** June 2008 Newsletter **

Are UK Bank Charges Fair and Legal?

In short, no. No one is saying that there should be an end to bank charges (although that would be very nice!), what the Office of Fair Trading has made clear is that you cannot charge a customer a fee for doing something wrong, such as going over your agreed overdraft limit, if that fee is considered to be profit making.

Do you think the banks make profit from bank charges? Well last year the combined banks made somewhere in the region of £5 billion from Bank Charges!

For example, how can they justify £35 to send a letter telling you that you are overdrawn when that letter is automatically generated by a computer? It costs less than 35p to send a computer generated letter so why do they feel comfortable charging us 100 times that? It's because they overlooked the law! They thought they could charge what they liked simply because they notify us, but the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (UTCCRs) prohibits banks from making profit from these charges. The Law is on our side!

We will deal with all aspects of your claim however far we need to go and however long it takes and all for just 25% plus VAT, so start claiming back your bank charges now!