Overdrafts

An Arranged Overdraft is an overdraft up to an agreed limit, which you arrange with us in advance.

• Perfect for short-term borrowing
• No set-up fee, and you'll only pay fees and interest if you use the overdraft
• Increase, decrease or cancel your overdraft whenever you want
• Interest and fee free overdrafts are available on all our current accounts except the Under 19s, Cash and Classic Essentials Accounts
• You must be 18 to apply for an overdraft

Interest and Fee-Free overdraft limits vary depending on the account you have:

Classic and Classic Plus - £35

Silver - £60

Platinum - £310

Student - £1510

Graduate Yr 1 - £2010
Graduate Yr 2 - £1510
Graduate Yr 3 - £1010

If you have an Arranged Overdraft and you don’t borrow more than any interest and fee-free amount, you won't be charged fees or interest.

But if you borrow more than any interest and fee-free amount, you will be charged:

1. Arranged Overdraft fees - Monthly Overdraft Usage Fee of £6; plus
2. Interest on this additional amount

The overdraft interest rate above your interest and fee free limit is:

You won't pay any fees or interest if you borrow £10 or less using an Unarranged Overdraft.

If you borrow more than the £10 buffer, you will pay:

1. A Monthly Overdraft Usage Fee of £6 (unless you have already paid this by using an Arranged Overdraft). You'll only pay this fee once in a monthly billing period no matter how many times you go overdrawn in that month.

2. Interest on the whole amount.

3. Daily fees (maximum of 8 daily fees in a monthly billing period). These vary depending on the amount you are overdrawn.

Daily fees

The daily Unarranged Overdraft fees vary depending on the amount you borrow. The fees are:

Returned Item Fees

If you don't have enough money in your account to make a payment and we decline your request for an Unarranged Overdraft, you will not be able to make that payment (it will be refused due a lack of funds). We will write to tell you we have declined your request and will charge you a Returned Item Fee of £10 per item (max 3 per day).

We’ll never charge you more than £80 each monthly billing period for the total of all these fees:

• Unarranged Overdraft Daily Usage Fees
• Unarranged Monthly Overdraft Usage Fee
• Unarranged Overdraft interest
• Returned Item Fees

To make comparing bank products easier for you, banks are setting a maximum monthly charge for unarranged borrowing fees. Each bank may charge different fees, but all banks are explaining it the same way, with the same wording.

Full details of our fees and charges can be found in our Banking Charges Guide.

As well as easy access to your bank account balance and other information through cash machines, Internet and Mobile Banking, we offer some specific services to help you avoid unnecessary overdraft charges:

• £10 Overdraft Buffer - If you try to make a payment and you don’t have enough money in your account (including your Arranged Overdraft if you have one), we’ll treat this as a request for an Unarranged Overdraft. If it’s authorised and you use £10 or less, you won’t be charged fees or interest on the amount you’ve borrowed. If you use more than £10 you’ll get charged interest and fees on the full amount.
• Grace Period - Our Grace Period means that you have until 10pm (UK time) to pay enough money into your account to avoid any Arranged and Unarranged Overdraft fees and interest that we may charge that day. The money needs to be immediately available to use, so you could transfer money from another account you have with us by Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, Telephone Banking, paying in cash over the counter in branch or transferring the funds from another provider.
• Retry Periods - Our Retry Periods mean that if you don’t have enough money in your account to allow us to pay Direct Debits, cheques, standing orders and future dated payments, we’ll give you extra time to put money into your account to allow us to make these payments.

For Direct Debits and cheques, we’ll try to take the payment:

• Shortly after midnight on the due date or next working day
• Again after 2.30pm that same day

For standing orders and future dated payments, we’ll also try a third time shortly after midnight the next working day after we first tried to make the payment.

The money needs to be immediately available to use, so you could transfer money from another account you have with us by Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, Telephone Banking or by paying in cash over the counter in a branch. If you do deposit enough money into your account to meet the payment that you wish to make, the payment will be made and you won’t incur a Returned Item Fee.

If you don’t have enough money in your account to pay a standing order three times in a row, we’ll cancel it. For example, if you have a monthly standing order and don’t have enough money to pay it three months in a row, we’ll cancel it after this happens.

Control is a service you pay for that helps you avoid overdraft fees and keep a limit on your spending. It's ideal for you if you often go over your overdraft limit and get hit with unexpected charges.

• For £10 a month, stop your account from going into an unarranged overdraft
• You won't go accidentally overdrawn - unless you spend money somewhere we can't check your balance, like on a plane or when paying by contactless
• If you do go overdrawn, we won't charge you overdraft fees or returned item fees (although you will be charged interest)
• You can still have an arranged overdraft, subject to application and approval

With Control, if you try to pay for something when there's not enough money in your account to cover it, we'll automatically stop the transaction going ahead. This includes:

• Visa Debit Cards used in shops and online
• Cash machine withdrawals
• Direct Debits (including mortgages, loans and rent)
• Standing Orders

Sometimes we can't stop the payment, for example if you use your card where either the retailer doesn't or can't check with us - like if the transaction amount is very low or you are on a plane. If this means you go into unarranged overdraft, then we still won't charge you the daily or monthly fees, although we will charge you interest and the arranged overdraft usage fee.

Important things to bear in mind

• Your mortgage or rent, loan and credit card repayments and utility bills won't be paid if they would take you over your limit
• Control applies to new transactions only. Any unprocessed payments or outstanding fees and charges you have when you register for Control will still be processed, even if this takes you into an unarranged overdraft. In this case the usual fees and charges will apply

New customer? Choose Control when you open your bank account. (Control cannot be applied for online)

Existing customer? Add Control to your account at any time by phone or at your nearest branch.

• All overdrafts are subject to application and approval, even those available as a benefit of your current account
• How much we lend depends on our assessment of your personal circumstances
• We'll review your arranged overdraft at least once every 12 months
• If we don't specify an end date, your arranged overdraft will continue until ended by either of us
• All overdrafts are repayable on demand. This means we can ask you to repay all or part of your overdraft (and any interest or charges) at any time, even if we have agreed a period for the overdraft with you
• We can reduce your overdraft limit at any time
• We will normally give 30 days notice before making any changes

If you exceed your agreed overdraft limit there could be some serious consequences:

• The total cost of your debt will go up because you'll pay extra interest and charges
• Your credit rating and your ability to obtain credit in the future may be affected
• We may take legal action against you