Recover Unlawful Bank Charges

 

  

‘Default charge provisions are open to challenge on grounds of unfairness if they have the object of raising more in revenue than is reasonably expected to be necessary to recover certain limited administrative costs’

OFT April 2006

 

Nearly every business and individual in the country has at some time suffered extortionate charges by their bank for such things as exceeding an overdraft, late payment of a loan instalment or a credit card or having a payment returned.

 

An extreme example can be an account going overdrawn by a few pence and then having ‘fees’ added by the bank of £110.

 

Most people assume that because these charges are in the small print of the bank’s terms and conditions there is nothing you can do about them.

 

This is not true.  We can now advise that most, and quite possibly all, of these charges are likely to be unlawful and the road is open for anyone affected by these charges to claim refunds from the bank.  The law allows you to claim for all charges over the last six years. 

 

The matter has been examined recently by the Office of Fair Trading.  They published a report in April this year heavily criticising the banks and credit card companies for making these charges.  The OFT is now ordering all companies concerned to alter their practices in the future or face legal action from the government. 

 

This is likely to mean an end of these charges in the future.  However, even a modestly sized company may find that they have paid several thousands of pounds of these charges over the last few years.  Some medium sized firms are finding they have been wrongly charged tens of thousands.

 

There is potentially a severe impact on the bottom line of most businesses affected by these charges.

 

We are confident that in most cases we can recover these charges on your behalf, possibly with interest.  We are sensitive to the fact that you will not want to damage the relationship with your bank.  For this reason our method is based on principled negotiation backed up with reasoned legal arguments rather than a more aggressive approach. 

 

Our fee is only payable on the results we achieve for you.  If we recover nothing from you then there is no fee.  If we secure a refund then our fee is 25% + vat of the total you receive. 

 

Please contact us with your details so that we can advise whether you have cause to request refunds from your bank.  

 

You can complete the online form on this page so that we can arrange to discuss this further and / or act on your behalf.  Alternatively you can email me direct at Simon@NewmanAssociate.co.uk or if you prefer telephone me on 01302 570200.