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?

I haven't had many charges over the years as I really resent giving the bank money, but will be sending a letter.

I'm also going to get dh to send one as he has had quite a few charges, although he has had a few reversed in fairly recently by phoning up and arguing.

We are with NatWest so it'll be interesting to see if our combined total of 55 "account years" with them means anything!!

Panda- I'm sending my request to my local branch, but I also requested it over the telephone. I said "Could you send me details of the last six years worth of charges to my account please?" and the lady said, "Right, well I'll have to pass that along to our business manager to see if that's alright." so I said "Actually, you have to give me the information under the data protection act" and she changed her tune quick!

Gosh, this is FUN!

Cam, to answer your query about banks permanently lowering their charges (I am quoting from a message I posted on sunday)

'*And have you seen the latest news? Some banks are now putting up the interest charge on their credit cards as a result of the OFT pressure on lowering bank charges for defaults. They have to recoup the loss of revenue I guess. Some banks are also, as of the end of June, reducing their bank charges to the recommended £12.00'

If you don't know who to send the letters to, just phone up whatever number you have for your bank, explain you want a list of charges or want to send a letter challenging the charges you have got, and you should be put through to the right department - in my case, customer services.

For information, it took a few conversations with the bank's customer services to get both my statements AND a list of charges for all 3 of my accounts, but they are gradually being sent through the post. I have spent about 3 weeks on this. If I had only wanted statements, it would have taken less time. But as I know my charges have cropped up at many odd times over the last 6 years, I wanted as much information as possible before pressing ahead with a claim.

I have decided to send a separate letter asking for a refund for each account.

i am on the phone now...and they are pi$$ing me off---every stalling activity...i am now on hold for the third time...she is checking whether or not they will be able to give me this info.

agggghhhhh

but i am not giving up...need to leave the house in 15 mins....do wwe pay for 0845 calls???

Thanks Tigermoth.

Have posted letters today.

Hope things move soon for you, auntyquated. Talk about stalling over sending out statements - I have just been talking to the mortgage section of The Woolwich. I want a copy of my end of year mortgage statements. The person I spoke to wants to charge me £25.00 for each one . Six letters, one or two sheets of paper per letter - a simple print out. I told her about the Data Protection Act not endorsing more than a £10.oo charge and I have filed a complaint.

However, the main account I have accured charges is my current account. I have all the paperwork for that :)I have just sent off the first letter asking for a refund.

HSBC list all your statements online for the last six years, I've discovered. They rang me on Friday and thought I was talking about a cheque.

Doh.

Am yet to hear - they were looking into it.

Wrote to smile last week, received standard we are looking into it response within a couple of days. Checked bank balance this morning and they have refunded £455. What a result

I've had plenty of £30 charges from lloys, total wan*kers
will compose a shitty letter forthwith.

Hi, has anyone had any success with the delightful Halifax? I have worked out that I've had over £1000 in charges in 6yrs. Would love to get that back!!!!

Good result puddytats

I have just stumbled across this thread, so I rang Natwest today and they said they would forward statements on to me, they were very helpful.

Can I just ask (as I am slightly dim) are we saying that the amount over £12 is unfair and I could claim on every charge over that amount, you see I have had many charges in the past, but most have been my fault due to insufficient funds in the account, so they can't argue why I have been charged.

So basically can I say, yes you were right to charge me but only £12 not £30 and try and claim the difference ? sorry for being thick, just didn't want to look a complete idiot trying to claim.

well i am about to start this pocess, will keep you all posted. Will be sending off letter one tomorrow to 3 different banks.

I do have an account which i had to close 3years ago as it was very badly managed, i still have the deatils, can i claim from them as well?

Hi, I have been perusing my bank for £1116 since the start of May. There’s a good website \link{http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk\here}
From what I've read Golds you can claim the whole amount back because it was taken unfairly. Misdee you can claim for closed bank accounts as long as you can gain access to the statements.

I am trying to claim charges back from Royal Bank of Scotland. I requested statements which cost £5 and came very quickly. I then sent a letter requesting the charges be refunded. RBoS replied saying they felt the charges were fair and they would not refund them. I sent a second letter threatening court action, again they replied saying they felt the charges were fair.
On the 5th I eventually started legal proceedings. I did it through Moneyclaim Online as recommended on the Consumer Action Group website. It cost £120 that I really can't afford to lose, so fingers crossed.....
I hope this helps someone

Very interesting, top banana - you actually mean that banks may refund the whole amount of charges? I was expecting any refund to be partial - assuming the bank was within its right to keep £12.00 per default charge. Actually, I did wonder, when I saw first claiming refund letter why it stipulated I should claim for the total amount of charges and not a proportion of them.

