MSE News: Bank charges: banks win test case appeal

ILW

angelflower wrote: »

I do appreciate a lot of the comments from those people who have been successful in managing their finances well and I can certainly understand where you are coming from however, you must recognise that for many people, getting bank charges is not something they planned for nor want, and definately cannot afford. Bank charges happen for many reasons and the problems occur when daily charges are applied or charges are applied on top of charges etc. It is extrememly difficult for people to recover from the spiral just one charge can spark.

I know that when I took out an account, I agreed to pay charges however always hoped (and for the most part planned) to always be in the black. When you lose your job though and you have £20 left in the bank, your electric meter has run out and your kids havent eaten that day, you take the money thats there, hoping and praying you find a way to raise enough cash to put the money back before the direct debit comes out. Sometimes it works and other times it doesnt.

I do hope that for those of you up there on your high horse that you never have a period of poverty where you have to make those types of decisions because now the banks have been given this permission to make the charges whatever they deem fit, you will all end up paying now.

On that basis, is it OK to go into a shop and take goods without paying and expect no comeback if caught. I cannot see the difference between taking something from M & S or Natwest bank without permission. Someone will no doubt correct me though.

GeorgeUK

Why are people saying this is a good thing as it means they will get to continue with free banking? There is no guarantee with this and the industry seems to be moving towards this more and more - not long ago they were trying to get us to pay for using another banks cash machine. I personally don't think it will be too long before they start charging for having a basic account.

Credit card charges - You can reclaim these charges even if they are under £12. The OFT said they wouldn't get involved in cases where the charge was under this, but they didn't say that this was a fair amount. If the bank is making a profit from the charge they should refund it.

There was a whistleblower programme a few years ago that showed that dealing with the bank charges cost the bank about 80p per transaction.

The ruling today was on the question of fairness. Is it disputed that these are penalty charges? If not then surely they are not allowed to make a profit on these charges and should be forced to produce their costings for the various charges.

NeOne303

More than agree with the above comment but at the end of the day when the charges are adding up to £1000's each year, snowballing due to not being able to cover the fees I think something should be done...

It is a disgrace when the taxpayer bails the banks out when they are in hardship but they cant help their customers out when they are in need... without us the banks wouldn't exist, I feel like my money would be safer under my matress!!!

rambi-bambo

Mass protest time !!!!

dirtydavey

Harry_Powell wrote: »

The problem here is that you don't understand the concept of living within your means and saving up. You expect the bank to underpin your poor budgeting by lending you money (without even being asked to do so).

If you spent all your money and then started dipping into mine without asking, I'd charge you too!

Life for you may be that simple but for the rest of us its not.

I dont want to dip into my banks money and have begged them not to let me. But its a "serivce" that I pay for. And again, I am quite happy to be charged for that, but at a fair rate. Not just for the banks to pick a number out of the air. Hmm lets say £35 for going 1p over.

I am happy for you that you have not got into this sitiatiuon but it could happen to you to.

One month you are charged for somthing you did not expect (even though you bugeted) I was charged too much by vodaphone this put me over my limit meaning that other iteams of a lesser cost where taken. And each charged at £35, I eneded up being charged over £150, vodaphone saw the problem and refunded me my money. But not my charges.

How now with my budget, can I affrod to live £135 down, that was a massive percnet of what I earn every month. So dont talk to me about buget.

Eggyplop

berkshirelady wrote: »

Someone has suggested we close our accounts and move elsewhere. I would dearly like to be able to do this, but when I've been trying to pay off 2 OD's which despite all the payments keep getting bigger because the bank arbitrarily lowers the OD limits, applies interest which busts those limits and then applies penalty charges, I'm going round in circles. I owe £600 more on these accounts than I did a year ago and haven't made a single withdrawal from either in 15 months. I have a complaint in with FoS about this but the bank tells me I can't close the accounts until they're at zero balance or in credit. So - in the absence of a fairy god mother with ££££'s, what can I do?

I like the idea of a mass queue at local branches to ask for charges back, in person. Peaceful direct action, and easy to organise via mobile phones, facebook, twitter etc. I'm free this Saturday morning!

Hey

What i did was get a new account with a different bank and get my wages paid into the new account. I then wrote to lloyds telling them i will pay back the over draft but in my own time.
Seemed to work for me Good luck!

zeushelmet

What a load of crap, I have read the full document issued by the so called supreame court and that document in itself is not clear. The lords writing these rules are obyiously very litterate and good with words so they can understand the banks written rules but and a !!!!ing big but, most of england are just standard people who find the bank rules unclear, how can the lords make such a rulling when they dont understand the simple question about being unclear. The general public have much more common sense and are more practical even if the rule makers can write, there useless at just about everything else. In my view its very clear, the government has had a word, say no more, but if the banks had to pay back what they had basically stollen from us, (£10bn.) most of them would go out of business and that wouldnt look good for the gov's unemployment figures. Look out everyone i say, they will be chargeing you to breath next. sorry about the spelling, very !!!!ed off right now and im only normal.............................................. !!!!!!s.

CHESHIRE_LASS_2

In reply to SimonP. We had an overdraft limit of £400 then two mortgage payments wrongly went out in one month. This left us without a penny and two weeks till payday I even had to borrow the bus fare to work.
Neither the bank nor the mortgage company would take responsibilty for this. The bank should have bounced the second dd but it didn't then they wrote to tell us we were £800 overdrawn and charged us £25 for the letter. The overdraft charges and interest just mounted and mounted after that. I did complain to the FSA but they said they would not take any action.

So Simon P if £800 suddenly disappeared from your bank account through no fault of your own how would you feel?

claireh2284_2

Knackered wrote: »

This forum is for people who are trying to reclaim money the bank has taken from them. It is NOT for people in ivory towers to saunter into, casting their pathetic judgmental gaze over everyone and patronising people with their smugness.

i set my direct debits to come out on the 28th, the bank lets them go on the 26th so i have no money in my account on that day, then i get charged. i change the date of my direct debit to the 24th and the same thing happens. we manage to scrimp and scrape and sort things out so we dont go over our overdraft or even in to our overdraft and then my partner is mad redundant twice in 8 months. the banks are getting an easy ride. i opened my bank account so my wages could be paid into it, if it wasnt done by bacs then i could get a cheque so i could cash it in town for 15% of the cheque or put it in the bank. you clearly have no idea. i hope you never find yourself in a similar situation.

qprfcmark

EMAIL THE SUPREME COURT AND TELL THEIR LORDS***S THAT THEY CAN STICK THEIR JUDGEMENT WHERE THE SUN DON'T SHINE!!!!!!

enquiries@supremecourt.gsi.gov.uk