News - Bank Charge Challenge in court
January 14th 2008 - Office of Fair Trading launches unfair bank charge
test case.
The OFT started a test case over unfair bank charges against the major
UK banks today. The past few years have seen ever-increasing numbers
of bank customers reclaiming charges that have been applied to their
accounts. Punitive charges of over thirty pounds for items such as unauthorised
overdrafts, bounced cheques and direct debits have been deemed as excessive
by consumer organisations and will be challenged in the case which is
expected to last a couple of weeks with the judge's decision announced
in the late spring.
Although the banks have never publicly admitted it, industry insiders
have said that the cost of a letter or overdraft can be measured in
pennies rather than the pounds which customers have been charged. The
total of reclaimed charges is estimated to be approaching the 20 million
pound mark.
While the case is in progress, the banks have been told that they
can put a hold on refund claims currently in the pipeline but consumers
are advised not to delay putting in new claims as there is a six-year
cut-off date.
find
out more on the bank charges issue (external link - opens in new
window)
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