What Does the OFT Consider as Unfair Bank Charges?
Posted in Finance on February 7th, 2012 by adminThe UK’s economy worsens day by day as citizens struggle with rising prices of daily needs and services. The financial problems continue with the financial problems brought by mis sold PPI, mis sold mortgages and unfair bank charges. In this article, readers will know more about the stand of authorities regarding unfair bank charges and how they could reclaim their bank charges.
The Office of Fair Trading states that the current amount of bank charges banks charge their customers is not entirely fair. The OFT takes into consideration to the current UK economic status. The UK today is struggling with financial problems due to mis sold PPI, the Euro Zone crisis and mis sold mortgages. A huge portion of the normal UK citizen’s time and resources go to the banks or go to making PPI claims. The OFT and the Ministry of Justice discussed reconsideration’s with banks regarding the current amounts of bank charges.
According to the OFT, any disproportionate bank charge is considered an unfair bank charge. For example, a customer who frequently overdrafts their bank accounts need not to accumulate penalty charges for consecutive years. According to the Lending Code, banks have to treat their customers fairly. Banks who continuously charge penalty fees to customers whose financial capabilities make it virtually impossible to repay in full are being unfair to their customers.
The OFT considers £15 to be a fair ceiling amount for both banks and customers based on the UK’s current economic climate. Customers can get bank charges for service fees, such as ATM usage, over the counter withdrawals and bank transfers. Penalty fees for overdrafts, late repayments and bounces checks are the number one complaints of most customers especially due to the dis-proportioned bank charge amounts for overdrafts. Customers who obviously have financial difficulties and have a high tendency to be snowballed by bank charges could consider their bank charges as unfair.
Today, UK citizens are struggling to repay penalty fees for their loans and mis sold PPI. A great amount of their income goes to banks per month. Some citizens have began to repair and modify their homes to increase its home equity value and save from utility bills. Their home equity values help them pay for education fees, financing and other transactions that need huge amounts.
Proving that you are financially incapable of repaying for all the penalty fees is the main argument of reclaiming bank charges. If you are being snowballed into more debt because of the bank charge you could definitely reclaim bank charges. However, you will need to have a financial background and overcome a number of legal technicalities to prove that you have the right to reclaim bank charges. This is when you might need the help of a PPI claims handling company. Consider this as one option to save yourself time and resources in reclaiming bank charges.