Graduates have been advised to closely monitor their
bank accounts which come with an interest-free overdraft facility when they were studying.
Some graduates are being caught off guard when their overdraft becomes liable for fees, as many banks only offer the interest-free period for three years of university time.
One student at Cardiff University recently received a letter from NatWest informing her that she had two weeks to pay off £1,000 of her overdraft, to avoid the interest on the facility increasing to 17.5 per cent.
A spokesperson for the bank defended the letter, saying that an annual reduction of overdraft allowance is normal for such accounts.
"The stepping down of the overdraft is part of the Graduate account and customers are advised of this when they open their student account and the point at which it converts to a Graduate account. It steps down in July each year," the representative said.
Andrew Hagger, spokesman from MoneyNet, said banks should make more effort to keep graduate account holders informed if they are going to have additional expense, especially if they wish to maintain a reputation for treating customers fairly.
