For Your Information
Frequently Asked Questions Regarding
the Reclaim Bank Charges Process
What
exactly is the cost me if I employ your services?
You pay nothing up front; once the refund had been received from your bank, we charge 25% of the Total Amount
received, there is NO VAT on top. Also, as we calculate Statutory Interest against each individual amount charged this
adds to the total amount reclaimed.
Please
be wary of other companies who may offer lower percentages, look at their wording, do they say they'll only take 20% of charges,
if so they may be planning on keeping ALL the statutory interest, thereby costing you an awful lot more.
You pay NOTHING up front, if we don't win - we don't charge you for our time. If a case goes to Court,
we provide Representation at NO additional cost to you.
Who pays
the £10 fee and cost of postage for requesting copies of charges imposed by your Bank?
We do.
Who pays
the court fees if the claim goes to court?
If in the
unlikely event the bank defends the action we will pay the court fees. We take the full risk for the claim, if we
lose the claim, then we lose the court fees.
What will I have to do if you make a court claim?
Initially,
nothing, if the bank defends we may need to attend court. However, to-date banks have not yet defended a claim of this sort.
This is for the simple reason they know they cannot win. However, if they did defend, we will act as your Lay Representative.
This means although you will have to attend, we will do the talking. However, don't let this worry you. The banks do not want to go to
court and that means they’re settling left, right and centre. There are two likely reasons for this.
· The floodgates will open to millions. Possibly there’d even be a simple
‘reclaim process’ established. The risk of this happening therefore means even though the total banks’
settlement is currently in the millions, it’s better than billions.
· They don’t want to reveal their costs. Banks are massive international
companies for whom UK personal banking is just
one element of the business. For a court to fully decide on whether the cost is proportionate, it’d need to order
the banks to reveal their full internal cost structures. This could put a bank at a major competitive disadvantage, hence
the reluctance to do it
Will
the Bank close my account?
Unfortunately this
could happen, some banks have started closing the accounts of customers that have taken their claims to court. which is frankly
ludicrous, however, this may not be such a bad thing, Most people never change their bank account, which means you get a terrible
deal in terms of the credit interest on a positive balance and the debt interest on overdrafts. Banks don't reward loyalty.
Also, the Banking Code Standards Board has advised banks to deal with customers "sympathetically & politely" and not to
employ "a disproportionate response".
In order to counter
this, you may want to open another account in advance, so that you're ready to move your direct debits across immediately.
I have a loan with my bank, can they demand immediate repayment?
Unless your loan is in arrears a bank CANNOT demand immediate repayment.
The Official view
In April 2006, the Office of Fair Trading
opined that credit card charges were too high and should be reduced to £12, which most plastic providers have since done.
It’s undoubtedly a positive step, though many may still think £12 is too high; yet it adds weight to the case for reclaiming
charges as it makes all prior charges look too expensive.
How Long will my Claim take?
Unfortunately, despite what other people may promise, this
is NOT a quick process. In almost every case the banks will deny the claim, stating they believe their charges to be
fair as they are noted within their Terms & Conditions. In almost 80% of our cases we are having to commence proceedings
against the bank, when this happens it considerable lengthens the claims process are the courts are innundated with claims.
How
do charges get so big? Why are people reclaiming £1000s?
This is the invidious problem
with bank charges; they can spiral out of control, leaving little to be done. There are two steps to this:
- Lots
of charges in one go. The best way to explain this is with an example, from a caller to a Radio 2 phone-in. This particular lady had gone grocery shopping without realising she was at her overdraft
limit. She was subsequently slammed with a charge for each and every, separate
expenditure she made; meaning a £35 charge for a £2 bag of carrots. The overall result was a simple shopping trip caused
£100s in charges.
- Then the charges snowball. Imagine you go over your overdraft once and are then
charged fines for bounced cheques and direct debits. This leaves you £100 down, a sum you can’t afford to repay,
leading to more fines the next month, and so it continues, snowballing. This tragic scenario can put people thousands in debt for one simple mistake.
What if I am in an IVA (Individual Volutary Arrangement
) Situation?
If are you in IVA and the
Bank/Credit Card Company/Lender you wish to reclaim unfair bank charges from is one of the ones in your IVA, then when a refund
is due it will be used by them to reduce your debt with them. This means that you will NOT see any of the refund and
could actually be worse off as you will probaly not be able to pay the subsequent the invoice for our services.
