Overdrafts...penalty charges...high street banks.

We bet you all roll your eyes when you hear those phrases don't you?

But this time we actually have some (relatively) good news to share with you all!

Firstly, Lloyds TSB has just announced that it is going to cut (yes cut!) its charges for unauthorised overdrafts!

They are one of the eight banks facing a High Court test case next year, and have decided to introduce the charges with effect from on 2 November.

Due to the continuing customer revolt against them and other leading banks, Lloyds will also cut its interest rates for unauthorised borrowing by about a third as well as lowering charges for going into the red and bouncing cheques.

Earlier this year, Lloyds TSB revealed that it had had to refund £36million of bank penalty charges to customers in the first half of 2007.

Lloyds TSB said, however, that its decision to reduce the cost of running into the red for its current account holders was simply a response to consumer feedback.

Ian Larkin of Lloyds TSB said "We want to help our customers avoid accidentally slipping into the red and are giving them the tools to do just that. We understand that it can sometimes be difficult for customers to keep tabs on their account and we want to make it easier," he said.

Of course, the cynics amongst you would say that it of course it's not an attempt to anticipate the outcome of next year's test case with the Office of Fair Trading, and that it all happens to be just good timing!

So what is Lloyds TSB going to be charging?

• Instead of charging customers £30 a day if they go into the red without permission, the bank will now charge £15 a month and then between £6 and £20 a day on a sliding scale, according to the size of the overdraft.

• Its charge for bouncing a cheque, standing order, or direct debit is going down from £35 to £20.

• And the interest rate applied to the unauthorised borrowing will be cut by about a third to bring it into line with the bank's interest rate for authorised borrowing.

• The bank believes that most of its customers who go into the red do so accidentally. So any customer in this position will be given until 3.30 pm that day to get in contact with the bank and make up the shortfall, thus avoiding any charges at all.

• To help them do this the bank is offering an extra text message service, which will alert you if you are within £50 of their overdraft limit, or if you have actually gone over it.

"Customers who do accidentally go over their limit, will be better off as they have the chance to top up their account and get themselves back on track," said Mr Larkin.

The move by Lloyds TSB was greeted with scepticism (unsurprisingly!) by the Consumer Action Group (CAG), which has been leading the customer revolt against bank charges.

Marc Gander of the CAG said the revised charges were still excessive. "I think they are still well over the top," he said. "On the basis that the real cost of sending a letter or bouncing a cheque is about £2.00, then the mark-up is still very high."

Another bank trying to win over its customers with regard to the bank penalty charges sage is the HSBC!

They have announced that their cash machines are to show warnings to you if your cash withdrawal threatens to take you over your overdraft limit!

"More than 95% of HSBC cash withdrawals are now made at ATMs and while you can already check your account balance before you make a withdrawal, few people do," said Joe Garner of HSBC.

"We believe that alerting customers at this point will enable them to make an informed choice about whether to proceed."

But, because life is never that simple or easy, if you are not an HSBC customer, then you won't get a warning when using the ATM as HSBC say that they have no access to your overdraft details!

The warning message comes into force at 3,500 HSBC cash machines on 1 October. The exact wording of the message that will be shown on the screen of the ATMs has yet to be decided (but perhaps you could make a few suggestions in the comments below?!)

The current HSBC charges mean that any withdrawal of more than £25 that breaches an overdraft limit imposes a charge of £25 on you. Withdrawals of more than £10 and up to £25 will be charged at the value of the withdrawal and there will be no more than one overdraft charge each day.

HSBC says that in line with its existing policy, there will be no charge at all if the unauthorized borrowing amounts to £10 or less per day, if it is the first time in six months that an overdraft limit has been breached, or if extra money is paid into the account by the end of the day to cover the withdrawal.

So, they may be small, but at least the steps that HSBC and Lloyds TSB are taking over penalty charges and overdrafts, are heading in the right direction!

Now, if we can just persuade the other big banks to follow suit...

Petition Gordon Brown about bank penalty charges!