The Main Steps To Reclaiming Unfair Bank Charges. Background To Reclaiming Unfair Bank Charges
The initial step to reclaiming your bank fees is very quick – write to the bank and ask for your money back! Yes, really!!! The letter, using a standard letter format (your address etc at the top) should give a reference of your bank account and include the date it was written.
Then, tell them that you are wanting a refund of all fees applied to your account in the past 6 years. Remind them that Under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 fees must reflect administration costs and cannot be punitive. Then list the charges you have incurred and the amounts involved in each, pointing out that you do not believe the amounts to reflect the true cost to the bank.
Next, state the total amount that you have been charged and request that they refund it to you.
Finally, ask them to return the money in full within 14 days, or you will commence a claim against them for the entire amount, plus interest and costs. If you are at all uncertain, plenty of websites show example letters and include calculators to determine what you are owed.
You have given the bank 2 weeks to respond, so if it doesn’t give them a reminder and phone them. They might try to stall by offering a reply at a later date. In this case, write & phone warning them that you are offering them an additional 14 days before commencing court proceedings.
Another trick the banks have used is to tell customers that they are mistaken and cannot claim refunds or that the charges are not unfair. In this case, you are probably still at the position of a second letter and then start court action.
If they reply offering the full amount then you have won. If they offer a partial repayment then you have to take a decision as to whether it’s enough or whether you wish to continue. If the amount of fees involved are low or the proportion they are offering to repay is high, then the effort of continuing a reclaim might make acceptance a better option. But if they are giving a very low offer, there might be good rewards in holding out for the full amount. Only you can decide.
If you haven’t got the result you want through these steps, then it’s time to resort to bluffing your bank with court action. If your claim is for less than £5,000, then you can go through the small claims court, even using the online system! If your reclaim than £5,000, then see if you can reduce the claim, either by not claiming all fees (for example if the claim is £5,001) or if the charges relate to more than one account, make multiple smaller reclaims.
At this point you then need to check how much a claim is going to cost you to start (you can reclaim for costs if you win / the bank does not defend the case). Then you can start the proceedings. But that is beyond the scope of this small writeup!
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