Banks lose overdraft charges case

Former Member

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7364422.stm

The UK's biggest banks have lost a test case about overdraft charges.

A judge has decided that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) can rule on the fairness of the charges, which many customers have been trying to reclaim.

Oooh dear for the banks! I don't think anyone could have expected it to go any other way though. :thumb:

Former Member

Good news, poor banks though, next they will be going cap in hand to their shareholders for more dosh.

Former Member

Maybe Alistair Darling and Mervyn King will sanction more borrowing to pay for the claims.

Former Member

Thing is, at the current state of play it's nothing definitive. It's basically just saying the OFT laws on contractual charges DOES apply to bank charges. So the OFT will have to do their own investigation and then if anything comes of it, launch their own court case.

It could well be a few years before it's cleared up completely, but it's a symbolic victory for the public vs. the banks.

Former Member

This doesn't mean anything. It's just some judge or other saying to the OFT, "yeah, you can investigate this". It could take years to come to the final decision, and banks will have plenty of tools at their disposal to delay any verdict that may be critical of them.

Former Member

Thousands of people have already got money back though. I'm not sure what's going on at the moment; whether banks have suspended all payments or they're honouring some claims and fighting others. Does anyone know?

Former Member

All claims are suspended pending the outcome of this case - not the outcome of any inevitable OFT investigation.

the OFT naturally wouldn't have brought this case if they weren't certain in their own eyes they should be pursuing the return of the charges.

The case came about because the banks said the OFT had no right to even conisder looking into charges for accounts as they were genuine charges covering the cost of administration etc for going overdrawn (FUCK RIGHT OFF BARCLAYS... ah-hem...)

The banks have till may to decide whether to appeal and they will. THe charges that will be returned if everything went right can only be backdated 6 years so they will slowly reduced charges and try to keep this going for as many years as possible.

If they appeal it'll be back to court for another round. When the appeals are finally lost payments will start being made again and you'll be able to ask for money back again. Ideally this would be a class action suit or a government directive forcing repayment automatically to the accounts of those it's owed to. Unlikely though

Former Member

So without having to read everything, am I allowed to claim back my charges?

Former Member

You should probably start the process and then see what happens - head over to moneysavingexpert.com

Former Member

Jim V wrote: »

You should probably start the process and then see what happens - head over to moneysavingexpert.com

Could be doing with getting a lot of it back, but theres a couple where i went a hundred pound over so don't think I'll ask them for those charges.

Former Member

Virus wrote: »

Could be doing with getting a lot of it back, but theres a couple where i went a hundred pound over so don't think I'll ask them for those charges.

Nope - you aren't really in a situation where you can decide one charge was okay and one wasn't. Start with a DPA claim for a list of all charges applied to your account in the last 6 years and ask for them all back.

They were all illegal - you start going, oh that one is alright and maybe that one too - then they will pretty soon ignore your claim as nothing to worry about - you're starting from a position of weakness that'll be easy for them to expolit.

Former Member

Yea spose thats right, I'll just claim for them all and not back down theres a couple of hundred quids worth so suppose I'll just get on top of them right away using the letter from moneysavingexpert

Former Member

You need to begin the process as soon as possible because, if you end up going to court or the ombudsman, you can only ask for charges back in the six years before your claim. You can still put your claim in, meaning you can claim further back, but it won't be dealt with until the court case has ended. If the banks appeal, it could be another year before it is sorted.

Credit card charges are not covered by this legislation. The OFT set a fair fee as £12 several years ago, so if you are charged more than this you can ask for them back.

Former Member

Funny how the bank I temp for seems to think the banks won the hearing and that certain fees are in fact legal and fair. :chin:

Former Member

purplebutterfly wrote: »

Funny how the bank I temp for seems to think the banks won the hearing and that certain fees are in fact legal and fair. :chin:

Well, this statement from the British Bankers Association, of which this bank will be a member, might explain why they think this. Though personally, I do wonder what shade of rose-tinted glasses the person who wrote that statement was wearing.

Former Member

I'm very glad to here this I wnet in the red by 2p with my building society and was simply charged the interest (24 %) for 1 month (so about 2 %) my dad years ago went into the red by 2 £ with a ban kand was charged 30 £ as it is banks give very little interest and charge for accounts its time they eased up I am with a BS couldn't be happier and get anything i could from a bank who needs a bank anyway ? consider they just rip us off !