Most people will have suffered a charge form their bank at some point in their life for missing a payment deadline, exceeding an overdraft limit or attempting to make a payment without having the cleared funds. For many people attempting to reclaim bank charges at the time, this appeared to be a fatal blow and the vast majority of claims were withdrawn or left incomplete. This article will tackle the issue of this injustice and give you a concrete plan on what you do to fight it.
You have to know your own legal rights as a customer. The charges imposed by the banks to their clients if a cheque bounces or an overdraft limit is exceeded can range from 25 pounds to 40 pounds. If the money is not paid into the bank to cover the extra and also the charges, then the charges keep on increasing. Parliament has considered these fees to be not fair to the customers and a large number of clients have learned to reclaim bank charges which were imposed by their banks. Reclaiming of these extortionate bank charges are currently on the rise because of the increasing awareness of people to the abuse by banks.
You should know how to spot charges instantly. Always check bank statements and see instantly in case you have incurred any bank charges to your account. If you have, the first thing that you need to do is dispute the charges. Banks are more than conscious that these charges are excessive when compared with the amount of work they put in sending you out a letter to inform you that you have been charged.
Don’t take no for an answer. The banks won’t wish to give your charges back. The excuse of the banks to clients who reclaim bank charges will come up with will be the proven fact that you’re aware that these bank charges will be applied if you exceeded funds. These will no longer change now that the true figures of how much banks are making from these penalties have been recorded.
You should phone your head office instantly once you spot the bank charges. If you get no satisfaction from your local branch, take the second step and phone the lending institution’s head office’s client relations division. Make them aware how angry you are and they may just give you some or all of the charges back just to get rid of you. This will usually be followed by a statement calling it a motion of goodwill.
In the event you still don’t get satisfaction, then the next thing to reclaim bank charges is to send out a letter of intent to the financial institution. You may go after the charges that have been applied recently or you can apply for charges going back over 5 years. If you need to get 5 years’ worth of charges you need to be prepared for what this entails. It might mean taking your claim all the way to a small claims trial. You can take the services of claim companies to help you get those bank charges without much hassle and worries on your part.