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?

emsiewill- so you claimed for bank charges not credit card?

emsiewill- so you claimed for bank charges not credit card?

Yes, bank charges. And all of them, not just everything over £12. I think the reasoning is that if the money taken is seen to be 'disproportionate' then it is breaking the terms of the contract, and is therefore unlawful and you're entitled to it all back.

Or something.

just to be clear - did you go through the charges and add it all up taking away the £12 - thereby leaving the difference as the amount the bank owes you legally?

was that clear? prolly not!

No, I went through and added up everything they had charged me over the last 6 years - the full amount, no deductions. Every last penny...

Emsiewill, I've just had a letter back from the Abbey to say that I knew what the charges were when I signed up to the account, I can go elsewhere if I like and basically bog off.

I take it I should write back saying I don't accept this?

I'm only claiming £185 fgs!

well got my 6 years of bank statements today, had a good look through and am astonished to find that up until this year i havent paid any unlawful charges, i had an authorised overdraft so cant claim for that, the only charges worth claiming for are 70 pounds in returned direct debits this june and a refused cheque, also in june, however im still going to claim, they had better not kick up a fuss, ive had that account for twenty years and im only claiming back 100 pounds!

ABadMouse...not sure where you are up to in the process (are you a name changer?). Just continue with the process as laid out on the Consumer Action website - don't be put off...

abadmouse, its a load of waffle, there is another letter template on moneysavingexpert which you can use to write another letter when they have responded in that way..at the end of the day, they are just trying it on.

Without reading through 500 posts, has anyone successfully claimed off Barclays?

without appearing too dim, can I just ask, are banks not allowed to charge more than £12.00 now then? I have just had a £39 charge for an unpaid d.d., it was my own fault as this particular one goes out on22nd of the month when everything else goes out in the first few days, and it is a fairly new insurance policy so I had forgotten. But £39 when the dd was only for 323 seems bloody excessive.

I have just sent my second letter to Barclays asking for my charges of £652 back.

I will let you all know how I get on.

FB x

It's only credit card charges that have officially been ruled unfair by the OFT, so at the moment, banks can (and obviously do) go on charging whatever they want...

congrats emsiewell

Thanks .

Am so cynical about this that I'm waiting for the cheque to clear before I write to the court to confirm that the money has been paid.

And of course I HAVE NOT paid it into an Abbey account...

The Halfax are a right load of about this. However have repeatedly challenged the 6 carges in a row which we had for £30.00 each. They "offered" to pay us some of it back, that was very good of them wasn't it. I insisted on full refund, and got the lot. Also managed to wind up poor customer sevice person, by saying "I will challenge this every single time, is it not cheaper for you just to charge £12.00, rather than having to deal with all the admin to do with this". They had no answer...
Haave since awitched to Co op bank- very ethical, they charge £11.00, so no challenge there! Shame

Emsieswill, I think the Abbey are the only ones who tell you that you can go elswhere if you don't like it. I claimed all mine from Halifax....

im now seriously looking into changing my bank account, lloyds tsb charged me 70 pounds! yes 70 for an unpaid direct debit of...19 pounds..ive typed my letter an d will send it tomorrow, just out of curiousity do i send it to the actual branch, or the customer service dept?

you have to pay £10 though don't you to get a list of the charges?

they are not allowed to charge more than 10 to give you a list of bank charges you have paid.

so anything up to £10 is allowed? on one of the letters it said you had to enclose a cheque of £10 for the list of charges.

also on MSE someone said for every letter you have to write you can claim £5. does anyone know if this is true?

yes they can charge 10 pounds, i dont know anything about claiming 5 for every letter you have to write.
my bank wrote back to me and agreed to supply the list of bank charges if i signed to agree that they would charge 10 by taking out of my bank by direct debit.

Anyone had stalling tactics from the banks?

We were told our cheque from MBNA would arrive within 10 to 14 working days well we never got it and DH phoned them on Friday (the 14th day) and it hadn't even been issued, they'd 'forgotten'.

Hmmm.....think its more of a delaying tactic myself.

Oh and forgot to add it will now take a further 10 to 14 working days to arrive!!

Can you charge them interest for the delay?

(can you see I've really got into this? lol!)