FAO Yorkshire Building Society account holders

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Got some paperwork through, and it had a "Charitable Pence Donation" charge on it.

So rang them up and they were quite apologetic. Apparently previously they auto enrolled you into this program but have since realised that customers like to quite explicitly opt in as opposed to some small print as has happened here. So they have stopped doing this now.

Anyway, this scheme is where they very cheekily round up your interest to the nearest pound and then charge you that if a debt product/round down if saving interest, this money is then 'donated to a good cause' chosen by them.

If this is on your annual statement and you don't want to be in it, just call them.

[All that jazz]

Yes, they've been doing that for years. I noticed it on my statement one year despite having never asked them nor given them permission to hand over my savings to their favourite charities. I raised the issue in branch with them one day and requested that it be refunded and no further "donations" taken. The woman had the cheek to question why I wanted it stopped as "it's for a good cause" and "it's such a small amount that you won't even notice it". Unbelievable! I was that incensed over it that I transferred all my savings out, closed the account and wrote a strong letter to the CEO. I received back a generic letter along the lines of "sorry you feel this way.... we surveyed our customers and 99% said they were happy to have the money taken..... we double our customer's donations..... it's for a really good cause as the donation saves 123,000 children's lives every year" etc etc.

I have a strong dislike for most charities and how they operate, mainly from witnessing how their constant hounding for money caused a great deal of distress to my Old Dear when she was alive.