Unlawful Charges

• For a Fast Track Claim, Download the Online Form!

Have You Been a Victim of Unlawful Bank Charges?

Financial Institutions like you to think that everything they offer is free. For example, free personal current accounts, 0% interest on credit cards, no annual fee for a credit card etc. How can any company afford to give away its products for free of charge? The only way that a business can do this is either by persuading its customers to buy lots of other commodities or services on which they make a great deal of profit or by taking advantage of their customers’ mistakes, which result in the customers paying disproportionate charges.

An example of how you are overcharged:

If you fail to pay the minimum monthly charge on your credit card by the due date, the credit card company will charge you a fee of £25 or so. You will still have to pay the normal interest charges as well. Once a few penalty charges have kicked in, it becomes progressively more difficult to meet the minimum payment each month by the due date.

Alternately - the bank persuades you to have an overdraft. This may be without any charge or it may have a small charge; it may even be interest free. But the moment you exceed the specified limit, the bank starts charging you, such as a monthly charge for exceeding your limit, a daily charge for being over the limit, plus a charge for returning unpaid cheques or direct debits. These charges are usually substantial: £20 or more for monthly fees, daily fees of up to £8 per day or more; cheque return fees of £25-35.

Suddenly, the so-called free banking is no longer free. Banks will claim that 80% of their customers do not pay these charges. This means that the other 20% of their customers are paying these charges to subsidise the “free” banking for everybody else.