Bank Fees Ruling Not Far Off
There are a fair few banks that are awaiting the conclusion of this bank charge saga, and are expecting a result that leans in their favour, after the High Court decided that the High Court Judge; Andrew Justice Smith was wrong when he decided that the OFT or Office of Fair Trading should be allowed to decide whether bank charges were fair, or not.
Justice Smith was described as a person that made schizophrenic decisions, and that someone who had very little grasp of justification.
Many await the results of this test, and it is going to be a case of millions of people benefiting, or not. It seems slightly unjust that millions have been able to claim their money back already, and now all of a sudden, the rest may not.
It can get really extreme, and if you look at an isolated incident, you can see just how extreme, extreme can be. Mrs Jeffers Pinkerton, a pensioner from Shaftsbury, amassed £1934.00 in bank charges, after a payment went into her account just a day late. This caused an overabundance of debits to go unpaid.
Mrs Pinkerton is of the opinion that banks are nothing but a capitalist tool, and that the whole system is flawed; corrupt; and beggars belief. She also said that gardening has only been her true solace since, along with psalms.
To refer back to the court thing, a representative of one of the banks has stated that the OFT was not in a position to be able to challenge the prices that banks charge, due to the fact that the model that they used, the 1999 Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations, was not introduced as a paragon of price control.
If this is the case, then the OFT telling the banks that they were doing wrong, was indeed wrong in itself. He said that if the decision were not to be overruled, then the banks could face a serious problem, like nationalisation or something.
Expect another week before the whole palaver is kicked into shape. The outcome hangs in the balance, and no person is certain whether the banks will win out, or it will be a rare victory for the consumer.