Jackie you've really just hit upon how willing abbey are to get customers. I took a loan with abbey, they were one of the only banks to give me a loan. Great. But, I went overdrawn on my debit card by £50 for only a week. I didn't even know I could get overdrawn as I didn't have an overdraft and my card was not a credit card. Abbey sent me a letter saying they were charging me £20 for being over drawn. But not only that, they were going to deduct £30 from my account for every single transaction I'd made in that week on my card; regardless of how much it had been for. So for a transaction of just £5 I'd made I'd been charged thirty quid for. For being overdrawn by £50 for one week, in total abbey were going to charge me £200! Thankfully my father saw this letter abbey had sent me and we went to the bank and managed to get the charge down to £40. But I wouldn't dream of keeping my account with Abbey, had I not the loan with them. HSBC are much more reasonable if you ever get over drawn.