Excessive bank account and credit card charges attacked

A missed credit card payment or going overdrawn without permission, and suddenly the £ 30 fee was also raised. Bank charges, it would seem that an unfair and too strict regard to the often small amounts of unauthorized borrowing words. It now appears that the law should understand.

After that the investigation launched in October 2003, eight major credit card companies, said July 05 by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that they charge late payment fees were "disproportionately high" and that the expenses needed to be adjusted to better reflect the costs of their treatment of late payment. During the test, the credit card companies continue to maintain that the late payment fees imposed was fair.

The legality of these charges being questioned by a law firm in Scotland that the Scottish Citizens Advice, who encourage consumers to challenge the right of banks that charge high penalty fees. The current high street credit card from a typical APR of 5.9% to 29.9% (source http://www.moneynet.co.uk/credit-card/index.shtml) from this point was 25.4% higher 4.5% of the current Bank of England base rate and the banks to reduce interest rates on current and savings accounts (see http://news.ft.com/cms/s/faed1a82-8e9c-11da-b752-0000779e2340.html) , many consumers see the level of bank charges, as an additional means of income by the banks over-penalization of consumers beyond the actual cost. "The law says that if someone violates the contract, for example, go into overdraft without permission, the bank is only entitled to recover the actual loss," Mike Dailly, Govan Law Center of the leading lawyer told the BBC's Money Box: "If you have a automatic letter to the bank, go across the border that cost about 50p. So why should someone get a £ 36 letter to the transaction? ". In an earlier press release, the OFT stated that, â € œconsiders to a consumer contract, the default charge is likely to be disproportionately high if it is more than a genuine pre-estimate of the damage to the card issuer would win if the court sued for breach of cardholder contract.â €? Representative of the British Banker's Association told the BBC that the bank is not charging customers more than the actual cost, arguing that the charges to cover the additional costs incurred due to the need for human intervention, â € œto extract the item from the current work, research the customer's credit profile recently, and a management decision as to whether the return is not paid item.â €? The Glasgow-based law states that the company, â € œThe legality of bank charges has still not decided, a high-ranking British court, but they can not be implemented if found to be "punishment" or "unjust" charges.â €? ! Until a final decision is made, the courts, they have developed a letter citing both the Scottish and English case law with rules which are valid in the United Kingdom, the buyer, to receive fees refunded.