Young family charged £1,000 in fees after going overdrawn... by 8p!

• 'Unwanted' upgrade to silver account incurred charges
  

A young family has been forced to pay more than £1,000 in bank charges after becoming overdrawn by just 8p.

Angela Hannibal, 21, and Wayne Green, 23, claim they are facing homelessness after the charges from Lloyds TSB spiralled out of control.

Miss Hannibal, from Colchester, Essex, opened a basic current account with the bank when she was 15 but in 2008 it was upgraded to a 'silver' account.

Troubled: Angela Hannibal, 21, and partner Wayne Green, 23, say they have been hit with more than £1,000 in overdraft charges by Lloyds TSB after a problem with Angela's account

For an £8 monthly payment, the new account offered a range of benefits to the customer, such as travel insurance, mobile phone insurance and breakdown cover.

But Miss Hannibal said that after the monthly charge for the service was taken out, she was left with an unauthorised overdraft of 8p and ordered to pay a penalty of £170.

Struggling to pay her bills and the rent, Miss Hannibal offered to pay the bank charge at a rate of £30 a month.

However, she said that before the debt was paid, even more charges were added and she and her partner have now shelled out £1000 in instalments and lump sums since 2008.

The couple, who had a baby daughter Ashlyn two weeks ago, still owe £700 and the young mum said she is still being charged £10 a day for the overdrawn account, which she has not used since 2008.

Now the family are facing homelessness after Mr Green was made redundant and can no longer keep up the payments to the bank.

He said: 'Because we have been paying so much to Lloyds and now I have lost my job, we have been struggling to keep up our rent and council tax payments.

'Angela didn't even want the silver account and would have been happy with just a basic bank account.

'So we are paying all this money out for the sake of an 8p debt which wasn't our fault.'

Charges: Lloyds TSB charged the family more than £1,000 in penalties after they went overdrawn by just 8p (file picture)

The couple said they have visited Lloyds TSB nearly every week to try to find a solution but have been unable to resolve the problem.

A spokesman for Lloyds TSB said: ‘We are sorry for the distress that this has caused and we are working with Miss Hannibal to resolve this.

'We always work closely with any customer who is facing financial difficulty and have a range of measures in place to help.

'We have been in close contact with Miss Hannibal to help her manage her finances, including waiving a number of fees.

‘The original charge of £34 relates to an initial unauthorised overdraft of £10.08, caused by spending on Miss Hannibal’s account.

'Miss Hannibal did credit her account once she used her unplanned overdraft in that month, but this was not sufficient to clear the debt but as a gesture of goodwill we waived half of the fees due that month.

‘Where additional charges have accrued on the account it has been as a result of continued use of the unplanned overdraft facility.

‘We are making contact with Miss Hannibal again to discuss her situation, what steps can be taken to resolve it and how we can work together.’