Claiming O/D charges CAUSED by illegal charges

Suffolk2007

Hi - I'm about to claim £2000 of charges (those I believe to be illegal) but have not included the normal Overdraft charges each month. As my overdraft is also around the £2000 mark, I believe that the 'legitimate' overdraft fee is largely based on an overdraft contributed in a major way by the illegal charges. I hope that makes sense?!
Is there possible to claim part of these 'legit' OD charges back? And how to calculate them?
Thanks for any advice - I have looked on the articles etc and couldn't see this issue.

Edinburghlass_2

First off none of the charges are illegal, the amount that is charged is considered unlawful and this is why the banks may well be forced to reduce them.

Using the Interest Calculator is where you then get the interest back as you enter each charge in with the date it was charged which means that any charge made back in 2002 will have a higher interest "rate" than one charged in 2005.

Have a read of the post by Rex_Mundi in the Reclaim Help Thread about interest, the link is in my signature.

Suffolk2007

Thanks Edninburgh - but I don't mean interest on the 'unlawful charges' - I mean normal overdraft charges (which you wouldn't normally be able to reclaim - I understand that - but if the 'unlawful' charges have caused the overdraft, (or a large part of it), than surely the normal overdraft fee itself is unlawful?

Edinburghlass_2

Contractual interest

This is what you see on your bank statements charged by the bank when you go overdrawn. It appears on your statement as 'INTEREST', or 'INT'.

There are normally two different interest rates charged. A lower rate is charged when you are overdrawn, but still within your agreed overdraft limit. Under no circumstances can this interest be reclaimed. There is a higher rate of interest (up to 29.9%) charged when you go over your overdraft limit (unnauthorised overdraft). This is a bit trickier to deal with. You cannot claim any of this interest if your spending has caused you to go over your overdraft limit, but you can claim this interest on any bank charges that have caused this. The problem with this is working out the interest only on the charges. It can be difficult to get right, and you have to be very accurate with your figures in case the bank at any stage challenges them. Generally, most people don't claim this interest.

Sign up for CAG and you can read about this interest there.