bank charges not illegal.

[wannaBe]

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

Well, part of me is not happy (damn you Halifax! I want my money back!) but then, if they did suddenly have to pay out millions of claims, spend time and money processing and assessing claims, it would be very damaging. My DB works for one of the large high street banks, and has just been told that a few hundred people are being laid off. So, add this burden on and it could lead to even MORE people losing their jobs.
The other thing is, banking in this country is free. I was chatting to my cousin (who lives in South Africa) and they have to pay for EVERYTHING. You pay a 10% charge everytime you withdraw, you pay when you make transfers, deposit money, have direct debits, cash cheques, write cheques - pretty much any time you use your bank, you pay. We don't have that sort of burden, and if it means that occassionally when I am particularly dim/broke, I go over my overdraft and have to pay £30, then so be it.

However, the banks themselves need to be more stringent around stopping people from going over their overdrafts and not lend money like confetti to people who are not particularly responsible or careful with money. And, on the flipside, people should be more responsible themselves (including me).

"I don't pay too much attention to my account so it is possible that i'd go overdrawn." And that is nobody else's responsibility but yours.

And if banks stopped allowing unauthorized overdrafts people would incur the charges elsewhere, from their mortgage companies/other companies whose direct debits bounce, so you would just be moving the problem on to other companies - it wouldn't resolve the issue.

I agree with sockmonster...

If you stay in the black and don't go overdrawn you should not be penalised. If banks can't charge customers for going overdrawn the revenue will have to come from somewhere and the punishment will be on those who dont go overdrawn..

I come from a country where bank charges are phenomenal - if they could charge for air in the banks they would! - charges for depositing money, using ATMs, writing cheques - it is limitless and penalises those on a lower income who don't go overdrawn ..

Arguably, as banks can't/don't charge for regular things, it is in their best interests to allow people to go over and charge disproportionate amounts, hence they allow it.

I actually find peoples opinions on this very interesting, and am in for a very interesting night at work tonight, So the more I know about how others actually feel about this the more I will be prepared for the large volume of abuse I am now expecting to recieve on the end of the phone later.

Quite right too IMO.

"Individuals can avoid any charge by putting their overdraft arrangements in place first."

Those who received payments from banks before the test case started will keep their money, because these pay-outs were made as "goodwill gestures".

If they didn't pay the stuff that was going to take you overdrawn you'd be pissed off too.

At the end of the day why is it up to the bank to tell you when you have run out of money, you should know. People need to take more responsiblity and then the banks could help the people who are actualy in trouble through no fault of their own.