Wunch of Bankers

For a while now I've had a problem with debt. It's almost a fact of life nowadays. My income has been unpredictable recently as I am self-employed, and I depend on customers paying promptly and projects going according to plan before I can invoice them. All of this has meant that payments due out of the bank account haven't always had enough to cover them, so they get paid or stopped on a whim by the bank with a penalty charge added to make the overdraft situation even worse, and then they add interest to the bigger overdraft. When the money goes in, a huge chunk is swallowed up by these charges, leaving me short next time round and so on. I end up paying out more than I have coming in to cover the debt repayments. In some months the charges alone have topped £500! I have explained my situation to the bank, but there's no sympathy or flexibility. They occasionally refund some of the charges as a 'goodwill gesture' - but it's never enough to make a real difference.

I have always assumed that although the charges are high, the banks have a right to charge them. But recently I was Googling for information on my particular bank and 'excessive charges' to see if there was a forum somewhere that might point out ways of doing something about it. Well, I found what I was looking for and much more!

First of all there was a report from the OFT stating that bank charges of this type (unpaid payment, paid payment when overdraft exceeded and unauthorised overdraft charges) are excessive and unlawful under the Consumer Credit legislation. The bank is entitled to charge enough to recover their costs, but not to profit from them. And how much do you think it costs a bank to not pay a Direct Debit? Probably under 50p per item as there's no 'human intervention' involved, just an automated decision made by the computer. What do they charge? - £30 - £40! It's not just bank current accounts - this applies to late payment fees added to ANY loan, credit card or even mortgage accounts.

Secondly, there is help out there so that you can fight back and reclaim these charges. Go to this site and have a good read through the FAQs and some case histories pertaining to your bank. Follow the instructions carefully and get YOUR money back from thieving wunch of bankers that are dipping into your account to pay directors' bonuses and shareholders' dividends. The big banks made £35 BILLION profit, partly funded from using underhand techniques like this to rip you off! Get it back! So far their users have claimed back almost £300,000 in excessive charge refunds!

I've got a claim underway for £4,500 from my bank - I'll let you know how it goes. Once I've dealt with them I'll move onto the cards where £25 is usually charged for late payments, and then onto the loans and the mortgage.

Now all we need is a ruling on the excessive interest charged by credit cards and some loans and we will start to see a return to solvency in this country. It has to be accompanied by responsible borrowing, which in turn requires responsible lending.