Also, the part of
the debt they pay off with the refund will be the element you were originally 'let off' paying as
a result of your IVA, so reclaiming charges will NOT reduce your IVA payments.
You should only consider reclaiming from a Bank
or Credit Card company if they are not one of within
IVA or your IVA has completed.
What is the law entitling me to my bank charges back?
The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 states:
- (1) A contractual term which
has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes
a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.
An interpretation of this means where in the contract held with the bank, the bank states that it can charge its
customer should he/she exceeds his/her overdraft limit without prior agreement it should charge no more than the cost
incurred by the bank for the un-authorized lending. As a consequence, where the bank has charged you more than the cost to
itself for the unauthorized lending this is unenforceable by this law. It is in fact a penalty and therefore, irrecoverable
at common law.
The following is an extract:
1.16 In applying this test of fairness we have taken the view that a court would be likely to regard as unfair a default
charge provision that enabled the issuer to recover more than the damages which would be awarded at common law in the event
that a consumer was individually sued for breach of contract. Such a charge should therefore:
- reflect a reasonable pre-estimate
of the net limited additional administrative costs which occur as a result of the specific breaches of contract and which
can be identified with reasonable precision
- reflect a fair attribution
of those costs between defaulting customers
- be based on a genuine estimate
of the total numbers of expected instances of default in the relevant period, and
- treat costs, other than those
net limited additional administrative costs as a general overhead of the credit card business and disregard them for the purpose
of calculating a default fee. That said,
- we are not insisting that credit
card issuers have default charges that discriminate between the different types of default under consideration
- we accept a reasonable degree
of rounding in the level of the default charge calculated in accordance with these principles
Could I do this myself?
Of course you can and the following is a link to a very useful web site www.moneysavingsexpert.com
Unfortunately, most people have neither have the time nor the inclination to 'battle it out with their bank' and their
lies the issue 'their bank' most of us were brought up to respect bank and don't feel comfortable with challenging them but
most of us have suffered ridiculous bank charges without complaint, but most people prefer the 'distance' of using a
3rd party.
What happens next?
Currently banks simply haven’t contested cases as settling is cheaper;
they prefer to try and quietly shove the whole issue under a rather large carpet. However, as the number of people reclaiming
increases through the huge publicity it’s now attracting, at some point it will become worthwhile for the banks to fight
back.
At that point I suspect we’ll see this fought out
in a higher court which can set a precedent – probably with one huge class action. My hope is if that happens,
the banks will lose, but you can never be sure with the law.
If the banks lose money, who pays?
Many of the major credit card companies have already dropped their charges from
£30 to £12 on the back of the Office of Fair Tradings’ ruling that charges were too high. This may happen with
unauthorised overdraft and other charges too.
So who’ll pay?
It appears a bank’s job is to make as much money out of us as possible,
regardless of our circumstances; so we see our job is to try and stop them. So while we escape high charges one
way, they will undoubtedly find a system to add them another way!!
Can I claim back high
charges from my mortgage lender or Credit Card issuer?
Yes.
Penalties, as per the Unfair Conditions in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, applied by a company to any customer
is unlawful where those charges were not individually negotiated between the two parties, including: banks, credit card issuers
and mortgage lenders.
Do you have to be regulated to carry
out claims management business?
YES you do !
Reclaim Bank Charges Limited is Regulated by the Ministry of Justice
in respect of regulated claims management activities No. CRM 5270. Registration can be verifed by access to www.claimsregulation.gov.uk
Data Protection Registration No. Z9803930
Do you have a Complaints Procedure ?
Yes, if you are dissatisfied with the service we have provided you should initially make a complaint
either in writing or by email details of your specific complaint to complaints@reclaimbankcharge.co.uk -
If you are dissatisfied
with the way a complaint has been handled then you ask the Regulator to review the handling of the complaint. The Regulator
has the power to direct the business to reconsider the complaint and to refund any fees that have been paid, but cannot award
compensation. The Regulator can be found at www.claimsregulation.gov.uk
For full details of our Complaints Procedure - Please refer to the Complaints Procedure click on the link
below
