Bank charges

dchurch24

Georgie,

the answer is to sue them for recovery of the charges.

Penalty charges are unenforcable in British Law, which means that this money has been taken illegally from you.

A penalty charge is so called when:

a.) The sum is a penalty if it is greater than the greatest loss which could be suffered from the breach. (Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. v. New Garage and Motor Co. Ltd. (1915))

b.) If it agreed that a larger sum shall be payable in default of paying a smaller sum, this is a penalty. (Ford Motor Co. v. Armstrong (1915))

I quoted these cases in a letter to HFC Bank, and sure enough, the charges were returned to me. They also negotiated a final settlement payment rather than go to court.

See Anson's Law of Contract, [ANSON, W.R. Anson's Law of Contract. Oxford: OUP, 2002] - this should list more cases, and defines exactly the difference in contract law, between punative charges and liquidated damages.

See also, https://www.bankchargeshell.co.uk.

Good luck.

Dammam

In answer to the original question, I would say no, those charges aren't fair. Sure, it was your fault that the money was being spent when it wasn't in the bank but does it really take £15 plus to send you an automated letter telling you you're overdrawn?
I would have said that you can't fight it, but the post above and the recent court case in which a bank didn't contest that its' charges were unfairly high make me wonder about that.

On the "expecting taxpayers to pay for you" line in one of the replies, well, I've had the misfortune to be made redundant and have to claim benefits for almost a year. Having served my country in the Gulf and the Falklands and also having worked before this continuosly from age 17 to 36, contributing my taxes along the way, I felt entitled to the help. How greedy of me! Now I'm back working and contributing again, I have no problems in part of my money going into JSA, Maternity benefits etc.

Right, I'm away to practice being as perfect as certain other people on this thread - wish me luck, it may take some time.

James240

u go Dammam!!! hehehehehe :T

davidcampbell

Right, I'm away to practice being as perfect as certain other people on this thread - wish me luck, it may take some time.

let u know when you get there

Dammam

I was having a bad day :-)

Of course, I'm already perfect.

Robert_Sterling_3

Hi Georgie.

You had an account which had a credit limit.
You also had a list of terms and conditions albeit in small print.
You exceeded your credit limit on numerous occassions but not by a large amount.
Because your transactions were all separately under £50 they did not get stopped at the point of sale. You got fined £30 per transaction.
The bank imposed the fines automatically in accordance with the terms and conditions and without, I guess any human intervention.
So far so good ( or so bad ).

I would write to the bank stating the above facts and admitting that they had acted in accordance with the terms and conditions.

I would say that I accepted that they were entitled to impose the fines.

I would go on to say that having regard to all the circumstances and the fact that the total amount overdrawn was £62 and the total of the fines exceeded £400 did that not agree with you that the imposition of these fines was somewhat harsh.
I would ask if they would make you an exgratia repayment of all but £30 of the fines.

It seems reasonable to me that they should do so since if you had been allowed to take the £62 in one transaction you would have only had one fine and the transaction may have been blocked altogether resulting in no fine.

If you do take this course of action please let us know how you get on.

Good Luck.