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[Nickbat]

You ALL seem to be missing the elephant in the room!

"The 1999 Regulations were made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 in order to transpose into national law Council Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms in consumer contracts."

The "victory” then, is one for EU law – which completely goes against the grain of expectations. As for the "Supreme" court, all it was doing was interpreting the diktats of our masters in Brussels. But, as always, in none of the MSM accounts does one see any reference to this.

The Times rails that the "decision is bad for consumers and competition" but it does not tell us why it was made. The invisible "elephant in the room", as always, is positively thriving.

Thus we get Money Mail assistant editor James Coney lamenting "If OFT can't decide bank charges are unfair, who can?" The answer, of course, is "the EU stoopid". But we are not allowed to know this.

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/11/stunning-victory.html

Sorry, I forgot I wasn't allowed to post this as it reveals me to be a "Little Englander". 

[tunnie]

i went over drawn once, they refunded me when i queried it. Asked if i wanted an over-draft setup (i had none before) its now set at £250. Charges are a pain, but i don't see why they are 'unfair'

[Kevin Wood]

Banks charging to send letters is particularly rich. Mine send me junk mail about once a week trying to persuade me to take out a loan. If I charged them £30 a letter to receive them I reckon they'd think twice.

Many charges in life are unfair. I think most train fares are unfair, and don't reflect the true cost of providing the service - so I drive. I think the cost of a brand new car doesn't provide good value for money - so I buy second hand. I think £90 a bottle Champagne tastes like Asti Spumante, so guess what I don't drink?

There are always choices to be made, and, whilst the high street banks do have a bit of a monopoly, which limits choice, you can still choose to avoid their charges if you consider them to be excessive. They will dangle every carrot they can find to persuade you to misbehave, but you don't have to take the bait.

Kevin

[Lazydocker]

I must confess, I am one of the many who have a claim outstanding with the bank. I don't have an issue with a reasonable charge for going overdrawn but my biggest concern is that I got caught in a downwards spiral.

I made the mistake of going overdrawn... It was completely my fault and a miscalculation on my part. I went into the Bank and asked for an overdraft increase of £200 to ensure I had no more charges and confessed it was completely my fault but I didn't want to get hit by more charges because I was living on a very tight budget (couldn't afford to go out anywhere other than work and shops for food!) and couldn't afford them. Even told them to reduce the overdraft buy £50/month to get it back to the agreed level.

Computer says no

That one event led to a spiral of charges month after month and totalled over £1700 Just because they refused to help out. I accept that I made the initial mistake but it was the banks charges which caused other DD to fail. In more than one case I had sufficient funds in the account to pay a DD, but the bank took their fees and left insufficient funds for the DD, hitting me with more charges

Anyway... Never mind. Those days are behind me and, even though I had a verbal agreement my claim was going to be settled before all the High Court stuff started, I'll crack on with life. The refunded would have been nice but I wasn't relying on them

[cam2502]

i went over drawn once, they refunded me when i queried it. Asked if i wanted an over-draft setup (i had none before) its now set at £250. Charges are a pain, but i don't see why they are 'unfair'

i went 38p.....38p, overdrawn couple of years ago...and the bank charged me £38!!!!! how the hell can anyone call that fair!!!!

[Harison213]

i went over drawn once, they refunded me when i queried it. Asked if i wanted an over-draft setup (i had none before) its now set at £250. Charges are a pain, but i don't see why they are 'unfair'

i went 38p.....38p, overdrawn couple of years ago...and the bank charged me £38!!!!! how the hell can anyone call that fair!!!!

I'm with ^^^^ 

And back to my note about taking money out of atm, if you have say £300 in your account on Friday no matter how much money you take out on Saturday/Sunday (obviously less than £300), unless they've changed it since it'll still say you can withdraw £300 on the receipt when you take out cash or balance enquiry. IMO this is bank's problem not mine!

Funniest of all Barclays send a letter and said because this was your 1st OD, if you don't go overdrawn throughout next year this will automatically be refunded. Not only it didn't, but also they gave me bull$hit when I mentioned this a year later!!

Another thing which is unfair is when they decide not to bounce a check or DD just to make your account go overdrawn and then charge you for going OD!

And finally not everything is fair just because you've signed a T&Cs agreement. Unfair terms in an agreement, even after you've signed them, shall meet the requirements of The Unfair (Contract) Terms Act. If you read your bank's T&C you'll notice they have the right to charge you if you go OD, etc. and the charges may change from time to time. They can charge you whatever damn they please for going OD and this is what's not fair.

Yes you should be in control of your money at all times, but this doesn't take away the responsibilities of teh bank towards you.

I now  have an angry face

[threppence]

im on my phone but couldn't resist: i got money out of atm on a saturday and the receipt says i have 300 left. i got money out of atm on sunday and it says 300 left!! then got charged for going od cuz i only had 300 in account on friday but the computer doesn't update balance over weekend ! who's fault is that?

The only way you can truly lose track of what you have is if you have hundreds of thousands at the least, monetary levels that don't make at least 3 zero's on a weekly basis aren't going to confuse anybody IMO.

I used a debit card for a £10 transaction--5 months later I had 3 small direct debits returned unpaid costing me charges of £105.The DD's were for £1.99 each, I checked the day  before and had about £9 in account, never have much in anyway, however the debit card transaction from 5 months earlier had come out overnight thus resulting in £105 of charges for a total account activity of £16.The limitation on debit card transactions I was told is 6 months from the date of purchase.

You don't need a vast amount in you account to lose track when things like this occurr.£105 is twice my weekly Carers Allowance and nearly all of my wife's Incapacity Benefit.

I learnt my lesson, if places don't take cash they don't get my business.

Plus another £28 at the end of next month for going overdrawn--£133 in total

[Harison213]

im on my phone but couldn't resist: i got money out of atm on a saturday and the receipt says i have 300 left. i got money out of atm on sunday and it says 300 left!! then got charged for going od cuz i only had 300 in account on friday but the computer doesn't update balance over weekend ! who's fault is that?

The only way you can truly lose track of what you have is if you have hundreds of thousands at the least, monetary levels that don't make at least 3 zero's on a weekly basis aren't going to confuse anybody IMO.

I used a debit card for a £10 transaction--5 months later I had 3 small direct debits returned unpaid costing me charges of £105.The DD's were for £1.99 each, I checked the day  before and had about £9 in account, never have much in anyway, however the debit card transaction from 5 months earlier had come out overnight thus resulting in £105 of charges for a total account activity of £16.The limitation on debit card transactions I was told is 6 months from the date of purchase.

You don't need a vast amount in you account to lose track when things like this occurr.£105 is twice my weekly Carers Allowance and nearly all of my wife's Incapacity Benefit.

I learnt my lesson, if places don't take cash they don't get my business.

Plus another £28 at the end of next month for going overdrawn--£133 in total

 

I am lucky enough to have accountancy knowledge and these days I use an application to keep track of my finance. BUT, people don't need to be accountants to credit an "accounts payable" for a £10 transaction which pops out of nowhere in 5 months time!!

£133 charge for this amount of money is ridiculous. Now tell me if you still think this is fair because he's signed the T&C!

[omegod]

Have had about £9000 back for friends and family.

Yes we have to control our own cash but we generally are at our lowest ebb when getting t*atted by these excessive, repetitive charges so I feel they are wrong by their level and ferocity.