Credit card consumers should take action to reclaim unfair fees

Over recent months there has been a raging war on between bank customers and consumer groups against many of the UK's major banks, and this has all resulted from what has been classed as illegal fees that banks have been applying to consumers' accounts for many years. Unpaid direct debts, bouncer cheques, and exceeding the overdraft limit on their accounts has cost consumers millions of pounds, and banks have made huge profits from applying these hefty charges.

However, the Office of Fair Trading concluded last year that the fees that banks were charging – which in some cases amounted to nearly forty pounds per fee – were unjustified and were actually illegal charges that did not reflect the actual administrative costs incurred by the banks. The OFT stated that banks incurred costs of just a few pounds for bounced cheques, exceeding credit limits, and unpaid direct debits, yet in some cases were charging ten times that amount for no apparent reason. As a result thousands of bank customers are now reclaiming millions of pounds in fees back from the banks.

However, it seems that although bank customers have been pretty quick to act on reclaiming these unfair fees credit card customers have been much slower to act, even though they could benefit from the same rights when it comes to unjustified fees that have been charged by credit card companies and banks. Experts and consumers groups are now urging credit card consumers to check over their credit card statements for the last six years in order to look into reclaiming unfair penalty charges that may have been applied to the account. For some this could run into hundreds or even thousands of pounds. Consumers can get copies of their card statements from their credit card company, although there may be a small administrative charge applied.