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?

Am I the only one to be a bit worried by this ruling? I am old enough to remember the days when a bank account wasn't free, and I would hate to return to that.

When I have had overdraft charges that I felt were unfair I have written to the bank and they have always been refunded. I am always polite, explain the circumstances and why I think I shouldn't have been charged. On the other hand, if I have gone overdrawn without permission then I expect to be charged and put up and shut up!

We've just had 3 months in a row a charge of £25 by one of our credit cards and I couldn't see why. Now I've noticed that although we asked them to change the payment date to the 6th- and they said they would- it remains the 2nd. While I should have noticed, I didn't, and I have asked them to look at those charges. BUT another card I was charged on was my fault- I forgot to pay it- so I accept that I have to pay it.

There are always occasions when something goes wrong but if you regularly go overdrawn without a facility you should expect to be fined for it. End of.

I used to work in a bank and had discretion over refunding charges. If someone was polite and explained it was a mistake or whatever I would refund. If they came on the phone all lairy and shouting they never got them back.

But tallulah, the point is the charges are incredibly high. Yes fair enough to charge a small fine to cover the costs incurred to the bank, but not extortionate amounts - my bank charge £50 each time you go over your overdraft, even if its by penny's.

No, you are not the only one to be worried by the ruling tallulah - see my first post. I worry that banks may discriminate against customers who ask for big refunds by not extending other services to them, like getting cheque books and new overdrafts.

I cannot remember a time when banks charged you to have an accountd with them and I think that's a worrying scenario, too. But having thought about this for a while I think there has to be a change in the way banks make money from their customers.

Why should people who are struggling financially, or who get into a financial crisis not of their own making (redunducy, partners leaving etc) be the ones the bank makes a profit out of?

in a rush but want ot add, I know banks make a profits in lots of other ways, too. I just think this particular way is wrong.

And in my experience, I banks have tightend up on the policy of refunding charges in the last few years.

No longer will a polite phone call get you a refund. My bank give me a set number of times a year when they will refund a charge as a goodwill gesture. I was told it was three times on several occasions. After this, no matter if you write, phone, plead or rage will you get another goodwill refund, unless the charge was in error.

tallulah, it is our money that the banks are keeping. You haven't broken any law, or the ten commandments, if you go overdrawn because you made a mistake, so there is utterly no reason why it is "fair" to punish you.

It is the bank's fault, for running a system that allows you to go overdrawn, instead of just stopping the payment. They decide to "punish" you - because market forces allow them to.

Very interesting. Whilst on maternity leave last year I went overdrawn because my salary had dropped significantly in the final two months. Anyway I got stung for a shit load of money. I called abbey and spoke to a woman in the India based call centre. Tried explaining about maternity leave etc ......can they be flexible for 2 months til I go back to work....etc. She spoke excellent English but I might as well have been speaking a different language as she didn't have a clue about the system here re maternity leave. That's not her fault of course, but I was fuming. In the end I managed to speak to someone in Leeds and they agreed to refund some of the charges but on the basis that I paid more funds in (not prepared to wait 2 months even though I'd been with them for 11 years and paid in my salary every month). Rant over!

But if they don't charge people for going overdrawn without permission they will take the p$$$. Small example. The bank I worked at used to provide free duplicate statements. People were always ringing up asking for another one. Then they brought in a charge for duplicates. People rang up, and when you told them about the charge they went away to look for the original! It was just easier for them to ring up.

I agree that it's the people in most difficulty who can do without the charges- we've moved from 2 banks because of it in the past, both times following redundancy- but I still think that if you don't have charges as a disincentive there are a lot of people who will deliberately go overdrawn. Basically it is the same as someone taking money out of your purse because they are short that week.

But Tallulah - they charge you an over base rate of interest to cover the costs of borrowing the money and then can of course charge you reasonanable and justifiable administration costs - that reflect the costs they have incurred.

However how can you justify £39 (Bank of Scotland) per transaction over your overdraft limit plus a monthly account maintenance charge plus the interest. That is profiteering and if your worked out a APR would be in line with that charged by loan sharks I am sure!

agree, gomez. A smaller charge, mainly to cover admin costs, is acceptable IMO. £12.00 if fair, £39.00 isn't.

