The War Against Bank Charges
The whole bank charges saga has had its fiscal tale mooted around the Court of Appeal.
Banks have taken £2.5bn a year from their customers thorough the process of overcharging them, says the OFT via estimation.
Last week in court it was all about ascertaining whether the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 was applicable to bank charges.
Due to this it was several banks and the OFT that agreed to go to court and go through a test case, in order to decide what the situation was to be for consumers. The first problem was deciding whether the OFT had rightfully been given the authority to decide about bank charges. this ruling remained in the favour of the OFT. Given their current propensity to favour the consumer, this can only be good for the prole.
It has also been a case of the High Court having to decide whether overdraft charges that are not authorised are penalties under common law. This basically means deciding whether charges reflect the actual costs to the bank, or if it is a grossly inflated cost that the banks benefit hugely from.
Even though there is a massive economic problem at the moment, it is important that the final decision is one based solely on the case, and not the struggle that is going on with the world of finance in general.
A big part of the reason that this is required to be sorted out with a level of immediacy, is the fact that a waiver has been placed on the refunding of monies, so that no people at the moment are able to make claims. As soon as it is all resolved, people will know where they stand.