60 Years of Misery...and Then You Die!!!

(For complete marks, show your working)

Alfredo starts University and sets up an account with his local high street Bank^[1]. 4 years later Alfredo finishes full-time education. On the 17th August he has exactly £0.54p in his account.

Five years later Alfredo receives a letter from a debt collection agency informing him there are outstanding monies owed to the Bank. Upon investigation, Alfredo ascertains that on the 16th April, 2008, a certain mobile phone company^[2] that Alfredo has never had (and consequently never will have) an account with tried to set up a £42 direct debit. As this amount was lacking from his account, the Bank charged a standard £38 ‘handling’ fee, sending Alfredo into his overdraft. One week later the same mobile phone company attempted to set up the same direct debit account, leading to the Bank deducting the same ‘handling’ fee.

Assuming the bank charges a monthly £28 overdraft charge for the overhead of sending a letter to an address Alfredo moved from years ago but forgot to update his details, as well as their standard 1.7% interest, and Alfredo received the debt collection letter on the 21st May 2009:

1. How much money is the Bank demanding?
2. How long did it take Alfredo to acquire previous bank statements for his account, that has now become frozen?

For extra marks:

1. How long will it take for the Bank to response to Alfredo’s letter of complaint/demand for refund?

If it helps the candidate visualise the situation better, assume, for arguments sake

1. [1] is National Westminster Bank
2. [2] is 3 mobile