How Much Could You Be Reclaiming In Unfair Bank Charges? Background To Reclaiming Unfair Bank Charges
In brief, you can reclaim bank fees you have incurred within the previous 6 years. This includes unfair charges for going overdrawn, letters informing you about bounced cheques and failed direct debits and similar. If the action was likely to have only cost the bank a little amount and they have charged you a lot more, then there’s a chance of a reclaim. If these charges have caused you to be charged further fees or interest, then you will also have a case there.
Furthermore, you can claim for interest on the amount you are reclaiming – the interest you would have been credited on the money had it been in your account.
But how will customers calculate how much the bank has charged you?
First, if you still have your bank statements for the past 6 years then you just need to flick through them. If you haven’t kept them all, if you are registered for online banking (or can register) then you may be able to determine the excessive fees from there.
Finally, if none of these are possible then you have to go to your bank. Asking for copies of back statements can prove quite costly (and these charges DO NOT count as !!!). But if you know exact dates of fees, then this might be not too pricey. But the final way is to write to the bank, quoting the Data Protection Act 1998, requesting them to tell you for all charges on the account:
• what the offence was
• the date of the offence / charge
• the amount of the fee
The bank has, by law, only 40 working days to reply. But it is allowed to charge you a fee of up to £10, so it is worth while including in this letter the full £10 fee made payable to the bank.
If your bank tries to give you a copy of your statements they can try to charge you for that. So, take care that you tell the bank you are using the Data Protection Act 1998 to get a list of all fees.
Expenses
You can also claim expenses incurred in making your claim, although this can be best left in case the claim gets as far as the court stage and then used as a bargaining tool to stop that. Simply put, if the bank knows that you will accept repayment now, or repayment plus costs if they don’t accept that, then there’s a financial benefit to them to settle.
Reasonable fees include court costs and a case has also included costs of preparing the case. To claim for this, document a record of how much time you spend preparing your case then include a charge at £9.25 per hour (the legal entitlement).
RSS FEED
