Bank charges are illegal !!

[petef]

My sister in law has acrude £4,000 in bank charges over many years . We only found this out recently at a barbeque !!! My wife ( who is legally qualified ) has advised her that banks cannot charge. My sister in law wrote a letter ( well my wife did on her behalf ) to the bank and they offered her £750 back !!!! My wife is fighting the case for her and is hoping to get the whole sum back !!!....Just thought I would let you know ....I hate banks !!!

Happy days
Pete:bannana:

 

[Silvertank]

Yep. My Nephew got all £1200 back from HSCB - just after writing them a letter.

Tank

 

[pammy]

What do you mean they cannot charge? Charge for what?

 

[stats007]

Late payment fees / bounced cheques etc.

 

[Shude]

Bank charges are 100% legal, check the fine print when you open the account, if you don't like what you see then try another bank or product! I am in favour of bank charges for going overdrawn etc but these should really be proportional to the amounts in question.

IMHO the days of free banking in the UK are numbered. With rising personal debt and increasing IVAs and Bankruptcies the banks are losing money in this area, in the end someone is going to have to pay for this.

This made me chuckle: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4810490.stm

 

[bitonw]

Old news, look here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/ and get those charges back in your pocket...

 

[BearFace]

That's great news. My girlfriend and I recently wrote to our bank using a standard letter provided by a website dedicated to helping and advising people on how to recover such charges. We'd accrued well over £2000 in charges on our private account and they immediately offered us £1200. We took it

Clearly there's going to be a lot of activity in this area for the foreseeable future. Banks are going to have to seriously review their policies on how they fleec.....sorry, charge their customers.

Bank charges are not apparently 100% legal, due to many variables and ambiguities in the contracts we have with the banks. Many organisations involved in fighting the banks are openly describing the actions of these banks as unlawful or illegal.

 

[Silvertank]

Bank charges are 100% legal, check the fine print when you open the account, if you don't like what you see then try another bank or product! I am in favour of bank charges for going overdrawn etc but these should really be proportional to the amounts in question.

IMHO the days of free banking in the UK are numbered. With rising personal debt and increasing IVAs and Bankruptcies the banks are losing money in this area, in the end someone is going to have to pay for this.

This made me chuckle: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4810490.stm

Afraid not old chap. The bank can't impose 'penalties' or 'punishments' by their own accord. No matter what 'their' fine print says.

If your bank has made charges against you for being overdrawn etc, putting you further in debt - then go and get your money back.

Power to the consumer!:bannana:

 

[Shude]

If your bank has made charges against you for being overdrawn etc, putting you further in debt - then go and get your money back.

Power to the consumer!:bannana:

I would do but they're never open when I'm available and it's simply not worth it for the £50 or whatever I've been charged in 15-odd years of banking

 

[stats007]

That's great news. My girlfriend and I recently wrote to our bank using a standard letter provided by a website dedicated to helping and advising people on how to recover such charges. We'd accrued well over £2000 in charges on our private account and they immediately offered us £1200. We took it

Clearly there's going to be a lot of activity in this area for the foreseeable future. Banks are going to have to seriously review their policies on how they fleec.....sorry, charge their customers.

How do you accrue £2000 worth of charges?

 

[Ian B Walker]

I have three bank accounts with the same bank. Yesterday I was charged £30 for going overdrawn in one of them (the others are in fine shape) It annoys me that a bank can charge you while you have credit in other accounts with the same bank. Me thinks a phone call or letter is looming

 

[Dieter]

Hi,

May be I'm being a bit 'dim' but how on earth does anyone manage to 'accrue' bank charges of £1200 to £4000 (I'm not prying into personal affairs, just in priciple).

I've not paid a penny in bank charges for years

Cheers,

 

[Silvertank]

Hi,

May be I'm being a bit 'dim' but how on earth does anyone manage to 'accrue' bank charges of £1200 to £4000 (I'm not prying into personal affairs, just in priciple).

I've not paid a penny in bank charges for years

Cheers,

I guess some people can afford to throw money away

 

[Shude]

The bank charges we are talking about are penalties for going overdrawn etc, correct? Not charges for bank services like you would get in other countries.

If people followed the rules they would avoid being charged. The charges are supposed to cover the costs for the bank having to honour requests for money that the account holder does not have in that account.

