there are many reasons why an account has had a charge applied to them and charges vary in size. the biggest charge I had was £160 and then 2 days later £60 was taken the following month £30 was added because of those charges. even though the court had ordered a stay on my case and the bank wasnt allowed to but done it anyway.
you can get charged if:
your account goes below zero from a withdrawal/payment to a 3rd party
interest takes you overdrawn
third party error
a unconcious decision (i.e drunk)
bank error
fraud
many other ways all of which do not matter. I have explained to you 6 times now about bank charges, I have linked a forum for you to clue yourself up but you seem to have your mind made up on this so I will leave you too it.
Which bank do you work for, or where is your professional association with the financial services industry?
You fail to understand that by signing up for a bank account, you agree to adhere to the terms and conditions. The bank is even kind enough to give you a copy of them, including your legal redress with the Financial Ombudsman if you have any issues that are not resolved by the bank to your satisfaction. Signing on the dotted line and making a deposit to your account renders the account active, and making the account active is taken as an implicit assumption that you have agreed to these terms. It even explains that in the terms, so you can't say they forced the bank account on you!
I'll go through each of your criteria for charges in detail
your account goes below zero from a withdrawal/payment to a 3rd party
You agreed to keep your account in credit. In fact any Direct Debit would also be accompanied by a DD mandate and a copy of the Direct Debit terms and conditions, including the part where you authorise the payee to debit your account for amounts you have agreed to - minimum 14 days notice of course.
interest takes you overdrawn
The only time this would happen would be if you had accrued debit interest, and this only accrues on overdrafts, cue another set of terms you agreed to. You even get a letter from the bank when you set up or amend your overdraft, and this re-iterates that your overdraft is payable on demand and the agreed limit.
Depends what you mean on this. If, for example, a Direct Debit is paid twice, you are covered by the Direct Debit guarantee. If you contact your bank and query the debit, they will not levy any charges, and may offer you a temporary overdraft if your credit rating will support it and it looks like you have a genuine point. This requires a degree of pro-activity from yourself though, the bank won't just magic some extra cash for you out of thin air.
a unconcious decision (i.e drunk)
Any credibility at making a salient point goes out the window here. If I was to get drunk and gamble away my car playing poker online, would I blame the manufacturer of my car for allowing me to own one to gamble it away? Or what about my ISP for allowing me to go online? It's their fault, they should be monitoring things for me.
First one - wrong, wrong, wrong. Second one - not if you've done everything to keep your account details safe and the funds were taken by some other means. Internet banking fraud is a good example, a bank will probably not charge you if you've been diligent about every aspect of your online banking, and it has been a failing in their security that has allowed the removal of funds. If you've been stupid enough to give your password to someone who calls saying there is a pigeon in your account, it's your fault and you shouldn't be complaining
I would suggest that you read something definitive on bank charges, the forum you've quoted is simply a means for aggrieved customers with poor financial acumen to moan about how they're going to take down the banks - not once is there anything from an actual verifiable bank employee. A forum is by no means a valid place to learn anything, if that was the case I would have left this thread believing many untruths and white lies.
For the record, I am a bank employee, and I am completely in favour of bank charges. Retail accounts kept in credit generally do not make money, the credit balances are generally too marginal to make any return on, especially when you offset it against the service charges for running the account. I also pay for my bank account, I feel the range of services offered for a nominal fee saves me a good deal of money against a low cost to the bank - insurance costs nothing to the grantor unless a claim is made.