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Legal Beagles thoughts;
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has today announced a test case between themselves and a number of the main banks and will commence proceedings tomorrow in the High Court for a declaration on the application of the law in respect of unauthorised overdraft charges. This test case and declaration are expected to happen late in 2007.
Banks have been locked into a long-running battle with consumers over whether or not fees levied for unauthorised borrowing are lawful, and thousands of customers have been suing their banks for the return of charges. To date, the banks have been reluctant to contest such cases, usually settling out-of-court.
This large volume of claims has clogged up local courts, and banks have been criticised for dodging the issue, by persistently refusing to reveal the true level of their costs for processing out-of-order transactions.
The implications of the announcement are not yet clear for people reclaiming their bank charges, but the Financial Ombudsman Service has announced it will not be processing any further claims until the outcome of the test case. The Financial Services Authority has also announced that it will allow the banks to waive the standard complaints procedure for complainants in relation to penalty charges on overdrafts.
In the wake of the parallel announcements from the FOS and FSA that they are waiving the requirement for the banks to comply with necessary complaints procedures pending the outcome of the test case, we at Legal Beagles would like to suggest that the banks waive the levying of ALL unlawful penalty charges at the same time.
At Legal Beagles we recommend that claimants continue to follow the process detailed on our site at www.legal-beagles.co.uk and submit claims in the county courts as usual. Even if the courts decide not to rule on the cases yet, they can be filed ready for processing once the declaration has been made.
For more info contact: www.legal-beagles.co.uk
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has today announced a test case between themselves and a number of the main banks and will commence proceedings tomorrow in the High Court for a declaration on the application of the law in respect of unauthorised overdraft charges. This test case and declaration are expected to happen late in 2007.
Banks have been locked into a long-running battle with consumers over whether or not fees levied for unauthorised borrowing are lawful, and thousands of customers have been suing their banks for the return of charges. To date, the banks have been reluctant to contest such cases, usually settling out-of-court.
This large volume of claims has clogged up local courts, and banks have been criticised for dodging the issue, by persistently refusing to reveal the true level of their costs for processing out-of-order transactions.
The implications of the announcement are not yet clear for people reclaiming their bank charges, but the Financial Ombudsman Service has announced it will not be processing any further claims until the outcome of the test case. The Financial Services Authority has also announced that it will allow the banks to waive the standard complaints procedure for complainants in relation to penalty charges on overdrafts.
In the wake of the parallel announcements from the FOS and FSA that they are waiving the requirement for the banks to comply with necessary complaints procedures pending the outcome of the test case, we at Legal Beagles would like to suggest that the banks waive the levying of ALL unlawful penalty charges at the same time.
At Legal Beagles we recommend that claimants continue to follow the process detailed on our site at www.legal-beagles.co.uk and submit claims in the county courts as usual. Even if the courts decide not to rule on the cases yet, they can be filed ready for processing once the declaration has been made.
For more info contact: www.legal-beagles.co.uk
