|
Victory: Banks are not beyond the law - claim unfair bank charges now
Bank charges are unfair. Reclaim them now.
The decision in the OFT case against several big name, high street banks was handed down on 24th April 2008. The result? The banks are covered by the same rules as the rest of the financial industry. This leaves the door wide open for you to claim back the charges that the bank have made for unauthorised overdrafts, represented cheques and default direct debit payments over the last 6 years.
Reclaiming is easy:
- Click on the “Start Reclaiming Now” link below. The information requested should take no longer than 2 minutes to complete.
- Pay £10.00 - this is the fee that the banks charge to release details of your bank charges over the last 6 years. You can make the payment online by credit or debit card using the link on this page.
- Sit back and let us do the work. We will obtain details of your bank charges for you. When we have received the details of your bank charges for the last 6 years, we will send you a report with details of how much you can reclaim and how we can assist you to reclaim the charges.
Start Reclaiming Now
Why can I reclaim?
If you have ever gone over your limit with your bank with an unauthorised overdraft, the chances are you will have received a letter telling you about it and requesting you to put money into your account to bring it back within limits.
The charges for sending the letter vary but are typically anywhere between £20 to £40. The actual cost to the bank of sending the computer generated letter is nothing like that. One expert has suggested its cost to the bank may be as much as £2.50, but frankly this seems generous to the banks.
By going into an unauthorised overdraft with the bank, you are breaching your agreement with the bank. The law says that the banks should only charge you what your breach of agreement has cost them. In other words, £2.50 maximum - not £20 to £40. The overcharge is illegal and that is why you can reclaim it.
The banks argument before the High Court that the charges they make for unauthorised overdrafts are not covered by the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations failed. They are covered by the rules meaning you can claim.
Start Reclaiming Now
I've heard people speaking for the banks on the news saying that the charges have not been ruled unfair. What is the position?
The OFT commenced a test case against the main high street banks. The reason was that the OFT wanted to rule on whether the charges made by the banks were fair. The banks argued that they were not covered by the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations and that they should not be subject to adjudication of fairness by the OFT.
The court judged that the banks were wrong. They were subject to the rules and the OFT could determine the fairness of the charges.
This is a clear victory for the OFT and consumers.
The strangest thing we have heard in the news was a spokesperson for the bank saying (with a straight face) words to the effect that there is no reason for the OFT to consider the charges to be unfair because "after all the banks have been charging them for years"
We would ask two questions:
1. How can it be considered fair for a bank to charge £35 for a letter that has cost them £2.50 or less to send; and
2. Why would the OFT go to the trouble of litigating against the banks if they thought the charges were fair anyway?
Claim now!
Start Reclaiming Now
Will the banks appeal?
It is widely expected that the banks will appeal against the decision of the court.
But it doesn’t matter. Claim now to recover your bank charges for the last six years.
At the current time and pending the outcome of any appeal, cases that are issued at court to recover unfair bank charges are likely to be stayed. That is to say, they are being put on hold until the court has made a decision in the appeal.
By waiting to see what happens with the appeal you could save you a £10 fee for obtaining your bank records and also a court issue fee in the event that the court decides in favour of the banks or the OFT consider that the bank charges are fair.
However, there is a very good reason to take steps now to protect your position. Due to the Limitations Act 1980, you can only claim back charges for the last six years. If you were to issue a claim today, you could claim for those charges that were made by the bank up to six years ago, but those that are even one day over six years are unlikely to be recovered. So if you wait four months, you are potentially losing out on recovering four months of unfair charges. If you issue the claim form in court, this "crystallises" the position, and enables you to claim back charges for six years from the date the claim form is issued.
In order to decide whether to issue proceedings now or to wait for the decision, you need a little bit more information relating to court issue fees.
Details of the court fees for issuing proceedings can be found by clicking here
The charge for obtaining records from the bank is a flat fee of £10.
So for example, the cost of obtaining your bank records and issuing proceedings in a case where you had been unfairly charged £2000.00 by your bank would be £10 plus £85 = £95.
If you are likely to have incurred more than £95 in bank charges in four months, it is worth claiming now.
How to claim
Starting a claim is easy. Simply complete your details by clicking the "Start Reclaiming Now" link below. You will need details of your banks address, sort code and account number. We will then send you a link to allow you to make an online payment of £10 to us by debit card or credit card. If you prefer you can send the payment to us by cheque in the post. £10 is the maximum fee required under the Data Protection Act for the release details of the charges made against you. Banks being banks, they inevitably charge this maximum fee of £10 for obtaining details of the charges.
We will then obtain your bank statements for you. We will not charge you anything extra for obtaining the statements for you. When the details have been received, we will provide a report to you and let you know whether we think it is worthwhile issuing proceedings now or waiting for the appeal of the court in the OFT test case. It really is that simple and you only pay £10
Please note that if you want to claim in respect of more than one account, you will need to complete details for each account.
Start reclaiming now for only £10
Start Reclaiming Now
Which banks are involved in the test case?
The following are banks who agreed with the OFT to take part in the test case:
- Abbey National plc
- Barclays Bank plc
- Clydesdale Bank plc
- HBOS plc
- HSBC Bank plc
- Lloyds TSB Bank plc
- Nationwide Building Society
- Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc.
This selection of banks covers the bulk of the personal current account market (estimated to be over 90 per cent) and their terms and conditions are representative of agreements used currently in the retail banking market.
You can claim against any bank whether they are in this list or not.
Start Reclaiming Now
I do not have time. Will all this take too long?
To start reclaiming, you need only take the following steps:
1. Click on the "Start Reclaiming Now" button.
2. Complete 5 questions, with details of your bank and bank account
3. Pay £10 - this can be paid by debit card or credit card online
4. That's it - leave the rest to us. We will keep you informed of the progress with obtaining details of your charges and report to you when the details have been received.
Start Reclaiming Now
Can I do this myself?
Yes. You can carry out the process yourself. If you wish to see details of how to go about reclaiming yourself, we recommend you visit Martin Lewis' Moneysaving Expert site by clicking here. It is the best site we have seen providing advice to you to do it yourself.
But why bother? Click on the link below and we will start the process for you at no charge (other than the £10 that is sent to the bank to get your records) saving you time and effort.
Start Reclaiming Now
Easy way to pay the Data Protection Fee to obtain details of your bank charges
Simply click the button below to make payment of the £10.00 fee for obtaining details from your bank of the bank charges for the last six years. As soon as we receive your payment we will take the steps necessary to obtain details of your bank charges for the last six years.
Start reclaiming bank charges - Data Protection Act records fee - £10.00
Processing charge: 5% = £0.50
Total deducted from your card: £10.50
Stay up to date with developments
The easiest way to keep up to date with developments about claiming and the test case is to subscribe to our email updates.
The informative, free newsletter will be sent approximately once per month.
Each newsletter contains a link to unsubscribe if you wish. Signing up is as easy as typing your email address in the box below and clicking "Go".
Join the ever increasing number of clients and business partners to receive the newsletter.
Start Reclaiming Now
|
|
Email this page to a friend
|
