OFT says late payments fees should not exceed £12

inmypocketnottheirs

The_Boss wrote:

I totally agree with previous two posts. The late payers are going to ruin it for all of us who can be bothered to abide by our T&Cs, can be bothered to pay on time and can be bothered to stay within our limits. I hope those that got their money back spent it all at once and now get invoiced back £13 for every late payment.

These guys should be ASHAMED and EMBARASSED at themselves, but instead they run around with big grins on their faces because they have got some money back. You can understand one late payment or one over limit charge at most, but after that there is no excuse. In future, I reckon that after one of these, credit card companies will just recall the debt.

Banks have a responsibility to ensure that their charges are moral, ethical, and above all enforceable. The ruling by the OFT show that banks and credit card companies have fallen at the first two hurdles. However the OFT ruling does not override the fact that punitive fees (i.e. charges that do not reflect the actual costs incurred) are unenforceable in court.

Therefore this ruling does not effect the unlawfulness of the charges, but merely restricts the amount of profit that can be generated by over zealous credit card companies and banks.

grumbler

inmypocketnottheirs wrote:

Banks have a responsibility to ensure that their charges are moral, ethical...

Why? Is this only for banks or for all companies? IMO 'moral' and 'ethics' are too loose consepts to build business relations on and can be used only as an addition to T&C.

P.S. BTW when I asked you once about the Banking Code you referred to, you failed to answer me ...