It is the worst thing that you can see on your bank statement at the end of the month, isn’t it? Some sort of charge that has come your way because of an unpaid cheque or an unauthorised going over of your overdraft limit. If one charge puts you over your overdraft limit they you get another charge. Its like charge dominos! For the people out there that have really bad problems when it comes to managing their debts, such charges can be a real nightmare, and end up costing them literally thousands of pounds.
Something that has come about, of recent and has grown rather steadily, is the number of companies that offer the service of reclaiming peoples bank charges on their behalf. This is generally done at a cost of around 15-20% of the monies recompensed. Such companies are reliant on the fact that the financial institutions are only meant to charge for the cost of administering a bank charge, and that they should not actually be making any money from it. It is quite shocking to know the price difference between the two. For instance, a bank should only charge £5.00 for sending you a letter, notifying you that you have breached your overdraft limit. What they actually charge you is £30.00 so they are really on the make with these charges. It is something that is finally starting to get sorted out, and another positive is that customers can claim back the charges that have been accrued in the last six years.
The consumer group, Which? Recently conducted another survey, where they found that a massive , 85% of the people that have attempted to claim back their bank charges, have received some sort of recompense, and most of them have received all of their money back. There is also the fact that if you do not receive your money back, then you can call upon the Financial Services Ombudsman, who will be able to adjudicate and in most cases, win peoples money back for them. The report that was carried out by Which? Also found that a lot of people are afraid of claiming back their money, because they do not want to fall out with their bank. There is story of a certain bank shutting down a customers account as an act of spite, because they had claimed £200.00 back, in charges. But when the Office of Fair Trading got involved in this, they made the bank compensate the man with £1000.00, and also made them reinstate his bank account, therefore there is absolutely no need to be afraid of the banks. No one of the banks are prepared to ask the courts whether the charges are fair, (because they are not) they are just paying people back, who claim, and hoping that not too many people do.
If you have managed to incur a substantial amount of debt by way of borrowing, then the chances are that part of that debt is the amount that you have had to pay in bank charges. If you have been severely dealt with by your bank, then possibly thousands of pounds worth of your debt has been accumulated through debt. Realise that you can still claim back your charges, even if you are no longer with the institution that has charged you too much. Much too much.
