Bank charges - Adjournment debate in House of Commons next Tuesday

[BankFodder]

There is scheduled to be an adjournment debate on the topic of bank penalty charges in the House of Commons next Tuesday 16 January from 12.30 pm for half-an-hour. Debate will be led by Matthew Taylor, Lib Dem spokesman for Social Exclusion.

We would urge you to email your MP NOW and ask them if they will be there and what is their position

[Bookworm]

Done.

My MP is Andrew Pelling (Con).

[happyolddog]

I'm up for it, Patricia Hewitt must be so fed up with me petitioning her, With a bit of luck she might move to another constituancy.

[meagain]

Can anyone find that case where a DJ agreed to a total refund less £5 per item? ISTR someone saying the DJ suggested that even that was a stretch.

Just to make sure that my MP is left in absolutely no doubt when I contact her (of course, she's a LibDem and scarily loyal to the party line, so is probably on our side - small matter of actually turning up to the debate though).

[thecornflake]

The thread with the £5 judgement is here . It was with Egg. there may be others (one against Citicard?).

I have written to my MP - Greg Clark in Tunbridge Wells.

I found a site where you put in your postcode, it looks up your local MP and allows you to send an email directly to them. I assume it is ok to post a link, it is - WriteToThem.com - Email or fax your Councillor, MP, MEP, MSP or Welsh, NI, London Assembly Member for free

[meagain]

Originally Posted by thecornflake

The thread with the £5 judgement is here .

Where?

The forum doesn't like me searching for "£5".

[Bookworm]

Look for thread by user Barcote in Egg forum.

[thecornflake]

Sorry I updated the link - it should work now.

[darling]

I've written to ours John Baron - Conservative - Billericay.

darling

[meagain]

My MP is in a meeting at that time, but apparently the whole personal debt thing is an important matter to her.

The footer of the message contains, as well as the usual contact details, "Please consider the environment before printing"

[meagain]

Incidentally, it seems BBC Parliament will not be showing this, preferring to run recorded coverage of the previous day in the Lords, however, there is a 4-hour block allocated on Saturday morning for recorded coverage of the debates. It will apparently be live on UK Parliament - Video and Audio

[thecornflake]

Here's a good extract from the debate. I quote in particular -

I am raising the matter today because I believe that it is a major contributor to the UK's debt crisis and to social exclusion. Perhaps most important of all, those bank penalty charges are more than inconvenient and unfair—they are illegal. The fact that they continue to be levied in such large sums leads one to conclude that the Office of Fair Trading is failing and the Government are turning a blind eye. What may be a minor inconvenience to a person on a good regular income becomes a spiral of debt to the bank for those who are less well-off.

Full link here - Bank Penalty Charges: 16 Jan 2007: Westminster Hall debates (TheyWorkForYou.com)

[dave]

There has been no action to force repayments to people who have been ripped off in the past. Despite what the OFT says, given that it has the power to threaten sanctions against its consumer credit licences, I believe that it has the power to make banks do that.
When the OFT said that the same principles that apply to credit card charges apply to bank charges, the banks simply said that they did not agree. Instead of enforcing its view, the OFT is to review the issue for up to another six months before deciding whether to launch an investigation. Given that it took the OFT two years to investigate credit card charges, which are worth only £300 million a year compared with £4.5 billion in bank charges for the top six high street banks, it seems that the banks will be able to make even more illegal penal charges, worth almost £10 billion, before there is any likelihood of an outcome from the OFT. That is a novel approach indeed, especially given that it has taken firm action against at least three commercial companies regarding penalty charges in their contracts, all of which were reported in its 2002 case bulletin. Why not take the same approach with the big banks? What is the OFT afraid of?

Bloody hell.....have we finally found an MP with sense and knowledge?

[HydraUK]

Because Matthew Taylor is one the local MPs here this has caused quite a lot of interest from Westcountry TV.

They ran a seg last night covering the debate and tonight another mentioning CAG, but no web address alas.

They also mentioned one of those 'no win no fee' b*ggers based in Plymouth. He claimed to be recovering £300-400k PER MONTH (if only on 10% thats a bloody good income).

I contacted Andrew George's office on Monday to ask if he was going to attend, but apparently he was meeting some poxy delegation complaining about something minor like hospital closures - oh alright maybe thats more important.

I was told that his position was one of support for the victims.

[ian cognito]

Reply on behalf of George Osborne MP (Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer) arrived this morning, apears to have answered one of about 10 questions sent, I feel another e-mail coming on.

Thank you for your email addressed to Mr Osborne. This debate took place in Westminster Hall on Tuesday and unfortunately Mr Osborne was unable to attend as he had previously arranged meetings already in his diary.

I have attached the Hansard transcript of the debate which I hope you find of interest.

Thank you for contacting Mr Osborne.

Yours sincerely
Jane Robertson




Jane Robertson
Constituency Secretary to George Osborne MP

[maleo]

Clare Short, my MP, wasn't in attendance, as she "wouldn't have been invited to speak anyway"... However, she has offered to take up my claim with the bank - so another supportive one there!