When I apply for a refund I certainly don't expect the bank to give me all the money back. But I still remember one October, some years ago now, when I incurred charges of £280.00 then an extra £120.00 because the bank refused to stop some cheques I had written being re-presented 3 days later. Money owed to me just didn't get into my account when it should have done (I was freelancing). I accept some of that was my fault, but I cannot believe the admin cost the bank £400 .

the whole system is set up around banks' needs, not customers'.
I would prefer a system that didnt let me go overdrawn, rather than one that lets me go overdrawn and then charges me.

I was looking at my bank statement and noticed a fee for £125 for charges, No idea what it wasa about so phone up. APparently I had gone over my overdraft 5 seperate times and rather than charge me the first time and Alerted me they waited till I di it 5 times and then charge me a whopping £125. I will be sending a letter asking for a refund. I have been with HSBC for over 20years and this is how they treat me.

Black Horse charged us £65(!!) for a 'late payment' of a loan installment. We checked our bank statement and it had gone out on its due date, but hadn't been processed by THEM for 17 days. We've complained to them and we're waiting to hear back. If we get no joy we're going to the Financial Ombudsman cos they're getting very intimidating

Were HSBC Midland in a previous existence? I had a similar problem with them when I left college. I opened a new bank account with another bank., but foolishly kept the Midland one open to pay off my overdraft in installments. I told them my new address, and they didn't change it, so they kept sending me letters (to the wrong address), charging me for the letter, which sent me over my limit, so I got a charge for that, which sent me further over my limit, so they sent me another letter, which they charged me for... In the two months of the summer holidays they charged me more than £400! I had to go to the banking ombudsman to get it back. Took ages! As I posted earler though, Lloyds have been REALLY nice to us.

We're with Abbey and they've been pretty horrendous about their charges. Just before Christmas we lost £350 in charges in one day - which left us with no money at all that week.

I was made redundant last year, while on maternity leave, and the bank and mortgage company have been so awful about our money situation it's been beyond belief.

I don't think they can possibly justify the extortionate amounts they charge when they're already making millions in interest. I agree a small charge is okay though.

Did anyone else see the news story about the guy (recently) who has sent the baliffs into his local branch of Abbey because they didn't respond to his letters about recovering charges, so he took them to court? They didn't respond to that either, so he won the right to send baliffs in!

Victory to the little people!!

How excellent. I so admire people who have the time and energy to chase these matters. Just imagine how powerful we would be if we all joined forces (not so little then eh). Viva la revolution!!!

For Loobie....

quick update to say that the Woolwich have sent me my bank statements for the last 6 years, so well within the 40 days time limit stipulated in my letter. I phoned up to ask them to also send me a separate list of my charges so I can cross reference. I had two other accounts with them, now closed, and think I have incurred some charges here as well, so the Woolwich have said they will provide me with statements and charges lists for those accounts too. It will be a headache getting my facts together, but hopefully worth it.

Any success stories? I have sent off my first letter today demanding a refund.

Just though i would add that my 2nd letter worked, the bank charges were for £388 but they sent a letter offering £200 not sure what to do but think we are going to take the offer what do you think?

We sent off our first letter to the HSBC they sent us a letter back today saying they ould send us 6 years worth of statements free of charge so we can work out the bank charges.

Does this work for credit card charges too?

SAMary, if they've offered to reimburse you maybe they know they are in the wrong and therefore maybe you could get more reimbursed? Or are you worried that they will retract their offer and you will lose out?

Wow! Well I've copied and pasted the first letter. Have bookmarked the consumer site... thanks Creole. So the next step is to send off the letter. Have to say my heart skipped up into my mouth at the thought.... but if I got any money back I'd be happy. Maybe enough for another trip to St Lucia..... or Bognor. lol

Thank you all. Will watch your results with interest and let you know what happens with me (if I don't bottle out of sending it.... I like my BS)

I bank with First Direct and are happy to heap praise on them. I went overdrawn recently as was charged £55. I phoned them and they said the letters go out automatically and yes they will refund me. No problem.

No it's not that i think we will lose out as am pretty sure we will win, it's just the next step is court & you have to pay for this yourself i believe, we don't really want to be foking out more money (well its actually my bros bank, but sure he feels the same) they said they accept no liablity & that they believe there charges are correct BUT (wait for it) they will do it as a good will gesture ha bloody ha, goodwill gesture it was not there bloody money to snatch in the first place.

Hmmm still thinking what to do will let you all know though, but if you get a no on your first letters ladies don't give up as they WILL back down because they know they are wrong.

Goodluck all & give all updates