Hello,

I am sorry to hear of your situation, the same thing happened to me this week, I basically forgot about a new diret debit that was due out this monday the 15th, fortunately or so i thought i checked online on sat the 13th saw it was due and immediately transferred some funds form another acc with same bank. On monday the 15th I checked again, all was well the direct debit had been paid and i still had money in my acc. On tuesday the 16th i checked balance only to find i hd been charged £38 and the direct debit returned unpaid even though the money was in my acc from the sat.

After arguing with my bank i was told that for a d/d to be paid  the funds have to be in your acc one working day beofre the payment is due (in my case the Friday 12th) so in addition to the £38 i am being charged another £28 for going overdrawn.

If they had paid my dd i would have gone 6 pounds overdrawn and only had to pay the  £28 fee. Instead I have been charged nearly 70 quid for going £6 overdrawn. I pointed out that they have done this because it makes them more money and is completely unjustified. I am still awaiting a response form head office.

Tomorrow I have an appt at a rival bank to switch accounts.

Your charges will be similar to mine, one for the item being unpaid and one for going overdrawn. Make a complaint in writing and lodge a claim to claim it back (hopefully the test case will rule in customers favour)  which they will have to put on file pending the outcome.