Banks are failing to help customers slipping into the red

I’m in one of those moods. The one where I’m beset by delusions of adequacy, I can’t work up the energy to pretend I like people, and every email is filled with doom and gloom and stories of bad behaviour. Which brings me to today’s missive from the comparison site uSwitch. According to new research, consumers have been stung with more than £300 million in unarranged overdraft fees by banks which prevent them from opting out of this costly system. I know, banks are (for the most part) upfront about charges for unauthorised overdrafts. But that doesn’t make the stats any less startling. Consider this: typically, consumers are charged £33 each time they overspend, but for 5 per cent of those affected the fees exceed £100, even though the average they were overdrawn was a mere £60. In an attempt to recoup the fees, almost half of respondents said they called their bank to complain. While