There used to be a time when banks were seen as the go-to place for keeping your finances safe but nowadays these institutions are imposing all sorts of unfair bank charges to their customers that you may actually end up spending more than what you’re actually saving. This isn’t to say however, that you should do away with bank services all together but the reality is, these institutions employ a lot of tricks to get you to spend more of your hard-earned money.
In the past incurring bank charges on your bank account was a regular event for many residents in the United Kingdom. Although people believed that these were unfair, in the majority of cases there was little that many people could do about them. However that is changing, due to a recent ruling by the UK Financial Regulators.
Charges applied to customers’ accounts for exceeding over draft limits, or returning cheques for example were not deemed reflective of the actual bank charges incurred by the banks. For this reason customers are now being encouraged to try and reclaim any fees they have been charged in the last six years.
If you want to reclaim bank charges that are placed on your account, you will of course need to know the amount of money which you feel you are owed. If you don’t tend to keep your bank statements, then all hope is not lost. You can request your bank to send you a list of bank charges placed on your account in the last six years. If you do this, by law they have forty days to respond, and they are not allowed to charge you more than £10 for this service.
If you have a letter sent to you from your bank with the total amount and sum of the charges on your bank, you now need to compile a letter to the bank or banks in question. Your letter doesn’t need to be constructed by a solicitor, nor does it have to be particularly lengthy, but does need to state that due to the ruling by the office of fair trading, you are requesting the money that you have paid in bank charges, either refunded into your bank account, or if the account is closed, by cheque.
After you have sent the letter to your bank, it is advisable that you allow two weeks to for the bank to respond. If they fail to do so, then you will either need to write a follow up letter, or make a phone call. You should politely advise the bank that you feel you are owed money and you are considering court action to get a satisfactory result. Usually the banks will respond to this to avoid having to appear in court, but if not, the most convenient way to start proceedings is to register the case online via the courts money claims service.