Unbelievable Bank charges

[chilliwitch]

My fixed rate on my mortgage ended this month and my new mortgage started,the first payment was higher than I thought it would be and therefore took me over my overdraft.I have just received my bank statement from the delightful Santander(whom i have had no end of problems with)and I have a total of £193 worth of charges this month,because a few of my direct debits weren't paid and i went over my agreed overdraft limit they have charged me between £5-£35 per direct debit unpaid on top of the charge for going over my overdraft.They even allowed payments for petrol etc to come out of my account when i didnt have enough to cover it.I understand them charging me and am quite happy to pay some kind of fee as it was my fault but this is a horrendous amount of money and they shouldnt have authorised payments when they knew there was no money in my account.
Like I said I know it was my fault but its the first time I've ever been over my overdraft and too charge a fee for each unpaid dd seems ludicrous.
Can I claim any of these back?

[ChuckFickens]

"They even allowed payments for petrol etc to come out of my account when i didnt have enough to cover it"

It's called a floor limit on debit cards, authorisation is only requested if the charge is over a certain amount, anything under that amount is authorised automatically and the bank has to honour it.

[factor-fiction]

"They even allowed payments for petrol etc to come out of my account when i didnt have enough to cover it"

Would you have returned the petrol then if your card had been rejected?

If it's your first time then if you ask politely but firmly they may reduce them or even waive them. You could then, if necessary, threaten to take your overdraft elsewhere.

But those are their charges you signed up to and they'll say it's up to you to manage your finances

[Hymie]

In answer to your specific question (Can I claim any of these back?) – the answer is no.

You now know why banks make so much money; you are not the first person to fall foul of exceeding your overdraft limit to discover what a costly mistake this is, and you won’t be the last.

Get the account back above the overdraft limit ASAP – the terms of the account will almost certainly charge for the time that the account is overdrawn, plus any additional fees applicable for payments from the overdrawn account. So even if you stop spending from the account, but leave it over the overdraft limit, it will still cost you dear.

See if you can’t find a better mortgage deal – when my last mortgage deal was ending, my lender advised me of this with plenty of time to shop around. In the end, I ended up swapping to another mortgage deal with the same lender (rather than going on their default mortgage – which would have resulted in higher charges).