Your Overdraft Terms & Conditions

The Overdraft Terms and Conditions below apply to any overdraft on your account with effect from 2 December 2010:

Overdrafts and available funds

  1. An "overdraft" is where we lend you money when you would not otherwise have available funds to make a payment out of your current account. The “available funds” is the amount you can use to make payments out of your account each day. This will be:
    • a) the amount of credit balance that is available for you to use on your account plus the amount of any Planned Overdraft (the overdraft limit); less
    • b) the amount of card payments we have authorised but not yet taken from your account.
  2. When working out your available funds we do not include any regular or other payments that we are aware may be paid into your account.
  3. Overdrafts are always repayable “on demand.” This means that 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 also reduce your overdraft limit at any time. If we demand repayment or reduce your limit, this will usually be due to a change or anticipated change in your personal circumstances. If we can reasonably do so without prejudicing our interests, including our regulatory position, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice before making the change.
  4. We offer an overdraft “buffer” for customers whose account goes into an overdraft by only a small amount. We do not charge interest or fees on overdrafts within this buffer but if you exceed the buffer, we will charge interest on the whole amount, including the amount of the buffer. Details of the buffer are set out in our banking charges guide. If you use an overdraft to borrow money over the buffer, you will have to pay a monthly overdraft usage fee for the overdraft. This fee applies to both a Planned Overdraft and an Unplanned Overdraft and is detailed in our banking charges guide. The other charges and the amount of interest you have to pay for an overdraft depends on whether it is a Planned Overdraft or an Unplanned Overdraft and also depends on what current account you have.
  5. A “Planned Overdraft” is an overdraft up to a limit that we agree, taking into account your personal circumstances, and which you arrange with us in advance so as to increase the available funds in your account. We will provide you with the terms of any Planned Overdraft, including how long the Planned Overdraft will apply. If we do not specify a period, then your Planned Overdraft will continue indefinitely until ended by either of us. We will carry out a review of your Planned Overdraft at least once every 12 months.
  6. If you try to make a payment out of your account (for example, by card, direct debit or cheque) for which you do not have available funds, we will treat this as a request for an “Unplanned Overdraft,” or for an increase in your Unplanned Overdraft if you already have one. If your account becomes overdrawn (or goes over a limit we have agreed for a Planned Overdraft) because a payment into the account has been returned unpaid by the paying bank, we have been obliged to pay a guaranteed cheque or because we have added charges, we will also treat this as a request for an Unplanned Overdraft, or for an increase in your Unplanned Overdraft if you already have one. In each case, we will consider whether we agree to your request taking into account your personal circumstances. We will not be liable to you if we do not agree to give you an Unplanned Overdraft or increased Unplanned Overdraft.
  7. When your account goes into Unplanned Overdraft (but not when we increase one you already have), we will write to tell you we have agreed to it, but we will ignore any Unplanned Overdrafts which are repaid by the end of that day when our accounting systems are updated (this is not usually before 8pm) or any overdrafts that are within the buffer amount described above. We only provide Unplanned Overdrafts for a limited period and we tell you when you must repay one. Your Unplanned Overdraft will in any case end as soon as you have available funds again in your account (but this does not stop you requesting a new Unplanned Overdraft in future).
  8. The amount you have to pay for an overdraft depends on whether it is a Planned Overdraft or an Unplanned Overdraft. The interest rates and charges that apply are set out in our banking charges and interest rates guides, in branches and on our website.
  9. Where you do not have available funds to make a payment and we do not agree to your request for an Unplanned Overdraft or increased Unplanned Overdraft, you will not be able to make that payment (and we will tell you we have declined your request). The charges that apply are set out in our banking charges guide but we will not charge you for small payments that we decline that are less than the amount set out in the banking charges guide.