Co-Op bank / Ebeneezer Scrooge!

[Jag_NE]

Evening all.

Received a letter this morning 10/12 (dated 5/12) stating that my £1800 overdraft will be reduced to £300 effective 18/12, something along the lines of periodic review and not prepared to continue offering the facility at current levels.

Called up the service desk (30 minutes of my Saturday gone), turns out its some sort of computer generated annual review crap, the lad then proceeds to apply for the o/d to be reinstated at the current £1800 level (with a credit check). Result, decision sent off to underwriters and I will hear back worst case Thursday. This leaves one full working day from decision to sort out any affairs.

We tend to drift in and out of the o/d towards the end of the month but typically no more than 500 quid, sometimes much less however this month with all of the Christmas shenanigans it will end up being more than normal however it wont be anywhere near the limit. Average balance across the month will be in their favour. We never ever have any charges or problems and I receive a monthly credit report which is solid, no issues at all for many years. Not going to get into any vulgarity but we move more than average money through the account, have a decent sized loan with them and could be a good customer for other products if the right opportunity arose. Pretty pissed off from 2 perspectives:

1. 1: How can they get away with making changes at this sort of notice (note the 1 working day remark above) and provide no meaningful explanation as to why they have done this? To be honest im going to be even more pissed off if they approve the £1800 as it will be hassle for nothing. I think im going to move a few hundred quid in from another account to balance it out and just f*ck them off.

1. 2: Bigger picture. Im guessing that I am not alone in receiving one of these letters and there will be some poor bu**ers who will be fairly deep into an o/d just before Christmas and suddenly need to find a pile of cash at a weeks notice to balance the books.....i presume the bank are not acting illegally but this feels really wrong!

[Pheo]

OD facility is recallable at any time as per T&Cs. If you are in it to that much every month then potentially you Re trying on what should be an occasional facility only and they likely are concerned about your longer term credit worthiness.

So sure you can get annoyed but perhaps this is an opportunity to do a financial health check and work to get out of your OD?

[Jag_NE]

Pheo said:

OD facility is recallable at any time as per T&Cs. If you are in it to that much every month then potentially you Re trying on what should be an occasional facility only and they likely are concerned about your longer term credit worthiness.

So sure you can get annoyed but perhaps this is an opportunity to do a financial health check and work to get out of your OD?

UPDATE!

Absolute aholes have agreed to reinstate the OD indefinitely.

As I said, I have savings etc and slipping hundreds of quid into the OD from time to time is just convenient, it costs a few quid in interest and saves moving money around or needing to deal with credit card bills.

Why the fk are they bothering me with this st if I am worthy of the limit? Just do the review in the background and make a final decision in advance as to whether someone can keep the OD or not. fking amateurs.

[Taita]

Bit strong - it is all done by computer rather than a conscious effort to see you off.

Whoever designed the process probably didn't mean for it to end up like this - unintended consequences.

Glad its sorted though.

[Skyedriver]

Coop -
Their shops are poorly managed and staffed by people who wouldn't last a week in Aldi or Lidl
I would suggest their banks are the same.

It's easy enough to move banks many offer an incentive (think M&S are at the minute and TSB offer interest on current account although the rate is dropping).

[Jon39]

Skyedriver said:

Coop - Their shops are poorly managed and staffed by people who wouldn't last a week in Aldi or Lidl
I would suggest their banks are the same.

At long time ago, the Co-op held over 50% of the UK grocery market.

Your 'poorly managed' comment is very polite.

[bugmenot]

Jag_NE said:

Why the fk are they bothering me with this st if I am worthy of the limit? Just do the review in the background and make a final decision in advance as to whether someone can keep the OD or not. fking amateurs.

Their automated credit decision systems didn't approve the overdraft a £1800 limit though - an underwriter did.

[ellroy]

The co-op also like to give funds to the Labour Party, in the form of the Co-operative and Labour Party, which may, or may not, float your boat politically speaking.

[eliot]

Well given you earn reasonable money, why dont you simply not spend £500 one month and you will never need to use your overdraft. Essentially you are not living within your means if you need to use it every month.
My overdraft is equal to one months salary and it only exists in case there was ever a problem getting paid one month. I've had it for over a decade and it's never been used.