MSE News: CONFIRMED - OFT gives up bank charges battle

MrLeeLee

chris1huk wrote: »

I think it's unfair for people to judge me and others without knowing our situations..
This forum is about reclaiming bank charges.. whats the point of coming here if you are only going to try to wind people up?

Surely that would be like me joining an x factor forum and saying how rubbish it is etc.. theres no point to it

A good post by dunstonh there.. offering good points.. although he isnt for the reclaiming, he isn't judging anyone.

Finally a worthwhile post.

Agree 100% with your comment, It never fails to surprise me how many people come on the RECLAIMING part of this board whenever a decision goes against the reclaimers just to 'stick the boot in'. Not only is it sad, it's shows they don't have a lot going on in life if that's all they can do!

-edit-

People are saying it 'puts people off' by having such high charges, well actually it doesn't, it just gets you into uncontrollable debt very quickly. If the money isn't there, then you shouldn't be able to use your card. They should charge you like 50p for any letters they need to send you to inform you that you tried to make a payment when you had no money.

I don't care if i'm at Tescos and the payment can't be made, i'll have to take everything back. Now that would put me off!

If a electric bill needs to be paid, and there isn't enough money in your account, it shouldn't be paid, and you should have to deal with the electric company, if they don't like that you haven't paid, they should turn your electric off.

All this would be to complicated for the banks and wouldn't make them any money, so instead its bang bang bang, £50 in charges, deal with it.

orc_2

withabix wrote: »

I wonder how long it will be before banks start reclaiming the refunds paid out to date, or getting court judgements reversed....

Please provide facts for your statement.

Otherwise, please do not fabricate posts based on total nonsense. Totally unfair and shows a nasty streak as you are trying to wind people up and worry them without cause.

Anyone who has had bank charges repaid will NOT have to repay them.

Gorgeous_George

Anyone care to ask a question or two under the Freedom of Information Act?

"How much public money has the OFT [strike]wasted[/strike] spent fighting this case?"

"How many armoured vests could the MoD have bought with that money?"

GG

rachity

Bank charges on UO's are penalties - to argue 'not' is just sophistry!!

Edinburghlass_2

By all means discuss the news story but please no name calling

KimYeovil

LilacPixie wrote: »

I am disappointed. I have no bank charges so it's not that the OFT decision affects me personally but I do feel the OFT has failed consumers probably to protect the banks themselves. The OFT should be impartial and acting for consumers and not bowing to government pressure which IMO it has.

Banks are majorly government owned and the share prices would of took a huge hit today if the OFT were continuing.

Nonsense. It's a rare victory in this cut-throat world of the rich continuing to have to subsidise the poor. This may be unfair but it is not unreasonable. There are plenty of other areas left where rich consumers can continue to laugh at the poor. Bank charges are not one of them. If you can afford to trigger the charge you are not poor in the first place. Poor people do not pay bank charges.

fermi

orc wrote: »

Anyone who has had bank charges repaid will NOT have to repay them.

Exactly.

Can the bank ask for my money back?

I've successfully reclaimed charges, can the bank ask for my money back?

A. No. Previous bank charges payouts were made as 'goodwill gestures', as the banks did not want to set a precedent. As such, the money is yours and it cannot ask for it back.

UncleJaysus

musical_norwich wrote: »

Why should those who knew what the bank charges were, but carried on spending money that wasn't theirs, be rewarded retrospectively for their behaviour by the courts?

It is annoying how many people miss the point.

The point is, banking should be fair. Simple. How people use their accounts and why they get into trouble is not the issue at all.

Another arguement I see quite a lot is from people who single-mindedly support the banks on this because they personally don't want to see free banking lost. Never mind that it's the poorest customers paying for this, or that it's the banks own fault for making money in that way to begin with - or even that the whole thing isn't fair - as long as those who stay in credit don't have to pay a monthly fee, the banks can do whatever to the poorest customers, right?

Sickens me how self involved and unsympathetic people can be to the greater problems that exist today.

I'd gladly pay monthly for my banking if it meant those that go into unauthorised borrowing didn't get hit with fines that dig them even further into a financial hole.

Anyway, a moot point I suppose, considering the banks have paid off the right people rather than doing the right thing.

And lastly, here's another idea: why don't the banks simply prevent people from going into unauthorised borrowing? Ie, if a customer has an overdraft of £500 and attempts to go £550 overdrawn, the system simply doesn't let them?

As the self-righteous keep pointing out, the money isn't theirs, so why should the banks give it to them? Oh, of course, because banks want people to get into trouble, so they can bleed people of cash they don't have.

What a lovely, lovely world.

Gorgeous_George

I have some sympathy with KimYeovil's view. I am not wholly against bank charges/penalties. However, the way that they are recovered concerns me.

Where a bank customer incurs charges, those charges should be billed to the customer and the customer should choose how to pay. Perhaps by credit card, from another bank account or from savings. At the moment banks simply take the money at an inconvenient time of their choosing - usually a month or so after the charges were suffered and mid-month or just after a statement date.

GG

orc_2

KimYeovil wrote: »

Poor people do not pay bank charges.

Can you please provide the research or facts that you base this "statement" on.

Sorry, but you are totally and utterly wrong on that- the statement is complete and utter nonsense.