bank charges not illegal.

[wannaBe]

Just announced - bank charges are not unlawful and people will not be able to claim their money back.

Personally I didn't think it would come back saying they were. Well done to those who got them back then let's hope the banks can't claim them back.

here

What about people who have already claimed them back? They won't have to pay the bank back the money again will they?

Doesn't surprise me as banks always bloody win. I hate them with a passion.

May not be the last word on it though:

"But Lord Philips added that this was not the end of the matter as the OFT could still try to scrutinise bank charges under other parts of the regulations."

I think that charges will change, they have to really if the gov puts enough pressure on now they own/part own. The rest would have to follow.

People need to understand that some of the banks were within hours of going bust. The gov bailed them out, if they had to pay millions out how would that work exactly?

I think that they have had to be very careful, with some banks "struggling" (yet still paying bonuses ) and needing Government help, they could hardly rule that they had to pay back these overblown charges, could they? They need them onside so that they are more stable and they'll start lending again.

So 1 court ruling that the charges aren't unfair vs at least 2 previously that said they were unfair. Still seems unfair to me!

yes I agree that the banks needing to pay back billions in the current economic climate would have been a disaster.

It would also have meant the end of free banking, although that may happen anyway if future charges change.

I am going to make myself unpopular now, unauthorised overdrafts are essentially stealing. If the banks stopped charging for this they would have to charge for using a bank account, basic banking facilities would start to cost a lot of money, banks have to make money.

msrisotto if the previous two rulings had gone in favour of the banks and this one against them would you still say it was unfair?

I see your point thesockmonsterofdoom, but the charges are hardly in proportion or fair. You can be charged £30+ for going £5 overdrawn, which the bank has actually authorised anyway.

A cap on charges would be better, banks shouldn't be making most of their money out of charges, surely?

lizzy you are right, but in my experience most people that have these eccesive charges do not occasionally go £5 over their limit, they live thousands of pounds above there limit and when they no longer have access to the money in that account they go to another bank and do the same with no intention of ever repaying it.

well yeah, it seems like appealing against the answer you don't like until you get the answer you do!

Really thesockmonsterofdoom?
Blimey, I'd say that that was the banks fault for letting them get in that state then. Just stop letting them draw on the account, surely? Don't you have to provide bank statements from previous bank before you can open up another one?

I went £234 over and got charged £50.

How is that fair or in proportion.

Why don't the banks just decline the payment if the funds will cause the account to go into arrears

£2.34

lol!

Dis, that is disgraceful and exactly what I mean about them ripping people off. Because £50 is a lot to have to make up the next month.

Where I work we can remover a customers card, but only if we tell them we are going to, so assuminng they phone up and don't hang up before we have said it. There are ways of controlling spending but most accounts have normal debit cards which assume the customer is responsible for knowing if they have money or not, we are talking about adults here.I think the crack down on authorised lending has caused this though, people aren't getting lent the money they were so are just taking it anyway, and I know it a lot of cases it is to do essentials like pay the mortgage but some of the things that people want banks to fund is

I agree with thesockmonster.

Yes a £30 charge for being £5 overdrawn is disporportionate. But let's be honest - most people weren't claiming one-off £30 charges were they? Some people were trying to claim back thousands and thousands of £s. You don't incur that level of charges by going overdrawn by a fiver.

I for one do not think i should have to pay for other peoples' ineptitude with money.

why don't banks just stop you going over your limit? They can. What they do with us [dh has been getting paid erratically since the recession started] is let us go about 50 quid over, then stop our cards. Well stop them before they go over then. Yes I know it us up to us to be careful but sometimes you can't anticipate when a debit is going to go out and mistakes happen towards the end of the month. The bank then gets 25 quid off us, even if we have gone over by one pound [often what tips us over the edge is the overdraft fee anyway]

It is obvious that the bank doesn't stop our cards until they can charge us the fee. That is completely immoral and has no other motive other than to make more money from our misfortune.

dis, I was about to say how can you blah di blah blah, but then I noticed typing error, you are right that is shocking.

I don't pay too much attention to my account so it is possible that i'd go overdrawn. I used to have a block on it so that i couldn't but i had to remove it for my credit rating so in that way it's not fair.

and yes, I think there should be some leeway wrt going overdrawn by a small amount, although having said that the terms and conditions of a bank account do set out the level of charging for going overdrawn, but people rarely read such documents and often find out the hard way.

But people shouldn't be able to claim back thousands in charges - I know someone who claimed back 8 grand

Be interesting to see if the banks can reclaim that money - I would imagine they can.