The only objection I have to charges is that they are not proportional to the cost, ie 25p overdrawn and it's £25 flat-rate charge plus interest on £25.25.

I have been bitten by charges once or twice and have learned my lesson: keep a close eye on your accounts and make sure sufficient funds are available to honour your DDs and SOs etc.

 

[Rory]

Hi,

May be I'm being a bit 'dim' but how on earth does anyone manage to 'accrue' bank charges of £1200 to £4000 (I'm not prying into personal affairs, just in priciple).

I've not paid a penny in bank charges for years

Cheers,

If you knew some (perhaps many?) peoples financial affairs, you wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

In a previous company, I had colleagues who had wardrobes full of expensive suits and shoes and who were permanently maxed out on several credit cards and were £20K overdrawn at the bank. The same people would be 6 months behind with expense claims.

Once you exceed your overdraft limit (and I think this is usually the nub of the complaints) or the overdraft is unauthorised, then all hell breaks loose as far as charges are concerned - charges for bounced payments, charges for letters about bounced payments, interest charges on top on interest charges etc etc.

 

[imadoofus]

Years ago, a friend and his girlfriend banked with the same branch of a certain blue-ish coloured bank.

He wrote her a cheque for £50 to cover her unauthorised overdraft (putting himself to the limit of his authorised one).

The bank (who had full sight of both accounts, remember) bouced his cheque nine times. £30 each time!

I'm not suggesting the cheque should have been cleared, just that the bank knew it wouldn't clear, so why keep representing it?

PJ

 

[glojo]

The bank (who had full sight of both accounts, remember) bouced his cheque nine times. £30 each time!

I'm not suggesting the cheque should have been cleared, just that the bank knew it wouldn't clear, so why keep representing it?

PJ

I have NO knowledge of banking and am merely asking a question.

How would a 'bank' have knowledge of different peoples accounts? Are accounts monitored daily by one individual that can remember who is related to who, what person is an unmarried partner to someone else etc? I accept a bank can instantly give me details of my account but I don't understand what imadoofus is suggesting!

Regards,
John

 

[imadoofus]

What I'm saying, is it's the beneficiary bank's job to present the cheque for payment. However, in this case, before doing so, they would know there were insufficient funds to make the payment, so why try?

I appreciate your point, but mine is that this is an example of banks working in their own best interest, rather than serving the customer.

PJ

 

[Dieter]

Hi (again),

I appreciate that these charges are for going overdrawn etc. and I also appreciate that they often/sometimes are unfair (e.g £25 for 25p o/drawn etc.).

However I'm sure most people who use banks (most MB owners except John ) KNOW that to go overdrawn will invite charges (whether they are 'fair' or not).

Does this reflect todays "spend it (even if you haven't got it) and sod it" society and then expect everyone else to feel 'sorry' for you and agree it's all the 'Bank's fault" . "Nuffink to do wiv me, mate".

This is not to say that Banks are 'innocent' but there would be just as many complaints if they refused to lend money, wouldn't there?

Just my £4 million quids worth (whoops, now I'm overdrawn ).

Cheers,

 

[bitonw]

UK banks sucks

The bank charges we are talking about are penalties for going overdrawn etc, correct? Not charges for bank services like you would get in other countries.

If people followed the rules they would avoid being charged. The charges are supposed to cover the costs for the bank having to honour requests for money that the account holder does not have in that account.

The only objection I have to charges is that they are not proportional to the cost, ie 25p overdrawn and it's £25 flat-rate charge plus interest on £25.25.

I have been bitten by charges once or twice and have learned my lesson: keep a close eye on your accounts and make sure sufficient funds are available to honour your DDs and SOs etc.

Sure but I have a major problem with those banks here in the UK. They are slow with updating their (on-line) bank statements!

I'm used to get changes instantly on my (on-line) statements so I can act on time to avoid being overdrawn. But here it takes about 5!!!! days to transfer from one bank to the other bank!!! I'm used to 24 hours... They eating your money to take the interest of outstanding money. Think about that and see it in a bigger picture! (5 million people transfer £100 pounds keep that on your bank for some days and eat the interest).
Also their computer programs just take a standard fee for being over overdrawn even if it's only a couple pennies... I'm used to 2% with a min. and max. fee...

There is another (banking) world... This is what has to change!

bt