While facing an ongoing customer revolt, UK-based banking and insurance group Lloyds TSB has decided to cut its charges for unauthorized overdrafts, effective November 2, 2007, reported the BBC.
The bank will now charge customers GBP15 per month instead of GBP30 a day if they go into the red without permission, while the fee for bouncing a check will fall to GBP20 instead of GBP35. The bank is also reducing the interest rates applied to the unauthorized borrowing by about a third from its previous charges, according to the publication.
The bank, however, maintains that its decision to reduce the fees for those dipping into the red was only a response to consumer feedback, and by no means an attempt to anticipate the outcome of next year’s test case with the Office of Fair Trading, the BBC reported.
The BBC quoted Ian Larkin of Lloyds TSB as saying: We want to help our customers avoid accidentally slipping into the red and are giving them the tools to do just that. We understand that it can sometimes be difficult for customers to keep tabs on their account and we want to make it easier.