Banks continue to take revenge against claimants

As the war against banks applying illegal charges to consumers' accounts continues to rage, the banks still seem hell bent on taking revenge against consumers that dare to question or try and reclaim penalty charges that have been applied for bounced cheques, unpaid direct debits, and over limit fees. The Financial Ombudsman Service now has another are to investigate on top of the so called illegal charges that banks have apparently been applying to accounts for years. The FOS is now looking into the matter of many banks closing or threatening to close the accounts of those that try and reclaim charges.

According to the Office of Fair Trading banks have been reaping billions of pounds from applying extortionate fees to consumers accounts if there is an unpaid direct debit, a bounced cheque, or if they exceed their overdraft limit even if only by a few pounds. The amount applied to the account can vary from one bank to another, but can reach nearly forty pounds – yet the administrative cost to the bank is only a few pounds, which is what has resulted in these charges being branded as illegal by the Office of Fair Trading.

Thousand of consumers have been contacting their banks in order to try and reclaim these fees going back up to six years, but the banks are not happy about the whole affair. Many are using delaying tactics or charging high prices for copies of statements, which are necessary in order to reclaim. However, banks are required to respond with a certain time frame and should be charging reasonable amounts for copies of statements. Another tactic being used by banks is to threaten account closure for those trying to reclaim, and a number of banks have already been pulled up on this matter.