Puddytats, well done - The bank moved very swiftly. I can't see the Woolwich moving as fast but I will certainly be checking my account to see if I get a refund paid straight in, too!

Missdee - I am claiming refunds on two accounts that I closed last year. I am still with the same bank, but those particular accounts have closed. I got a list of charges for each of my closed accounts, when I asked for them. I will let you know how I get on.

Good luck piffle and everyone else - apparently the news of this refund business was on tv yesterday - Trevor Mcdonald - so there may be a rush of correspendence.

Yeah, on that website they are all claiming for the whole amount and alot of people have won!!

"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."

I have just had £90 (yes you did read that right) worth of charge taken off today by HBoS, and when i queried it, the numpty on the other end of the phone said
"I think you'll find that ruling only applies to credit cards".
So I'm confused now

Hi, I think the original ruling was for credit cards but it has brought into question all bank charges.
You could phone them back and speak to a manager and tell them if they insist on charging you this £90 you will take them to court to recover the full amount of any unfair charges applied to your account over the last 6 years. That might scare them into just taking that one off. If they insist you could put it in writing to them.
Don't know if that's any help to you

I had the same response from Halifax. The very rude numpty on the other end of the phone told me in a patronizing voice "Actually that ruling only applies to credit cards. If you had managed your account better you wouldn't have had so many charges". Well, yeah, but I was being charged £39 a day for 8 days of being £4 overdrawn last December!!!! And there are many more examples of that. I have a basic account with no overdraft facility and yet payments are constantly authorised and I am always shocked to find myself £3 or £4 o/d and then before I know it theres another £39 fine. I think its partly the banks responsibility surely to not authorise payments that will take me o/d as I do not have an o/d facility? I now try and keep over £100 in my account at all times but I still had a £28 fine in January for being o/d by 3p for less tan a day. I don't understand it. But I am really looking forward to taking this all the way, as I feel its finally a means for customers to punish banks and get compensation for appalling service for all these years. I have yet to be a customer of a bank that I liked, and that treated me with even the most superficial courtesy!!

I read today that one bank is firing all customers who do this!

HEard this too, CD. Alliance and Leicester. I think they should be named and shamed. In fact I think the practice of closing bank accounts for customers who excercise their legal right should be illegal.

That's interesting Countess - closing accounts sounds like a last resort tactic to me. I wonder what the Office of Fair Trading and Financial Ombudsmen make of this practice?

I agree - banks who do this should be named and shamed.

Topbanana - I looked on the website you mentioned but I couldn't find the link showing details of people who had been through the whole process and won. Please can you tell me where I should be looking. I clicked on case histories, but nothing came up.

I did read some other very recent info about for my bank, The Woolwich. Several Woolwich customers who sent off their first letter asking for a refund have been offered a partial amount of cash as a final settlement figure (typically about £700 for charges totalling £2,000). It is only theirs if they drop all further action. Most of the customers have decided to refuse this compromise and press ahead with the small claims court. As this is very recent info, I don't know how they are doing and can't access less recent cases to see what the usual conclusion is.

has anyone tried this with Amex? I'll be coining it if I can get back all the £25 every time we were 1 day late with payment

i sent 4 letters off for 4 accounts - 2 with the Halifax and 2 with Barclays. I haven't heard anyhting from Halifax!!!

Barclays sent me a letter tahnaking me for my letter and "enclosing a list of all direct debits and standing orders that are set up" DUH...that is NOt what i asked for! I rang them - see earlier post this week- the girl used a disbelieving tone..."You want a lost of all your charges??" it was as thouygh she had never had such a strange request! "For HOW long?" I am sure they were trained to stall, she put me on hold 3 times, whilst she checked with her supervisor who eventaully came on the line to clarify what i was requesting, again in mystified tone, she said that they normally charge £5 for this servivce but as they had responede incorrectly to my letters they would not charge me this time.

Halifax have 26 days left to respond.

Does anyone know the website with the forum dedicated to this? It has seperate thraeds for each bank...would like to see what others have expereineced with the Halifax!!