At Northern Bank we want to make sure you have the information you need to keep your account in credit or within your agreed overdraft limit.
As a responsible lender, we will always try to find the best ways for you to manage your money. If you think you may go overdrawn, please talk to us first. We may be able to offer you an overdraft to keep the charges you have to pay as low as possible.
It is important to remember that the charges shown in this section do not apply when you keep your account in credit or within your agreed overdraft limit.
We offer a range of ways to keep track of your account.
- If you have to pay any charges, we will tell you about them before we take them from your account.
- Each month we will send you a statement that clearly sets out the overdraft rates that apply to you. The statement will give details of any changes to the rate and information that applies if you go overdrawn or over an unarranged overdraft limit.
- We offer email and text alerts to tell you when your balance falls below an agreed level.
- When possible, we will use ‘Faster Payments’ to speed through payments to or from your account.
- To keep you fully up to date with your account, you can get your balance and information about recent payments from our cash machines, and through telephone and internet banking.
Our charging structure is simple.
- We only apply one referral fee (see the table below) on any day that a payment causes you to go overdrawn or over an arranged overdraft limit.
- We will not apply more than five referral fees in any month.
- We will charge one unpaid fee for every payment that we refuse to make.
These fees apply to all our personal current accounts, except our Northern Personal Access and Northern Discovery accounts where we don’t charge a referral fee or an unpaid fee.
Overdrafts and bank charges
You may have to pay charges if you use one of our Personal Current Account packages (excluding our Northern Personal Access and Northern Discovery accounts) to make payments when:
- you do not have enough money in your account and have not agreed a formal overdraft arrangement with us; or
- the payment takes you over the limit of your formal overdraft arrangement.
The table below gives some examples of our charges for making payments from your account when you haven’t enough money.
We developed these examples with the Office of Fair Trading and leading consumer groups to help you to think about how changing the way you use your account can affect the amount we may charge you.
These examples are meant to show how different actions can result in different charges. They are only examples so you shouldn’t see them as actions you might take and charges you might have to pay.
We may not allow you to use your account in the ways shown below. You should avoid going overdrawn wherever possible and you should contact us if you need help to manage your account.
We could add other charges and interest to your account if you try to make payments when you do not have enough money.
Get details of all the charges and interest rates for these accounts here
Choose an example below which shows how you might manage your current account. If you have recent bank statements, use these to help you choose. Once you have worked out reasons why you might be charged, it could help you to avoid charges in future.
| 1 |
We refuse a payment from your account because there is not enough money in your account. |
£28 |
| 2 |
A payment from your account takes you into an unarranged overdraft by less than £10.
You are overdrawn for one day during the month. |
£20 |
| 3 |
A payment from your account takes you into an unarranged overdraft and you make another payment from the account while you are overdrawn.
You are overdrawn for two days in a row during the month. |
£70 |
| 4 |
A payment from your account takes you into an unarranged overdraft, and you make nine more payments from the account while you are overdrawn.
You are overdrawn for 10 days in a row during the month. |
£145 |
| 5 |
A payment from your account takes you into an unarranged overdraft. You are overdrawn for one day.
However, on three more occasions during the month, a payment takes you into an unarranged overdraft. On each of these occasions you are overdrawn for three days in a row. |
£120 |
| 6 |
A payment from your account takes you into an unarranged overdraft. You are overdrawn for 21 days in a row during the month and you make 12 more payments from the account while you are overdrawn. |
£145 |
Useful links
Consumer Direct website 
Useful downloads
Account comparison chart provided by Consumer Direct 