Credit Problem - How You Can Get Bank Charges Back?
- By Mike Lukjaniec
- Published December 26th, 2009
- Finance
- Unrated
Mike Lukjaniec
Michael Lukjaniec is a leading consultant from Claims Warehouse Ltd can help indivdiuals to Cancel Loan, Credit Card, PPI policies ethically without affecting your credit rating. Contact Mike on 0800 7561332. Visit www.cancelcreditdebt.co.uk or our blog www.cancelloanblog.com and get your free report on How to Cancel Your Loans or Credit Cards?
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A Credit problem such as Bank overdraft charges is quite prevalent now. If you have ever been hit with shockingly high overdraft charges, you know how skilled banks have become at ripping off everyday people. They make their millions by charging absorbent overdraft charges when someone makes a small mistake such as bouncing a cheque. Rather than reflecting the reasonable expense the bank is out when these problems occur, banks are now charging customers as much as £25. Plus, some customers are being charged £25 each time the overdraft charges escalate and another £35 for every bounced cheque! While we did win a small battle when it was ruled that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) could conduct an official investigation into the fairness of such policies that was quickly overturned when a few big banks got together and appealed. The appeal was successful and it was stated that the OFT had no business deciding the fairness of unauthorized overdraft charges. Currently, the system is operating on the basis of pure greed, rather than honest business practices.
Once you realize what has really happened, you will feel outraged. After all, 80,000 people were evicted from their homes just in the past year, and it was a direct result of the greed of bankers; and of course of the government, considering they now own large shares of the banking industry. Here is how it has gone down: the banking industry caused the current recession due to their poor management, and then the government took the hard earned money of ordinary working people and propped up those banks so they would not fail. In return, the banks continue to rob and steal from those same taxpayers in order to subsidize extra services for their richer clientele. If the reason for outrage amongst the population is difficult to understand, the Government and Supreme Court have their blinkers on!
When the appeal by the big bankers went into
effect, well over a million claims for refunds and thousands of additional county court claims were put on hold through a moratorium. The OFT and big banks fought over the ruling, which came down in favour of the banks (surprise, surprise). Now, only those claimants who can prove they had severe credit problems can expect to ever see a penny! Since many cases were initially filed with the claim that the bank charges were oppressive or unfair, they will be thrown out now that the Supreme Court has determined that claim is no longer valid. Yet, there is a way for some people to still get some money back, even though ‘cancel loan’ claims will not be affected. Here’s what you need to know…
You can now file claims for bank charges that go back 8 years. It used to be 6 years, but when the moratorium was placed in 2007 the time was frozen, which has extended the window 2 years. If you no longer have bank statements for those 8 years, you will have to obtain copies from your bank. The trick here is to ask for a backlist of all charges, rather than actual bank statements. You are covered under the Data Protection Act to receive these documents within 40 days of written request, and the bank is not allowed to charge anymore than £10. They can't charge whatever they like for actual bank statements, so don't let them con you into taking those instead!
The next thing you have to do is use your own common sense and judgment of what is fair. For instance, if you were charged £25 in bank charges for one bounced cheque, could it really have cost the bank that much to send you notification of the overdraft? Probably not!
After calculating how much money they have ripped you off for in the past 8 years, compose a letter asking for a refund. You must cite your protection from "unfair terms" under the Consumer Contracts Regulations of 1999 and give them a specific period of time to respond before you take the matter to court. You obviously do not want to actually go to court, so allow the Financial Ombudsman Service to do that for you...for free!
Once you realize what has really happened, you will feel outraged. After all, 80,000 people were evicted from their homes just in the past year, and it was a direct result of the greed of bankers; and of course of the government, considering they now own large shares of the banking industry. Here is how it has gone down: the banking industry caused the current recession due to their poor management, and then the government took the hard earned money of ordinary working people and propped up those banks so they would not fail. In return, the banks continue to rob and steal from those same taxpayers in order to subsidize extra services for their richer clientele. If the reason for outrage amongst the population is difficult to understand, the Government and Supreme Court have their blinkers on!
When the appeal by the big bankers went into
You can now file claims for bank charges that go back 8 years. It used to be 6 years, but when the moratorium was placed in 2007 the time was frozen, which has extended the window 2 years. If you no longer have bank statements for those 8 years, you will have to obtain copies from your bank. The trick here is to ask for a backlist of all charges, rather than actual bank statements. You are covered under the Data Protection Act to receive these documents within 40 days of written request, and the bank is not allowed to charge anymore than £10. They can't charge whatever they like for actual bank statements, so don't let them con you into taking those instead!
The next thing you have to do is use your own common sense and judgment of what is fair. For instance, if you were charged £25 in bank charges for one bounced cheque, could it really have cost the bank that much to send you notification of the overdraft? Probably not!
After calculating how much money they have ripped you off for in the past 8 years, compose a letter asking for a refund. You must cite your protection from "unfair terms" under the Consumer Contracts Regulations of 1999 and give them a specific period of time to respond before you take the matter to court. You obviously do not want to actually go to court, so allow the Financial Ombudsman Service to do that for you...for free!