I'm going to use my own circumstances as an example because I feel I cannot be atypical of the way bank charges are being used as a new stealth tax by the state. I'm not writing this for sympathy or advice but there will be many poor people made far poorer by this tax though so it is a cause for action.

Several Christmas' ago, after years of being long-term unemployed and homeless, I went to to an ATM to see if there was one last tenner to withdraw, but the machine said I could withdraw up to £350. I thought there was two possibilities, that the ATM was broken or that my relatives had paid money into my account, so I withdrew what I could and had a nice Christmas for once. The next month HBoS sent a letter to my contact address saying they had given me a free overdraft because they thought I needed it, despite the only credit to my account being my benefit money and despite me being broke at the end of each fortnight for the previous years, and despite me not asking for an overdraft.

I never wanted an overdraft as I couldn't afford one, but I didn't complain because I was desperate for the money at the time. Instead of being broke yet debt free every day I was now overdrawn to my limit and had to pay £5 interest every month - by now that interest is more than the overdraft, but fair enough, I didn't have to take the cash that Christmas and £5 a month is an almost managable debt.

The new bank charges however do away with my £5 per month interest charges. Isn't that nice of them? Instead, I have to pay either £2 or £5 a day for having an overdraft from the 6th of December. I can't tell which since I don't yet know if my overdraft is considered 'arranged ' or not since I didn't arrange it. So now they are charging me an extra £55 or £145 a month - when I remain unable to pay back the original overdraft due to living off subsitance dole money.

I realise some people don't have sympathy with the unemployed, but I was blacklisted for my opposition to war and worked all my life before that. I realise £145 a month might seem like pennies to some people, as I am related to hard-working savers who have lost far, far more financially from their pensions, but it is the difference between poverty and imprisonment to many HBoS customers. I realise I am partially at fault for withdrawing money from my account without knowing where it came from, but I accepted that and paid the monthly interest. What I don't accept is that I am now being made to pay for the banks later crass stupidity and avarice.

I am friendly with too many fire-fighters to 'burn the banks', but I am going to start targetting HBoS, their employees, their big cars and plush homes, and especially Mike Regnier, the HBoS Director of Personal Current Accounts whose evil policy of charging the extreme poor for the failings of the extreme rich is effectively government sponsored murder.

To everyone else here that is less affected, I suggest you read this -
 http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2009/10/how-to-beat-halifaxs-overdraft-chagres