Reclaiming Unfair Bank Charges1256190
De BISAWiki
Despite the Supreme Court ruling that the Office of Fair Trading did not have the right to assess bank charges for unauthorised overdrafts, bounced cheques and failed direct debits, it is still possible to at least attempt to reclaim any charges you feel are unfair.
The definition of an unfair charge is a little unclear, but essentially the sum charged must reflect actual costs incurred and not exceed damages the bank suffered due to the breach of contract (which you entered into when you opened your bank account or took out your credit card), otherwise it becomes a penalty.
Examples of an unfair charge could include being charged £20 for the bank sending you a letter informing you that you have gone over your agreed overdraft limit, £30 for a bounced cheque or failed Direct Debit when all the bank has to do is inform the other party and continuous daily fines for being overdrawn.
How To Claim
The first thing you should do is work out what you are owed. You can write to your bank and ask for a list of charges they made and why they were made going back up to six years and they MUST supply it.
You need to be clear on what you are asking for though, otherwise they may claim you requested statements for which they can charge high fees. The maximum they can charge for a list of charges is 10 and under the Data Protection Act they must supply it within 40 days.
Once you have worked out what you believe you are owed, write to your bank demanding the charges are repaid. Keep a copy of all correspondence and follow up with a phone call a few days later, making a note of the date, time and who you spoke to.
The bank should reply within 14 days, but if not write again and call again. Chances are, they will give you a full refund at this stage, but if not they may offer a partial refund - refuse it and demand payment in full with another letter.
They may write back to you saying they will respond at a later date. Write back, stating that a two week period has already passed and if you don't hear from them with a definitive answer within 14 days you will proceed with court action.
Again, at this point you may receive a full refund but if the bank decides to play 'hard ball' by claiming the charges were lawful, don't back down.
There are two ways to initiate court action - but be aware you will now be incurring costs - either in person at the local County Court or online via the Court's Money Claims service.
The bank now decide to repay you in full or simply not respond, which means you will win by default after 14 days. However, they may acknowledge your claim which gives them 14 days to prepare a defence - if that 14 days passes without further movement from the bank, you again win by default.
Even if you get a court date, the bank may decide not to show up and you win again. If they do show up with a defence then you run the risk of losing the case and having to pay court costs. This is a risk, but rare.
At the end of the day, it is up to you how far you pursue it and in a lot of cases the bank will simply back down and refund you before it actually gets into court. Just be aware that it could.
Ian Grainger is writing on behalf of Hamilton Brady, specialists in reclaiming unfair [ http://www.claimspower.com/ credit card insurance] .
