Forums Forums Wirral Information Law And Your Rights bank charges

does any one have any idea if you can still claim for bank charges the last thing i heard it was going to court can anyone help

i have put a claim my self its still in court has been for a year

there's is a stop on them for a while


Google bank charge letter

hears some info on it.

click hear---> http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

dont go overdrawn

The law behind this

The core argument is that banks should only impose charges which are in proportion to their costs. This is because under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations the charge should not exceed the cost to the provider.


All in all, this means, I and many others believe, bank charges are unlawful, or so as the banks had no right to grab your cash, but still did it, you’re entitled to get it back.

The banks’ primary argument has been that ‘unfair contract’ terms don’t apply to bank charges, but the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) disagreed so started the High Court test case to find out. Yet that was blown out of the water by the judge, who in in Apr 08 decided that bank charges are governmed by these rules. A great step forward for reclaimers.

The next stage is for the OFT to assess whether it thinks bank charges are actually unfair, and we are expecting to hear more on this on in the next few months.
Isn’t it in the terms and conditions though?
Of course, if you had read the terms & conditions when you got your back account, this was in there. Yet that’s irrelevant: a contract must be written within the law, and they can’t enforce a contract with legally unfair terms. Ultimately, if it isn't proportionate then it's unlawful, and thus you've a right to your money back. Let me use my favourite analogy for this:




If someone told you they were about to punch you before smacking you; it doesn’t make it legal. The same’s true with bank charges.






No one’s saying there shouldn’t be bank charges, just that they are set massively too high; a few pounds would be more appropriate. Yet it’s important to remember, the banks have designed the charges to make them serious cash

BULLSHIT, YOU SHOULDN`T TAKE MONEY WITHOUT ASKING, SO YEAH, BRING ON WITH THE BANK CHARGES :NO:

Don`t go over the limit, you don`t get charged, simple.

did you not get CHARGED by your bank. for takeing money with out asking.


(first call????)

nope, that was TESCO insurance, i cancelled, they still tried to take dough! Returned direct debit pissed my bank off

Here you go, just re do it with your names



[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR ADDRESS]
[DATE]
[BANK NAME]
[BANK ADDRESS]

Dear Sir/Madam

Penalty & unfair charges – request for refund for [Your name, sort code and account number].

[Details of charges]

0n 5 April 2006 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that default charges which are set at more than £12 will be presumed to be unfair and unenforceable in terms of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI. 1999/2083). Charges above this sum will be subject to legal action by the OFT (press release 68/06 – online here: http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/2006/68-06.htm).

The OFT stated that a charge is not fair simply because it is below this sum, and I believe that a reasonable charge would be 50 pence for the reasons set out below. Please refund my charges as a matter of urgency.

I would respectfully submit that if your organization does not agree to immediately refund all unfair charges applied to my account, it will not meet the ‘fit and proper person’ test to hold a consumer credit license under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. In that eventuality, I will submit a 1974 Act complaint to the OFT.

Separately, I am of the view that your charges represent a penalty and are therefore irrecoverable at common law. In the Scottish case of Castaneda and Others v. Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (1904) 12 SLT 498 the House of Lords held that a contractual party can only recover damages for actual or liquidated losses incurred from a breach of contract. This is also the position in English law: Dunlop Pneumatic Tire Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor Co Ltd [1915] AC 79.

Your charges do not reflect any actual loss, instead they appear to represent a lucrative profit-making scheme. In particular, charges were applied after I entered into a transaction(s) without sufficient funds in my account. However, payment was declined by you, and therefore, actual loss is the cost of automatically sending me a computer generated letter. I would respectfully submit that is valued at no more than 50 pence.

UK banks have recently given evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committee on how bank charges are calculated: "The costs are going to pay for all the people we have who pursue debt, collect debt, speak to customers and chase payments. The way these charges are arrived at is by taking these total costs and making some assumptions about the volume that is going to come through to arrive at the individual charges" (2nd report, 25 January 2005, paragraph 50 – online here: http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmtreasy/274/27405.htm).

Accordingly, the charges applied to my account are not a reasonable pre-estimate of the bank’s loss in relation to my account. No-one has had to look at my account or telephone me. No one has had to collect anything. Your charges would appear to represent a device to recover global losses (for example, loan defaulters, bad debt write off, including commercial lending in, and out with, the UK).

Please refund all charges applied to my account within the next 7 days. I reserve the right to commence court proceedings without any further notice, and to seek an additional award for distress and inconvenience, together with legal expenses.

Yours faithfully

bank charges are on hold but i think you can still claim credit card charges. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/credit-card-charges

Yup, currently a test case going through the courts, so you can't currently put a claim in for bank account charges.
But as Mikeyfreedom says credit card charges are still dispute-able.