Stop Press - View On Oft/bank Announcement

MSE_Martin · 26 July 2007 at 10:38PM

I have just added the following Stop Press note to the bank charges article:

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]EMERGENCY STOP PRESS NOTE. 26 July 2007[/FONT]

In a surprise announcement the Office of Fair Trading has announced it has agreed to a test case with seven major banks to decide the principles of reclaiming in the High Court. At the same time the regulator the FSA has said banks no longer need deal with complaints; the Ombudsmen is likely to suspend dealing with them too, and a request will go to the Master of the Rolls that all courts suspend current cases until we’ve had a test case. See the detailed Channel 4 news video of the piece (in which I was interviewed just after the news broke)

Why weren’t we told?

This was all agreed when the announcement broke this evening (a day before it was due to because of a leak). The documentation says consumer groups will be consulted; yet why was this fait accompli announced without any consultation?

Over a million people are reclaiming using this site, and hundreds of thousands through sites like Consumer Action Group, however as far as I am aware so far, none of the consumer groups were consulted before this was done. Why weren’t the people who’ve been driving this campaign asked for a view?

What should be done?

This has saved the banks an estimated £200 million in reclaims by the end of the year. After all the vast majority of people who tried got their cash. While I welcome a test case, the effective moratorium is a worry.

I hope the result of this is not “we get a decision that bank charges are illegal and they must pay out if asked” after all that’d be little better than the situation we’ve had until now; what we need to know is that if we win and bank charges are deemed unlawfully high, the banks will be told by the regulator “you took people’s money from their accounts without asking, something even the taxman can’t do, so you must give it back to everyone without being asked.” This isn’t chicken feed, it could cost the banks £10 billion.

What should you do if you’re reclaiming or planning to?

This shock announcement has left a confusing situation. What about people currently in the process? What about those who’ve been offered a payout (whether they’ve accepted or turned it down)? What about those for whom their claim was around 6 years ago and thus the statute of limitations means the delay will count their claim out?

Frankly, as yet I don’t have an answer. Yet I do intend to find out and will of course publish it in detail here. If you want those answers, please ensure you get the weekly MoneySaving e-mail where I will attempt to keep you updated.

Martin

PS If there are other outstanding questions please report them below (note these shouldn't be individual questions, but notes of principle I can get confirmed).

Show_me_the_money_3 · 26 July 2007 at 10:45PM

Hi martin,

thanks for the update. Also, well done for giving that woman a much needed verbal slap:T .
You did a fantastic job considering you were left in the dark til the last minute!

I will keep checking back for updates.

Lets hope this isn't going to cause too many problems for those who are about to start their claims.

Hailey

natweststaffmember · 26 July 2007 at 10:49PM

Martin, I would think that the claims should continue as though nothing has happened. If the cases are already at court then surely it should be for a judge to decide if the case should proceed or be stayed until the end of the year. Should the courts decide that charges are unlawful(yes I know that a blind man can see that that is the case), would the banks drag this out through appeals? If the courts do decide they are unlawful, would that open up claims for over 6 years(on a positive note)?

PI_Guy · 26 July 2007 at 10:57PM

you did a great job on TV today, you made her look stupid after she refused to answer key questions about how much it was costing the banks

Conor_3 · 26 July 2007 at 11:01PM

Well, it's going to go one of two ways:

1) The banks win. Those who got their money will be happy. The rest will whinge and whine on here for months about it. Life carries on as before.

And now the one that worries me the most...

2) The banks lose. Those people who were clearly informed of the charges when they opened their account and were reminded by the prominent and widely available literature available in branch get REWARDED for their financial incompetence. And here's the rub. What do you think will happen? Kiss free banking goodbye. It'll be back to the bad old days - I wonder how many of you remember those? For those of us who have business accounts, we don't have to remember. We get the bill every quarter.

I have a business bank account. Most of the transactions are free, i.e the automated ones and BACS/DD, but the rest I pay for. Now my business account, charge wise, is quite a low activity one but despite that, I rack up around £40 a year in charges.

Going on the activity in my current account and basing it on the charges for the business account, I'm looking at over £100 a year in charges on ym current account - more if they don't do free automated transactions. So for everyone in the UK unless you have a constant average balance of over £1000, and are getting the top paying interest rates, the charges will wipe out any interest you get.

Because of the way society has now gone with wages and benefits being payed by BACS, paying bills by DD, paying for shopping with debit cards, the ability to be paid in cash, pay your bills with paying in books at the GPO and just have an account to pay the mortgage have long gone. Like it or not, we're in a society where you "HAVE" to have a bank account. It's no longer a choice and the banks know this. With a potential £10Billon hit, you can be guaranteed they'll look at charging per transaction again and we'll have no choice than to accept it.

Personally I don't think Martin either thought the consequences through fully or "conveniently neglected to mention the flip side" because telling people what they want to hear gets him his 5 minutes on TV, something which this bank charges thing has got him a lot of, but saying "it may all go South and every person with a bank account will suffer" doesn't win popularity contests.

Martin may be looking clever on TV at the moment and making the "woman from the BBA look stupid" which some of you sheeple seem to think is the best thing since the coming of Christ but I wonder if he'll be so happy about the publicity if the banks lose, the charges start appearing and people figure out who to blame?

I hope the banks win. If you've any sense, you will too.

maxinex · 26 July 2007 at 11:03PM

Hi please could i ask that in view of the banks freezing the claims until the outcome of this court case, can we, as the customer, ask the banks to freeze any further charges being added to our accounts until this case has been decided?

angelwillow · 26 July 2007 at 11:06PM

How does this affect credit card claims if at all? Are these claims to be 'frozen' aswell like bank account claims?

And do the 40 day SAR requests still stand or are they on hold too?

anorthosite · 26 July 2007 at 11:11PM

I hope the banks get slaughtered over this one.

However, I get the feeling its already been settled and, once again, the common man will suffer.

Anyone else think its time for a revolution in this country?

Conor_3 · 26 July 2007 at 11:17PM

anorthosite wrote: »

I hope the banks get slaughtered over this one.

anorthosite wrote: »

I don't think you quite understand the possible ramifications do you?

However, I get the feeling its already been settled and, once again, the common man will suffer.

If the banks win, those who couldn't handle their money will be charged the amount they were clearly informed about. They should be grateful. Once upon a time, writing a cheque you had no money to cover meant an appearance in front of a judge.

If the banks lose, everyone with an account loses, even those of us who keep our accounts in credit.

anorthosite wrote: »

Anyone else think its time for a revolution in this country?

And do what? Be sensible.:rolleyes:

MSE_Martin · 26 July 2007 at 11:20PM

PLEASE NOTE. THIS IS NOT A THREAD FOR DISCUSSING THE RIGHTS AND WRONG OF RECLAIMING. THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHER THREADS FOR THAT.

PLEASE KEEP THIS THREAD TO SUGGESTED QUESTIONS THAT WE NEED TO KNOW THE ANSWER.

E.g. (more for my own notes than any other)

i. Will court fees be refunded via MCOL if cases won't be heard.
ii. Will cases currently scheduled still be heard
iii. Will cases that haven't been acknolodges via MCOL still go through
iv. What will happen to cases that have already been put to the FOS.

martin

Russjo · 26 July 2007 at 11:24PM

Here Here and for what it's worth I think you should be awarded with something for your work on behalf of us little people (Conor excluded of course)

Stop Press - View On Oft/bank Announcement

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