Did you know that bank charges of more than £12.00 have been ruled as unfair by the OFT and you can claim your money back? And your claim can cover the last 6 years?

[tigermoth]

I've cut and pasted the article that appeared in Telegraph money section:

Get your money back from the bank

The Office of Fair Trading's ruling that bank penalty charges of more than £12 are unfair could spark a flood of complaints from customers seeking compensation for unjustified charges over several years.

Earlier this month the OFT ruled that penalty charges for late payments on credit cards, unauthorised overdrafts, unpaid direct debits and standing orders and missed payment fees on store cards and mortgages were deemed unfair if they exceeded £12.

Last weekend, this paper revealed that this could lead to redress for bank customers who have been erroneously charged for the past six years.

The OFT's initiative strengthens the case of anyone who has seen penalty charges automatically deducted from their accounts after falling foul of bank and building society small print. As with any legal proceedings, there is not a 100 per cent guarantee that you will win, but lawyers and consumer groups reckon the OFT's position means judges will be far more likely to accept arguments that penalties of more than £12 amount to unfair contract terms that cannot be enforced.

The process for reclaiming the unfair charges from your bank is straightforward.

First your bank is obliged to supply you on demand with a list of all charges you have paid in the past six years under the Data Protection Act. You then need to write demanding the bank repays the unfair charges. If that is not successful, you can take the matter further by either going to the small claims court of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

More details on how to claim and pro forma letters are available on the website of Which?, the consumer group.

"Claiming back these unfair charges from the banks is a relatively straightforward process," says Emma Bandey, a personal finance campaigner at Which? "These charges are nothing but an easy money-spinner for the banks."

I am thinking of doing this. What a windfall if I am successful!

But I am worried about something. If I push for this, and my bank give me my money back, is there a risk that the bank might start to get difficult with me? I don't want them to mysteriously refuse to send me a new cheque book, refuse to extend my overdraft limit or refuse a loan. Do you think there is a risk that banks might start doing this to customers who claim their charges back?

my bank statements arrived yesterday morning, I read through them last night and over the past 4 years had been charged a wopping £4,487.17, the fact that I was charged was justified, but the amount wasn't.

Each time I was being charged £30.00. We were in a financial mess at the time, due to dh being self-employed, but one month that took out £600.00 how the heck were we supposed to get ourselves straight with those type of charges.

So, shall I just do 'letter 2' now and put that amount in, or should I list each individual charge and date.

Do you think I have a case ? any advise welcome today please, I would like to send letter of this afternoon.

I recieved a letter back from Barclays within 2 weeks to say that my statements are being sorted and will sent to me ASAP. Didn;t send a cheque either

whoops its me not MIsdee

Anyone asked First Direct. They have probably charged us £100 due to us being crap at managing household account.

Is it only credit cards then?

can anyone advise me - thanks

can anyone advise me - thanks

\link{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/5064830.stm\Heard this on Money Box this weekend}

I think it's worth keeping up to date with news about banks closing accounts. According to what I read in the Consumer Action Group website, if a bank closes your account, this will affect your credit rating. And according to the website, this is illegal and bad practice too.

If you get a county court judgement against you, for instance, you will have gone through a full legal process. Banks do not have to go through any legal process to close an account, so they in effect have arbitary power over people's credit ratings, according to the website.

The website message was talking about this in relation to banks closing accounts due to bad management of them over some time - not as a simple retaliation against people asking for their money back.

I am going to press ahead with my claim - I am still at the first letter of requesting a refund stage. I will see how things go. I don't mind waiting till this latest problem has been resolved. I am not running up charges on my accounts now and haven't for a while, and I do not intend to personally get nasty with anyone at customer services. I wonder if the the bank would still find justification in closing my account? And what is the legal position about the timing of this news - is it legal for them to pay a full refund and ONLY afterwards tell you? I would have thought they are at least compelled to tell you that the the refund comes with the condition that you close your account.

And what about people who have since closed their accounts with a bank and then ask for a refund? The banks can't use that closure tactic on them :)

another thought has occurred to me, in my mission to get all my statements from my 3 accounts, I have had to ask serveral times for them.

This has been treated by the bank as a complaint, when in fact it is a simple request. Customer services operaters will routinely fill in a complaint form for me and send me a letter noting my 'complaint'. I wonder why they are so eager to log complaints from customers like me?

Are they are hoping to use this as 'proof' of a breakdown in relationship to justify them closing accounts? hmm.....

Just got my refund of £250 from hsbc.

golds - I think you should look on one of the websites mentioned, like the consumer action group one - people have posted copies of the actual letters they have sent to the banks. Hope this helps and good luck!

excellent news, drosphila - is that the amount you requested? if so, good on you!

Yes it is.. They had achange system whereby they didn't charge you for every month you went overdrawn but the accumalated it all at the end of a 5 mths (I think) period and gave you the big bill. DP started getting paid mid month which led us to go OD everymonth for a short time.

I've just got my refund from HSBC too - £117.50

Just about to start adding up 6 years worth of dps bank charges from the hsbc think it will run into thousands will be interesting to see if we get a refund from them.

Just got my refund from Halifax for £118.00. Should think so too, first mistake (went over my overdraft by £46 for four days) ever made - on maternity leave. Just wrote them a letter after watching GMTV this week when this topic was raised.

OMG! I was charged £35 each for 3 cheques I wrote to the Nursery. They bounced coz their system dealt with the debits BEFORE the credits (I transferred the money to account an hour after I hadned the cheques over)! AND they charged me a further £30 for going over ym overdraft for 6hours!!!!!!!!!!! That was HBOS.

They refunded half of it as a "goodwill gesture" after I wetn ballistic on the phone.

I've been charged £30 for being £8 over drawn for a few hours too!!! OMG I will SO be writing to them!

DO I need to have a record of all the charges?

How can thye still keep their charges so high if people can claim them back?

Just had a letter from Abbey saying we need to pay a tenner before they'll let us have the statements off microfiche to wade through - I'm going to earn this money back I think!

Toothache - I think that, as long as you know roughly when the charges were made and how much(the bank will know!), that will suffice. I sent the letter on a wed and had the reply by the fri!

ok, just checked our lloyd's and there's £2239 of cahrges anyhow, has any one claimed form them? and this is our main joint account, we don't have any other joint accounts so basiclaly can't manage wihtout it - are they allowed to close the account/will they close the account if I try to claim our/some of our money back - i'd be more than happy with half of that amount back tbh I unsderstand why we were charged - it just didn't help when month after month in effect we were being charged for our charges taking us o/d.

(thankfully now we've got a much tighter control and no longer get charged)

ffs. I claimed for a £30 quid charge last week. I just clicked on the link below to send the appropriate letters in the right order. Good luck.here

ffs. I claimed for a £30 quid charge last week. I just clicked on the link below to send the appropriate letters in the right order. Good luck.

thanks hon do u know if u can claim charges on accounts which are closed already - i'm assuming not, and it's not like we'll be counting on getting any money back, but if we did it would certianly help to pay our debts off.

All done via email with first direct - they sent me my last 6 years worth of statements via DHL (no charge), I ploughed through them highlighting all bank charges, asked for £407 back, was offered £435 in full and final settlement! Signed form and money was deposited into my account 2 days ago!