BBC Website on Charges

SparciaM

On the BBC Business website today, it shows how to claim back your bank charges. It even lets you print out the letter to send to banks to get the charges back.

I do agree that banks are charging too much, but I think it's all going to go tits up, espicially with the BBC getting involved. I reckon free banking will end this year next and year and we'll all have to pay for an account like FD are doing.

If everything goes tits up and people like myself who never go OD and never get charged start having to pay for a bank account, or something else gets brought it, will we be able to decide how we use our money. Will we be able to not have a bank account and pay for things with cash?!?

mouse_potato

Link to that story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6169539.stm

BBC's How to Claim Back Penalty Charges: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6170209.stm

You could also use MSE's new board - 'Reclaim Your Bank Charges' as this gives you all the info you need + template letters & a calculator to work out interest:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=102

Keith

SparciaM wrote:

If everything goes tits up and people like myself who never go OD and never get charged start having to pay for a bank account

Strange how your sig says

HSBC Overdraft: £1500 @ 0% until 2008

LOST

seen Martin on BBC breakfast this morning too

Rafter

Sparcia,

Not wishing to be controversial, but should your free banking be subsidised by unlawfully high bank charges?

Other countries, Holland for example manage perfectly well with no charges - your account is just frozen if you try to buy things with money you don't have.

I'm sure free banking will continue in some form but probably only for accounts operated online, with no cheque books and no interest on current accounts.

If you want to continue to use cheques (which cost 50p+ to process) receive paper bank statements (25p a time), or get interest on your current account you are probably going to have to pay something or maintain a minimum balance or activity in your account.

Good on the BBC - perhaps one bank will break ranks and reduce their charges to £12 before the OFT make them do it - the current cartel like behaviour is ripping customers off to the tune of over £100 million a month and has to be stopped.

R.

Paul_Herring

Keith wrote:

SparciaM wrote:

If everything goes tits up and people like myself who never go OD and never get charged start having to pay for a bank account

Strange how your sig says

HSBC Overdraft: £1500 @ 0% until 2008

Perhaps they meant unauthorised overdraft (they type that incurs these fees)?

umami

Sparcia you could ,if you have time, go to https://www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox and click on to read the transcript for mon.4th dec. programme, you, may be, might change your present point of view.
There is a banking code chap talking about it.

Paul_Herring

Rafter wrote:

Sparcia,

Not wishing to be controversial, but should your free banking be subsidised by unlawfully high bank charges?

The other side of this coin is "why should people, who can run their accounts correctly, subsidise the costs of those who cant, by paying a monthly fee?"

umami

Ooops it is still the bbc, sorry Sparcia.

icklejulez

How about this:

http://money.aol.co.uk/money-news?CLI=16559150

Only costs bank £2.50

sgx.saint

who can run their accounts correctly, subsidise the costs of those who cant

Let's not forget that it isn't always about how you run your account that can lead you into receiving penalty charges.

Sometimes it is completey beyond your control what happens to you financially and as a result you get charged by your bank.

I was a financial advisor in a previous life and I ran my multiple accounts better than most people. However circumstances changed and I had to quite my job and stop working. As a result I couldn't afford to repay all my creditors at the contractual amounts and thus now, whilst a year into a self managed DMP I probably have been charged around £5K in charges.

So, as I say, I ran my account perfectly until I was forced into this situation financially.

I only say this because, I don't like it when people assume that everyone reclaiming bank charges are people who are poor with money management and just trying to flaunt the system.

I can say for one that if the law states that these type of charges are illegal, then why not pursue our legal right to reclaim them?

I do agree that some of the time, it is down to poor money management and in those cases perhaps a late payment fee is a good thing as it provides a 'kick up the backside' and reminder never to do it again.

But for the thousands of people in my circumstances, these heavy charges penalise us for being in debt and just add to the problem.

Anyway, please don't take my post as a declaration of war. I just wanted to express my opinion.