I run my own business and it went through a bad patch for about 10 months and my bank, instead of trying to help, made things much worse.
It started out because I went overdrawn, only by about £200 but it was for a 30 day period.
My bank decided that because I was a business they were going to charge me £4 per day for being overdrawn, plus £100 overdraft charge for having an unauthorised overdraft, plus £30 admin fee, plus interest that worked out to about £50. All in all they charged me about £300 for being overdrawn.
At the end of the month I had the £200 to put back into my bank account to cover my overdraft. The problem was that the bank had taken the £300 out of my account so I was now £500 overdrawn.
I spoke to the bank but they said that it was in the terms of my account and they were entitled to charge this.
So I was still £300 overdrawn and the cycle started again.
The next month I got another £300 overdraft charge, and the month after that, and the month after that.
There was no way I could cover all of these fees plus try to survive myself.
I kept in constant touch with my bank with no joy. I also tried other methods like getting a loan to cover the charges so I wouldn’t keep adding £300 to my debt every month. I couldn’t get a loan because I was self employed and my business account was very overdrawn.
My business was also in a bad patch and although I was bringing in enough money to cover my standard bills it was not enough to cover my bills and the overdraft charges and that was what lenders looked at.
Once I reached £1000 overdrawn, the bank also added another charge for being more than £1000 overdrawn. it just went on and on.
Eventually 10 months down the line my bank agreed to set up a loan to cover the overdraft. By then I had racked up £5500 in charges. So now I have a £5500 loan that I pay 15% interest on and have to pay back monthly. It will take me 5 years to clear paying nearly £200 per month.
All because I went overdrawn by £200 one month!