Bank Charges - illegal?

dchurch24

It only takes one bank to justify costs (At a level close enough to what they currently charge) for the test case to be established, future rulings will then include that decision.

It would only take one to take it to court and be UNABLE to justify their costs as well.

(However, legal precidents cannot be set in the county court.)

Incidently, there are many other laws that govern the reasonablness of contracts and of services for sale, as well as the case law regarding punitive charges.

dchurch24

Will have to stump up £250 costs though!

Surely, £120 (plus another £100 when a court is allocated) ?

dosser_2

dchurch,

if a contract is judged to contain unfair terms i.e penalty charges, does that make the entire contract unenforceable?
is this the reason finance companies sell debt to a collection agency?

dosser

ps keep up the good work!

kevin.philips

It would only take one to take it to court and be UNABLE to justify their costs as well.

(However, legal precidents cannot be set in the county court.) True - My thought is that this type case if defended will not stop at the county court.

Incidently, there are many other laws that govern the reasonablness of contracts and of services for sale, as well as the case law regarding punitive charges.

Agreed again, and with respect to your incidental reference what service have the bank sold you...? What was the bargain element for you..?

To refer to comments in a post in this thread:

About time legislation was brought in to curb the banks attitude of "Let's try it on and most customers will just pay up and shut up".

Oh you would not believe how much of this happens in business in general alot of disclaimers, exclusion clauses, charges and get outs are also illegal so I'm of the stance that if as a group of consumers we can change the attitude of organisations like the banks then we should further challenge the legality of everything that is somewhat similar in penalising the consumer, c'mon OFT time to listen...

Tim_L

This is not a personal attack upon you but given the previous comments you have made about the state of your finances, I have often wondered how much time you have spent monitoring your financial position as opposed to instigating action against various banks after situations have arisen to cause charges to be applied.

Frankly those of us who do spend time monitoring our finances generally don't have problems, though for anyone with more than normally complex finances it is not impossible to miss the odd payment through oversight. But the fact that a small percentage of people can be careful with money management is not an excuse for banks to take money in penalty payments from others (including those who are in marginal difficulties) who are not. Most people look at their balances when they make a withdrawal only.

For my part I've often wondered why it takes banks 4 working days to process payments that now could be dealt with instantly. Were this not the case, or if they were to accept debit card payments, it would be possible for many people to sort out problems that arise from time to time due to oversights.

Banks will have to work out what they want. If they want people to deal swiftly with marginal over drawing then they really ought to instigate a warning and a means of dealing with them instantly. On the other hand if they are using this as an income stream - or as has been suggested to subsidise 'free' banking for others, which clearly would completely undermine any claim that these were to cover costs - then I'm afraid they deserve what they get.

dchurch24

Agreed again, and with respect to your incidental reference what service have the bank sold you...? What was the bargain element for you..?

The bank has sold me a current account and all the trimmings.

The banks are in direct competition with each other and each try to make their accounts 'look' more attractive than the others.

The fact that when you open a current account you have been sold a service or 'product' can surely not be in dispute?

dchurch24

Oh you would not believe how much of this happens in business in general alot of disclaimers, exclusion clauses, charges and get outs are also illegal so I'm of the stance that if as a group of consumers we can change the attitude of organisations like the banks then we should further challenge the legality of everything that is somewhat similar in penalising the consumer, c'mon OFT time to listen...

That is why as a group, we will be issuing a press release asking why the OFT has failed to come good on it's deadline of Oct 2005 for the credit card companies (and banks) to pull themselves into line in regards to punitive charging.

dchurch24

if a contract is judged to contain unfair terms i.e penalty charges, does that make the entire contract unenforceable?
is this the reason finance companies sell debt to a collection agency?

I am not qualified in anything remotely resembling the legal profession, but I would imagine that it would only be the part of the contract that was of dubious legality that wouldn't be enforced. For instance, if you had an overdraft of £1000 and you were charged £35 for going over the limit, you couldn't refuse to pay back the £1000 on the grounds that they had made an unenforcable punitive charge. In any case, the example given would be unethical to say the least.

dosser_2

dchurch24 wrote:

I am not qualified in anything remotely resembling the legal profession, but I would imagine that it would only be the part of the contract that was of dubious legality that wouldn't be enforced. For instance, if you had an overdraft of £1000 and you were charged £35 for going over the limit, you couldn't refuse to pay back the £1000 on the grounds that they had made an unenforcable punitive charge. In any case, the example given would be unethical to say the least.

thanks for that-
however, talk of ethics/morals always baffles me!

capitalism has dominated since the enlightenment-
it works because it allows humans to satisfy their genetically programmed need to dominate{survival mechanism} by competing-
therefore each time somebody wins, someone loses{limited resources on planet}
right and wrong are notions developed by man {mainly thru religion}to make the weak/losers feel better about their lot!
'the meek shall inherit the earth'- being a classic example-

historically there has always been winners and losers-
this is the norm!

inmypocketnottheirs

dchurch24 wrote:

Surely, £120 (plus another £100 when a court is allocated) ?

Only quoted on the basis that I phoned my local county court yesterday and asked how much the costs would be to issue a summons for £1300. I was told by them £250.00