You do have to be careful about claiming back overdraft charges, as if you claim from the bank, then they can turn around and make you pay back the overdraft and have your account closed. (As Strawberry has already pointed out.) I'd rather find £80 than £1000!

Overdraft fines are ridiculous though. If you're overdrawn you pretty much are certain to be unable to pay the fine. Stupid banks.

Banks are AWFUL for claiming back money. My boyfriend had about £600 stolen from his account through card fraud, and they refused to pay it back, and made him pay for account print outs etc. It was a ridiculous price like £7 a sheet, and he never got the money back in the end anyway, because people were conveniently always unavailable etc. It was disgusting, you shouldn't have to prove to the bank you had money stolen, they should prove you didn't. It was Lloyds bank I think. But I think it has alot to do with the fact he has a student account.

I also had £500 stolen from my account (we'd both used a tampered cashpoint unknowingly one night) and my bank (Nationwide) were brilliant. They phoned me within 24hours to tell me the money had gone and ask if I'd spent it, they froze my account automatically and reimbursed the money within a couple of weeks, free of charge.

You can understand why people stuff all their money in the sofa!

Im planning on claiming back charges from royal bank of scotland. They charge me £10 when ever I go even a penny into the red, then when I clear the debt and put my account in the plus they still charge me £10 each month! I went into the branch to complain but they didnt seem to care, so now I have found a template of a letter quoting the relavant laws they could be violating, hopefully I will get some of the cash back soon.

I know how you feel. Although I haven't gone overdrawn for a few months now (touch wood lol), it did get really bad. Like you I too went overdrawn under a pound. Can't remember now. So they charge me £30. This then put me overdrawn further when they took that charge out so fined me another £30. But cos this was like the 3rd time going overdrawn in a row or whatever, they charged me yet another £30! It all snowballed.

I keep being told that I should try to claim back what they have charged me, but since I have been ok for a few months can I really complain to them now?

Yes, you can complain and request that the charges are refunded for a number of years after the fact (I forget how many). They may decide to penalise you by closing your account, however, which will be a pain in the *** as far as direct debits and any other regular payments you have coming in/out are concerned. But it shouldn't be a huge problem, as long as you aren't overdrawn. By that, I mean you want to be entirely in the black with no overdraft whatsoever (it wasn't clear from your post whether you were overdrawn over an overdraft facility or simply overdrawn over the nil mark). If you have an overdraft, wait until you can get out of the red before hitting them with the request for a refund of charges, otherwise they may take steps to close your account and hit you back with a request that you stump up any amount you're in the red, which they are perfectly within their legal rights to do as per your overdraft facility agreement, unfortunately.

Hope that helps.