This might be contoversial but...

catkins

I have recently claimed back £2,000 and have no qualms whatsoever about doing so. I have no debt but myself and OH do not earn that much and went through a bad period about 2 years ago. Although the bank in question knew our monthly wages would go in they still charged us if there were £29 in the account and a direct debit for £30 was to go out. £30 a time soon mounts up.

hobo28

I sort of agree with manofthemoment. For me reclaiming your bank charges is getting out of hand.

Of course for those who have gone over by a little bit then its unfair to penalise them. But there are more and more people who have managed their finances badly and are jumping on the bandwagon and reclaiming their charges.

There NEEDS to be some sort of penalty for those who go into unauthorised overdraft, otherwise whats the point in a bank account? Might as well just keep taking money out.

The problem I see is that current accounts make very little money for the banks. The more problems we create, the less likely they are to remain free. You only have to look abroad. We moaned like hell when banks said they were going to start charging for cash machines. But in the US, thats par for the course.

We are very lucky to get free banking in this country and it annoys me that this is increasingly being put at risk by those who cannot/will not manage their finances properly and are ruining it for the rest of us.

Personally I would like to see all banks give a free overdraft of £100 providing the money is paid off within say a week. That way people don't get hammered for little amounts and there's still an incentive to balance your account.

catkins wrote:

I have recently claimed back £2,000 and have no qualms whatsoever about doing so. I have no debt but myself and OH do not earn that much and went through a bad period about 2 years ago. Although the bank in question knew our monthly wages would go in they still charged us if there were £29 in the account and a direct debit for £30 was to go out. £30 a time soon mounts up.

We all go through bad patches but its not the banks fault is it? You have a duty to keep your account in order.

Now you've claimed it all back, whats the disincentive to go overdrawn again?

ThisNameIsTaken_2

I went to Natwest to ask for a temporary overdraft extension to cover a direct debit that was coming out and was told this would not be possible.
I was charged £35 for the failed direct debit, which took me over my over draft limit.
This was then charged £50 for unarranged borrowing.
Because of that I was then short of money when I got paid which meant I could not pay the £200 I owed to Egg, who the direct debit was going to.
Egg then charged me for missed payments on my loan and threatened to terminate it.
I contacted Natwest to tell them about the situation and was offered advice on how to manage my account and asked if I would like to apply for an overdraft extension.
Er, isn't that what I tried to do anyway.
Ultimately I managed to change the date of my direct debit to Egg so it did not happen again but Natwest still cost me money despite the fact I tried to go down the right paths.
Maybe you've been lucky and never had any problems with your bank, but there's plenty of people on here who have been royally b*ggered and deserve to get some revenge.
Also, do you genuinely believe it costs £35 to send a letter, or £50 because someone is a few quid over a limit - er no.
So may I suggest you go to a board where your mindless comments will be welcomed - i.e Natwest's board of directors.

aderbyshirelad

hobo28 wrote:

There NEEDS to be some sort of penalty for those who go into unauthorised overdraft, otherwise whats the point in a bank account? Might as well just keep taking money out.

Exactly. Now whether or not the penalty you describe or advocate comes into being, who knows. But then it would be part of the terms and conditions of the account. You would have signed up for it. Reclaiming bank charges is NOT getting out of hand. How can you say that? How can anyone think that individuals claiming back money which was illegally taken from them is a bad thing?

The whys and wherefores of peoples' fiscal responsibility or lack thereof is actually irrelevant in this matter.

Rex_Mundi

I don't see that reclaiming bank charges is getting out of hand. I see it as people asserting their rights under the law.

If the banks were forthright and published their true costs (and only charged this amount). They would be able to charge you for going overdrawn or stopping payments, and not make any loss on the transaction. If they did this, and only charged what it cost them. Nobody could claim back these charges because the bank would have charged what they allowed to as stated by the law.

Nobody is saying that banks should make a loss on customers that have problems with their accounts, but as it stands, they are making huge profits from these charges (IIRC £3 billion last year). These profits are unlawful (as the law stands), and immoral (profiting from the people that can least afford it).

ALTEA

manofthemoment wrote:

Why do people think they have a divine right to get all this money back. Banks have to manage their money to make money for the shareholders. If their customers abuse their accounts by borrowing from them without permission and spending irresponsibly, then this stops them from managing their business effectively. The terms of bank accounts, loans and credit cards are set out and you agree to them when you take out the product, so how can you complain when the charges are applied.

OK I got myself in debt, but I only missed one credit card payment and I got charged 30 quid, its a fair cop I missed the payment so I paid the fee without grumbling and made sure I payed it promptly the next time. Once when I was about to go past my overdraft limit I got off my !!!! and went to the bank to ask them for a temporary extension so that I was not borrowing without permission. They granted it and I had no extra charges applied. If you have these charges it is probably because you didn't do anything about it, so effectively you were using someone else's money without their permission. The charges have acted as a detterant for me stay within my limits, I don't think they should be considered unlawful because this will add to the culture of 'consequence free spending' that we are seeing at the moment.

I dont think that anyone is questioning charges its just that they seem to be excessive and hence demonstrates to some extent that the banks are out there to get what they can off the man on the street, so dont you think its high time that the worm turned?

thecornflake

Just to add my bit, the money should just stop going out when you hit your limit. The DDs would fail, and you'd get charged costs under breach of contratc law, e.g. a couple of pounds at most.

What winds me up is that the DD goes out of my account, incurring an overlimit chagre of £38 plus interest, then it goes back again, incurring a £38 charge for it failing. It should either go out or not.

Either way it's unlawful which kind of overrules eberythign else anyway.

How about me reclaiming all of my mortgage and secured loan early redemption charges (about £10,000)?

Once the fact you can do this starts getting publicised I can see some issues arising. Like will mortgage companies still offer special 2 year rates, if they're not going to be able to tie people in with ERCs any more?

fabianne

They should claim a reasonable cost for charges.They make millions a year from them. If they were lawful-there would have been cases before Court long,long before this situation could have been allowed to continue.
Barclays bank charges have been one of the main factors of me going out of business. It was a case of never being able to catch up although there was a good cashflow amount going in and waiting to clear-all these charges (£35 per bounced dd and then £30 paid referral fee=£65 per transaction) were applied and are way too high,especially when they are automated.A lot of small businesses are in the same vicious cycle and it is frustrating and concequences are heartbreaking,after all that hard work.
I look at how long it takes me to earn a whole £65 in my sky rocket and the effort that goes into it....
a lot longer than some machine in an air conned room in a server centre someone,churning them out by the hundreds per minute probably.
I have my claim in and am waiting for a Court date.

fabianne

I also think we should claim,at our personal hourly rate for having to spend the time messing about,calculating,checking,sending letters,arguing the point,researching our rights.
Plus phone calls,postage costs,printing costs,dial-up/Broadband costs etc.
Setting up new accounts for when it is all over.

Let's see if they think our costs are in proportion to the work that is being done?Mmmm???

Richard_Hodgey

IMO only Armaments Manufacturers are more insidious than banks. And it's still a photo finish.