Fines incurred
About a year ago I misjudged how much money I had left in my account and ended up exceeding my overdraft. By quite a bit.

Anyway, my bank has a policy that you are charged £25 for every card transaction you make past the overdraft limit, plus a £28 administration fee. Which doesn't make sense in my book, because if you have so little money in the first place how are you supposed to pay the charges?

Because I rent and move a lot, I get all my letters sent to my parent's house overseas and they post it on to me, and in this case I had a sheaf of envelopes sent on. My panic increased as I kept opening them to see the same thing again and again- fines incurred. It turned out that an expensive card purchase I'd made had been taken out sooner than I expected leaving me in the (what's past red- infared?). And over the past few days I'd used my card for about a dozen little purchases, some of less than £2. And they had received the £20-odd fines too.

So I hurried down to the bank to see what could be done. I was labouring under the impression that it was all a big mix-up and I'd be acquitted when I explained the oh-so-silly mistake. No dice. I 'spoke' to a financial advisor who actually had one ear to a phone the whole time, and seemed to only be paying scant attention to what I was saying. When she informed me that I'd racked up fines of around £320 I embarrassingly burst into tears. Right in the middle of the bank. I had no income and was relying on student loans (the next one wasn't due for another month) and I not only had bills long overdue but was facing starvation!

After a few panicked phonecalls, I decided to head to the bank's other branch across town to see if they could be any more helpful. I was greeted by a chatty young employee to whom I recounted my tale of woe and was surprised by his reaction of laughing. He told me how he'd got into similar trouble when writing dodgy cheques as a student (is this the sort of thing bank employees have done?) and said that it was unfortunate but I'd have to deal with the consequences. He then went on to have quite a lengthly conversation with me about unrelated matters. When I was beginning to wonder whether he was hitting on me, his subject matter (but not his tone) abruptly changed. Anyone within earshot had probably already got bored of listening by now, as he fed me instructions not unlike these:

"So, about your fines, unfortunately there's no way around this unless you know to phone this number *whispers and writes it down*, and were aware that you had to speak to *such-and-such*. Of course, I couldn't divulge the information that would help you but if you were an employee of this bank you'd know to say *such-and-such*. Make sure you quote *more info, while writing down bullet points*. And even if I had told you this, which I haven't, you'd not be able to get a direct line unless you phoned from a branch *ushering me into his office*."

He then stood outside the door 'guarding' it while I phoned the number and proceeded to mechanically state all I could remember. To be honest, I had no idea of what I was doing, but amazingly I was told that most of my charges had been overlooked as a 'goodwill gesture' and I now only owed just over £70 (which was bad enough, but miles better than over £300!).


I'll never forget what that nice employee did for me, it was a real heart-warming example of human kindness. And I survived the charges but not without a severe ear-bashing from the folks.
(I'm not here was here on, Thu 16 Jul 2009, 14:28, 9 replies)

Aww
what a nice bloke!
(berk, Thu 16 Jul 2009, 14:32, closed)

Ahhh...
After a page of rants - this is like a fluffeh kitten :)

Have a click for making me go all gooey (and not in the pants area either).
( snee held his breath since, Thu 16 Jul 2009, 14:36, closed)

Woo, sounds like Mr Incredible helping the little old lady.

( Brandy_Bumwinkle, Thu 16 Jul 2009, 14:39, closed)

Yes!
It was just like that!

Edit: except I'm not 70
(I'm not here was here on, Thu 16 Jul 2009, 14:40, closed)

Least you could have done was
Sleep with him after that...

Oh and click BTW
(Bonzodog29 is an unemployed sponge of the worst kind, Thu 16 Jul 2009, 15:08, closed)

I Agree
You at least owe him a BJ after that.
(Panda_z is sweating like a chav in dixons, Mon 20 Jul 2009, 16:20, closed)

lol
shows you how far tits will get you.
( Shiodome has realised numbers in names aren't cool., Thu 16 Jul 2009, 17:03, closed)

Yes...
He was hitting on you. But *yay!! click* all the same!
(DownhillGardener no-one does it like that anymore, Sat 18 Jul 2009, 10:11, closed)

^
What he said.
(WillI'mNot logs in twice a year, every year, Sun 19 Jul 2009, 1:30, closed)