financial independence

Bank Charges their unlawful and you can reclaim them.

One symptom of spending more than you earn is bank charges, when you go overdrawn by just a couple of pence all banks charge you. Most charge about £30. I did it several times last year because I never got paid on time, if thats the case you can claim the charges back from your employer.

Unfair charges

For exceeding my overdraft my bank charges me £30, and one month last year when I did'nt get paid on time my bank charged me about £500.
Did you know you can reclaim these charges? These charges are unlawful? The Office of Fair Trading says banks can only charge for their administration costs the OFT say this is about £1.

Get your cash back

If you really want to earn more than you spend you can start by getting your money back from the bank, heres my quick guide to reclaiming charges.

1. Find out how much money they owe you, you can claim bank charges for the last 6 Years so go through your last 6 Years bank statements and work it out. If like me you file your paperwork in the bin, write to your bank and ask for your statements (they'll charge for them usually about £15) banks love it charging is how they make money.

2. Next step is to give them a call and ask for your money back, unless its only a small amount or your a very good customer they'll say "no its our money, we took it to cover our costs". Tell them they took it unlawfully and you demand a refund, speak to the supervisor they're still going to say no.
Tell them they've been a very unhelpful banker and put the phone down.

3. Bank charge reclaim Step 3 Now you need to write to them letter templates can be found here
Consumer Action Group
their going to ignore this letter, their hoping you'll give up because their a big bank with a legal department.

4. Now you need to send a final letter telling them this is the last stop before court, this is when they pay just before court they know they'll lose the law is not on their side.

Companies that claim charges and how they work

If all this sounds like hard work there are companies that will claim back your cash on a no win no fee basis, they will take a chunk of your money but there are benefits to using them.
One of the bennefits is if your bank does feel brave and want to go to court, they'll cover the legal costs.
The legal cost could be very large if you where unsuccessful in reclaiming these Bank Charges.