Although this is not strictly a mortgage related matter, we have received many enquiries from those who have 'suffered' at the hands of banks and other financial institutions, and have incurred charges for various misdemeanours, such as unauthorised overdraft charges or late payment of credit card dues.  Over the years, such charges have been increasingly seen as excessive and out of all proportion to the actual costs incurred by the banks and others in dealing with the particular matter.

Over the last few years, more and more customers started to complain to their banks and many made successful claims against their banks for the return of such charges.  We know of clients who were successful in claiming many thousands of £'s  - particularly during the period when banks were settling claims in an attempt to avoid Court proceedings.   However, because so many claims were being made (with customers egged on by commission hungry companies set up for the express purpose of 'assisting' bank customers with their claims) and the danger of the Courts being over run when many cases were brought before them, a 'moratorium' was brought into being which effectively brought to a halt all claims for the return of excessive charges, and the powers that be decided to bring a 'test case' before the courts which would determine once and for all whether the banks and others had been  grossly over charging their customers.

This test case has been slowly wending its way through the legal system, and at last the Court has made a decision.  To the surprise of many (including  many of the banks I suspect!) the Court has ruled (for technical reasons which I won't go into here) that the Banks are permitted to make the charges they have.  This decision is a great disappointment to many, and I suspect there may be further moves to 'appeal' this decision at some stage.

However, the  current position is that those who have suffered at the hands of banks and lenders with regard to what are widely accepted to be excessive bank charges at the moment have been disappointed.

There are many who have passed money to so called 'specialist firms' who have been making all sorts of promises with regard to reclaiming excessive bank charges on behalf of people, and  as it is likely that many of these firms will inevitably now close down, early request for the retun of fees paid should be made by any who have paid out in anticipation!  

And is there anything else that can be done? Well - as far as existing charges which it was hoped would be reimbursed are concerned, it would be best to assume that these will not be coming back and move on.  It would also be worth 'shopping around' as transferring bank accounts is a straightforward matter these days, but might be difficult if the relevant account is overdrawn.