Background To Reclaiming Your Bank Charges
Reclaiming Unfair Bank Charges has been in the news a lot of late and there are a lot of people are reported to be being very successful with reclaiming charges. But can you claim? Do you have to use a solicitor?
Are solicitors required to reclaim bank fees?
If your claim isn’t going to be difficult then there’s probably no need to get a solicitor involved when you are reclaiming bank charges. At the very worst, most of the process can be handled through the small claims courts and probably from your own home if the banks play ball.
But if your claim is large or you know you just won’t bother reclaiming yourself without help, then the outlay is possibly worth it. But look for a no-win no-fee solicitor and check what their fee will be.
If you have paid unfair charges, make sure you reclaim them from your bank.
Whether you go it alone or appoint a solicitor, or start off yourself and seek professional help if the bank uses delaying tactics on your case, remember that it is important to keep you claim going. If you stop, lose interest or just forget to continue to the next step, then the bank has won. If this is likely to be you, write down the steps in your diary or contact a solicitor who advertises support for reclaiming bank charges.
During a 2006 ruling that credit cards should only charge no more then a £12 annual fee the Office of Fair Trading declared that some bank charges were unlawful as well as being unfair. This produced the opportunity for people to reclaim unfair bank fees, charged within the previous 6 years.
A penalty clause is not permitted in British Law. This means that fees incurred for going overdrawn etc must be directly linked to what it has cost the bank to deal with the situation. So if it costs £2.50 to send a computer generated letter, then the charges must not exceed £2.50.
Yet when customers go overdrawn in the past, banks have automatically sent customers a standard letter telling them they are overdrawn whilst incurring charges from £20 upwards. This is usually in addition to the interest charges imposed for unauthorised overdrafts or being overdrawn.
There are other unlawful bank charges and these are being successfully challenged by customers with banks refunding these unlawful charges. These unfair charges include:
• Returned Cheques
• Unpaid Cheque
• Account Misuse
• Fee For Exceeding Authorised Overdraft Limit
• Overdrafts
• Unarranged Borrowing
• Unpaid Standing Orders
• Unpaid Direct Debits
• Card Misuse
• Late Payment Of Credit Cards
• Late Payment Of Store Cards
• Late Payment Of Catalogue Purchases
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