Bank Penalty Charges - Anyone claiming?

[Digger]

Probably a thread on here somewhere about this...cant find one...or are you all loaded enough not to be bothered?... Am interested to hear whether anyone here will be pursuing their bank to claim back their last 6 years penalty charges...?

The Money Programme

Penalty Charges Website

May consider approaching Alliance and Leicester to get mine back...if i can summon the energy to do it...can take up to 3 months though

[scouse258]

the law states you can claim up to six years back - if you dont have your statements then are the bank obliged to inform you what they have taken over the last 6 years and do you have to pay for this service?

[pixelpixel]

Did watch the program and was very good. Also this rule does not just apply to banks it covers alot more services than people think.

Good luck to anyone trying to get any money back.

[Digger]

Originally Posted by scouse258

the law states you can claim up to six years back - if you dont have your statements then are the bank obliged to inform you what they have taken over the last 6 years and do you have to pay for this service?

Click on the Money Programme link...thats why i put it there...

[Urien Rheged]

My RSPCA £3.00 direct debit bounced this month and Nat West charged me £38.00. This then produced a snow ball effect of DD's bouncing. In the last month Nat West have charged me around £350.00 in bank charges and I am now in a situation I cannot get out of.
I have written to them and asked for my last 6 years worth of charges to be listed (cost £5.00). Once I get them, I will be asking for all the charges back. It is unlawful to charge me that much as it doesnt cost them that much in administration. If they wont pay up I will take them to a small claims court. The biggest refund someone has got so far is £17,000.
Good luck to anyone else who is claiming.

[Ultima]

I may be missing something here. Are you saying that banks can't charge people and if they do you can claim it back upto 6 years??

[fourfoot]

I keep my money in order, so have never had any bank charges. Am I missing out?

[johnscarlet]

Originally Posted by ashworthacca

I may be missing something here. Are you saying that banks can't charge people and if they do you can claim it back upto 6 years??

They can only charge you what it actually costs them , not anymore than that .
It actually cost £6ish i think , not the £20-40 some banks charge . The Money Saving Expert site has a lot of info and downloadable templates for letters.
I went looking for my statements earlier . Could find 96 - 02 but could not find 02 - present . I know they are somewhere and will look into it after chrimbo

John

[Urien Rheged]

I read it costs them about 50p in administration when someone goes overdrawn. They are charging much more than this (£38.00 in my case) to pay for other things like bad debt which they shouldnt be doing. There was legal caselaw in April '06 that stated it was unlawful to charge more than it costs them in admin. It is simply a money making scheme. They will lose if it goes to court so they are trying scare tactics to stop people doing it. Everyone that has pushed them to the point of a court date has won from what I've read. The banks, etc pull out at the last minute and pay up.
Hopefully this will be the case with me.

[RMCF]

Know of a couple of work colleagues currently doing this.

One has been offered approx £800 by his credit card to settle now, but he has rejected it as he believes he can get a lot more.

As fourfoot says above, if you manage to keep your finances fairly well in check, is there any point in persuing this?

As far as I remember, I have only been hit with 2 or 3 late credit card penalties (£25 each) and probably next to none with my bank current account as it is always in credit and its free to operate if you stay in credit.

So it looks like it might actually pay to be useless with money and always have overdrafts, late payments, cheques bouncing, etc.

[Digger]

Originally Posted by RMCF

As fourfoot says above, if you manage to keep your finances fairly well in check, is there any point in persuing this?

Do you understand what this is about? If you are unable to "keep your finances in check" for whatever reason, you will get hit with these "illegal" charges... the banks are breaking the law by making an apparent profit on these "charges" so it is only right that the parties affected claim them back...

[RMCF]

Yes I do know what it is about, as I have spoke to people claiming the money back.

My point was that if you manage your money well then this doesn't really apply to you - the claim procedure is only good for people who have been hit with a lot of charges.

[square-eyes-baz]

My sister in law has successfully claimed hers back

[LFC_SL]

Wow, I know I'm gonna miss having an interest free student-overdraft. I remember listening to this on five live late night (bear with me). Quite funny how the bank rep tried to turn a couple of letters and stamps, and a press of computer keys into £30-odd

[Sonic67]

A word of warning. Since this started some banks have decided that as you can't agree to their terms and conditions then they don't have to have you as a customer. You can't force a bank to open an account with you. They may well refund the money, then close the account and then let other banks know what sort of customer you are from their black list.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/campaig...in_page_id=507

Some customers who have won back bank charges now face a new battle. They are being forced to issue court proceedings to stop their banks closing down their accounts.

Banks and building societies, including Alliance & Leicester and Nationwide, have decided to shut customer accounts after bank charges are refunded on the grounds that because the customer has disputed their fees they clearly have a problem with the terms and conditions on the account.

However, legal experts do not think that customers will have much luck trying to stop banks kicking them out of accounts - since any business has a right to refuse service as long as it does this within its terms and conditions.

But they could have more joy in getting bad credit marks overturned. The banks argue that their charges are part of their terms and conditions and that therefore, when a customer refuses to pay a charge, they have defaulted and that a record of this should be kept.

So you might get your money back but no longer be able to have an account.