financial independence

The latest on reclaiming bank charge's

As previously discussed in bank charges what going on the Office of fair trading is to be taking 7 Major UK banks to court over unfair and unlawful bank charges (notice I say unlawful these charges are not illegal just unenforceable and unfair) I have been looking everywhere for a date when this case will be heard and cannot find one. Rest assured as soon as a date for the OFT VS Banks hearing is released I will let you know.

Should I still start a claim for my unfair bank charges?

Until the test case is heard the county courts will be unable to look at these unfair bank charge claims but if the case goes in the OFT's favour many experts are predicting a rush of unfair bankcharge claims.

Bank charges on hold

As you know I have been encouraging all readers of financial independence to reclaim their unlawful bankcharges a couple of my bank charge posts can be found below.

Reclaiming Bankcharges

Reclaim Bankcharges

But then on Friday the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) announced they were starting proceedings in the High Court for a declaration on the application of the law in respect of unauthorised overdraft charges.

Many thousands of complaints that these charges are unfair, have been received by the County Courts and the Financial Ombudsman Service from people wishing to reclaim their unfair bank charges. But the banks don't accept that the unfairness rules of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations apply.

Bank Charges

Bank charges are like a penalty for a breach of contract imposed on you by the bank, when you opened your bank account you signed to say you accept these charges.

The reason these charges are unlawful is the sum imposed on you must reflect actual costs incurred by your bank the office of fair trading say this is about £1, most banks charge about £30 which far exceeds damages the bank suffered due to the breach of contract, making these charges a penalty.

When your bank charges you £30 for forgetting you had to pay the £5.00 Direct Debit for your sponsor a dog scheme the bankers are punishing you and this is unenforceable by the courts.

Heres the procedure to recovering bank charges