from Barclays, notifying me of the increases in overdraft fees/charges. And today there was an item about this on Radio 4’s Moneybox, pointing out that Barclays are significantly increasing their overdraft fees/charges (for those who stay within their agreed overdraft limit), but reducing the penalties for those who exceeded their overdraft limit.

So be warned, if you bank with Barclays and regularly go overdrawn on your current account – in future you will be charged a lot more for the privilege.

My advice is if you cannot live without going into the red – take out a loan, it will be a lot cheaper than the overdraft fees you will incur.