Thread: Have you had your account closed or been threatened with closure for claiming?

Now that the OFT has declared high penalties to be unfair - at least in excess of £12.00, I think that it is time to take action on retaliatory account closures.

The approach is that sch.2 of the 1999 regs also deals with unfair termination of contract clauses and says that they are invalid.

I think that it is fair to say that banks which close down accounts because the customer has merely complained about charges which are now accepted to be unfair, are clearly operating their termination clauses unfairly.

I can't imagine that the OFT would disagree with this. If they did it would make them look ridiculous as they would be preventing unfair charging but allowing banks to take retaliatory action against people who relied on the OFT statement - not possible by any stretch of the imagination.

So I think that we can now say definitely that any bank which threatens to close an account and that closure is linked to a claim for the rcovery of penalties is prima facie unfair.

I shall do a letter template of complaint to the OFT to be used by anyone affected.

I shall also do a template letter to the bank of anyone who has had their account closed or who has been threatened with closure.
I'll consider what action can be taken but I would have thought that at least a county court action of compensation but an injunction would not be difficult and could still remain on the Small Claims track.

I think that the OFT statement is going to be much more useful than people realise. We just have to "put it to use".

I'd like to receive comments - and especially criticsms of this suggestion.

Similar Threads:

• Claiming a second time - bank account closure
• Claiming back Bank Charges / Closure of Account
• any way of claiming from a closed account?
• Claiming after account is closed
• Halifax Closed Account Unautherised O/d After Closure 2 Years Ongoing Fight

I'm all for it but am confused about the wording of the regs:

(g) enabling the seller or supplier to terminate a contract of indeterminate duration without reasonable notice except where there are serious grounds for doing so;

I thought that 'notice' meant the amount of time a seller/supplier had to give you to forewarn of you of an account closure? I think that the only point you would be making is that the bank would have to give you say 30 days before they closed the account as claiming back charges wouldn't be classed as serious grounds.

I suppose if it said without good reason then it may make more sense to me! LOL!

Sorry if I am not understanding!

Bliimey. I misread it. I think that I must have had a brain seizure!!!

Thank goodness you noticed it. I'll lock this thread and withdraw the announcement.
I going to lie down.