You are missing the point Linford, If it said in the terms and conditions across all banks "if you go overdrawn we will shoot you " and you had a situation where you had a client who did not pay you in time so you were unable to meet your commitments as a result would you hold your hands up and say, well it was in the terms and conditions and i knew about this so where do you want me to come to be shot. I think not, The principle is the same, they are legally not allowed to make a profit from a default, disguising it as a service is a noncence and the unfair terms in consumer contracts act deals with this in detail.and we quote the relevant terms when dealing with claims. There are tens of thousands of people who for one reason or another often cannot meet their commitments, They are the most vunerable people in society and it is these most vulnerable people that the banks hit hardest, "kick them when they are down". springs to mind. "You didn't have £10 to pay that bill you only had £9, so we won't pay it but we want £35 for doing so and we will take that irrespective of whether you have funds in your account and if that makes you unable to pay further commitments then we will charge you for bouncing them as well, yours your wonderful bank."

Don't say you only have to ring them and let them know as that is a load of rubbish. If you ring and tell them you are having problems, if you are not able to get an overdraft extention, they won't agree to waive the charges. They treat us as a purse that they can dip into whenever they like.

Why should those in the hardest financial situation subsidise those in the best by being penalised and stolen from by the banks.