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The Banks' Abuse of the Credit Register

The banks have traded on their reputation for integrity to foist their penalty charges onto an acquiescent public. Most people consider that "Yes, I did overspend, therefore I do deserve this slap on the wrist. I'll try harder not to get it wrong next time."
But the truth is that these penalty charges are unlawful

UK High Street Banks profit out of the ordinary British bank customers sense of decency and moral responsibility. The ordinary British Bank Customer believes that this sense of moral decency is characterised by mutuality.
How wrong we all are.

Retaliatory action by the banks includes peremptory account closure, immediate demand for repayment of overdraft and defaulting the customer on the credit register. This creates a credit 'Hell' for the customer for the next 6 years.

A default on the credit register means that your life becomes extremely difficult for at least 6 years - and yet very often the default is placed on the register precisely because the customer could not pay the banks own unlawful charges!

You might ask yourself if there isn't something fundamentally corrupt when a bank has the right to default a customer FOR ITS OWN PURPOSES without any court action and with no control.

If someone owed you money and didn't pay you, could you go and put a default entry in the credit register? No of course you couldn't. You would need a court judgment to do it.

The banks have a privileged access to the default register which they abuse. There is no scrutiny and there is no control.

When the scandal of the banks' abuse of their dominant and fiduciary position is brought to an end, watch out for the defamation actions - Lots of them.


The Consumer Action Group response to OFT announcment on Bank and Credit card penalty charges

The Bank Charges section of The Consumer Action Group has “cautiously welcomed” the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) conclusions on credit card and bank charges which was released this week.

The OFT statement which has been in preparation for nearly two years has criticised the current level of bank charges as being unfair under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

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A spokesman for The Bank Action Group, which has over 13,000 members, said that they were extremely pleased that the OFT statement clearly confirmed that any default charges which were set at a level which exceeded administrative costs were unfair and that the OFT had confirmed very clearly the right of individual customers to seek redress in the courts in particular cases

The Group agreed with the Oft that different organisations would have different levels of default costs and applauded the setting of a maximum charge over which the OFT would take the necessary court action to reduce. The Bank Action Group noted that the limit set by the OFT was not intended to be a measure of fairness but only as the maximum which the Oft would be prepared to tolerate before taking its own direct action.

However, The Bank Action Group spokesman added that the maximum of £12.00 was still rather on the high side and that its own Users were likely to continue to take legal action against banking and credit card institutions even though their charges might be less than OFT tolerable maximum.

“The test still remains whether the charges are a true reflection of the bank’s actual costs” said The Bank Action Group spokesman. “If the charges make profits then they are unlawful.

“We are only sorry that some big questions have not been dealt with. The refunds for people who have been paying unfair charges for many years The people who have been defaulted and put on to the credit register because they were unable to pay unlawful bank charges. The protection of people on benefits from having their accounts unlawfully looted by banks and credit card companies. We also think that the OFT’s idea of having bigger charges for “repeat offenders is contradictory and is likely to impact on the poorer groups in society.

“I suppose that it will have to be left to The Bank Action Group at www.ConsumerActionGroup.com to help the victims sweep up the sorry mess of debris which has been left by the years of plundering by the banks but at least we now know that by and large the OFT is on our side.”