Can I still claim my bank charges?

Question

Am I still able to claim the unfair charges imposed by my bank? I have read Martin Lewis' website but I didn't really understand. Is there a suspension on people claiming? What does the test case result mean for people claiming their charges?

Answer 1

It depends how much your bank charges you. If it is more than 12GBP for going over your overdraft/limit, then you may be able to claim the difference; however, I have no sympathy for people who are charged for unarranged finance, such as going over their limit, and I don't believe they should be entitled to refunds of the bank fees.

Answer 2

Yes, get on with it and get your claim in as soon as you can.  Use the template letter on Martin's website and claim back all they have charged you for the last six years.  If you don't have the statements for this time period your bank can provide you with copies.  They have to under the Freedom of Information Act, although there may be a slight charge.  It is worth the effort.  I clamed from HSBC and got back £440.  

I have no sympathy for the banks, they generate shed loads of money, even in difficult times, because they use a system called 'fraction reserve banking'.  

Say you deposited £1,000 in savings to your bank.  The bank knows you won't be back for it for a while, so they use this money as the basis for a loan.  But they don't just do it once, they take the same £1,000 and lend it out ten, fifteen, even 30 times.  The money is made real by people working for it, earning it, and paying it back in loan repayments WITH INTEREST.  Thus £1,000 becomes £30,000 plus interest for the bank.

But the repayment of this money took too long for the bankers, so they bundled up packages of loans and called them Structured Investment Vehicles or Collatoralised Debt Obligations, and then sold them to other banks, hedge funds and pension funds.  The organisations didn't ask what was in these loan packages, they just bought them and sold them on.  The liability for these loans were sliced and diced to the piont that when a significant proportion of people started to default on their mortgage and loan payments, no-one was clear about who was responsible for what.  Thus the 'sub-prime' mortgage crisis was born.  And now that banks don't trust each other, they won't extend lines of credit, so the 'credit crunch' becomes an everyday subject of conversation.  

When the banks bemoan the fact that in their greed and stupidity they have lent money to people who had little chance of paying it back, they report a loss of the projected profit, the money never existed, so it isn't really 'lost'.  There will not be billions sloshing around.  95% of the money in circulation today does not exist as cash.

The court cases are the banks trying to justify charging people for being poor.  Some people are spendthrifts, throwing around money they shouldn't, but the vast majority of people who were being hammered with bank charges were too poor to keep their accounts in credit.  Tiny overdrafts quickly became major debts that the person could not hope to clear.  The Government's scheme to pay state benefits and pensions through bank accounts led to a vast increase in income for the banks through charges.

These charges were illegal and those that reclaimed them were within the law at that time.  The Courts are going to have to clarify the law in their judgements, and then we can be clear where we stand with bank charges.  In the meantime, it does not hurt to put in a claim, so that you at least will be in the queue for a refund when they decide what they are doing.  They may decide to only pay out to outstanding claimants and say they will not take any new claimants after a certain date, so get your claim in now.

Do not shed a tear for the banks.  Not bankruptcy or even death will stop them persuing a claim for any monies they consider owed to them.  If you die owing them money, they will claim it on your estate before your family can get a look in.  They are persuing a policy now of making legal claims to a person's assets if they default on an unsecured debt.  Yes, your overdraft can make you homeless!  They can claim on your estate and if you are a homeowner they can insist you secure your loan on the property.  I'm not going to tell you what I think of that in case I violate the community guidelines on obscenities.

Good luck with your claim.

Answer 3

yes you can still claim you should write to your bank/buliding society using the template letter that martin lewis has provide on his site telling them that you think that the bank charges are unfair give them 14 days to reply to  you, you should also send in copys of your statements high lite them showing your bank charges and also use the interest calculator to calculate your interest in this keep copys for your self

you will get a reply from them but they will say more than likely that the charges are fair

so you write a gain with the second template letter telling them that you are not happy with their responce then you give them a further 14 days then after that you may get a responce you may no that if when you file court papers at a county court with this you will here back from the courts telling you that this has been stayed untill the test case has been heard but at least you will be in the queue for getting your money back although it may be a slow process also from my experience of this when you fill in court papers make sure you have the correct address for the bank and not a po box address as the courts will not accept your papers it is very easy to do your self so write your letters as soon as possible ans i sent mine recorded delivery to proof that they recieved them as i didnt want no problems the only thing that i can see is when this is over and the banks may possibly have to pay out millions in charges plus interest it will be the end of free banking

Answer 4

You need to contact the financial ombudsmans service. Contact is at the link below.  

Answer 5

dont do what lindybug advises as a waste of time and energy due to ongoing test case, all you need to do is contact your bank and register your dissatisfaction and state you want your charges refunded.  This will then be kept on file till resolution of test case, if charges are recent it is worth asking bank to refund especially if you havn't done so before, be nice don't go on with attitude as that will guarantee no refund!

PS agree with ITMatt, cut your cloth