Reclaim unfair bank charges
Reclaiming your bank charges - The current legal situation:
On 25 November 2009 The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the banks. The OFT has,
as of 22 December, issued a statement in response to the judgment to say that they
will not be pursuing their challenge against the banks regarding unauthorised bank
charges. (A copy of the full Supreme Court Judgment can be downloaded here.)
At present there is only a small glimmer of hope for consumers regarding unfair
bank charges when Lord Phillips of the Supreme Court said: "It may be open to the
Office of Fair Trading to assess the charge under other criteria".
Read our latest news article for further
information.
Background:
On 26 February 2009 the banks lost the 2nd round of the battle
to get a fair deal on unfair bank charges so the Supreme Court's ruling has come
as a complete shock to the banks as well as the OFT.
Four Judges in total said that the banks were wrong in the arguments
they put forward against consumers. In their Judgment, the Court of Appeal said
that an appeal to the House of Lords would be a waste of time. However the banks
made an appeal and the test case ruled in favour of the banks.
In 2007 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) commenced proceedings
in the High Court for a declaration on the application
of the law in respect of unauthorised overdraft charges. In April
2008 the High Court decided that consumer regulations do apply to the banks terms
and conditions meaning that the charges, both historic and current are
subject to "fairness" rules and are potentially unfair and
excessive to consumers. This demolished a key argument
the banks had used to resist claims by over-charged customers.
The banks appealed the High Court decision and that appeal was dismissed unanimously
by the Court of Appeal. This decision at that point was a great victory for consumers
and it was thought it would assist in obtaining redress for many thousands of bank
customers.
However, the banks were then granted an appeal by the House of Lords. At the time
of the test case consumer complaints concerning unfair overdraft
charges were frozen whilst the case was heard and whilst the OFT
decided if banking terms were actually unfair (eg two-part test case). The waiver
on dealing with these claims was set to 27 January 2010.
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