Thread: Whistleblower - House of Commons press release - write to your MP now.

Immediately after the BBC Whistleblower programme, every Member of Parliament in the country was sent an information pack containing a description of the Yorkshire Bank disclsoures and some examples of actual defences filed by the bank with the court.

Your MP will have received a full pack.

You shouuld now contact your MP and ask him what is his opinion about the contents of The Consumer Action Group Whistleblower pack and what does he propose to do now that the true csts have been revealed.

Contact your MP now.


Write to Andrew George and offer him your support

ANDREW GEORGE MP

HOUSE OF COMMONS

LONDON SW1A 0AA

NEWS RELEASE

Friday 30th March 2007 For immediate release

GEORGE BLOWS WHISTLE ON BANK CHARGES

Banks who charge their customers disproportionate fees for exceeding their overdrafts or writing cheques that bounce are to be targeted by Andrew George MP after a meeting he hosted in Parliament yesterday afternoon with an informant on the BBC ‘Whistleblower’ programme.
The member for West Cornwall and Isles of Scilly constituency of St Ives has consistently urged Government Ministers and the Office of Fair Trading to clamp down on banks who he says exploit the very vulnerable position many poor customers find themselves in. He will raise further questions with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) about the former Yorkshire Bank employee’s claims that customers were being charged more than £30 for processes – such as bouncing a cheque – that cost the bank less than £2.

Mr George said: “These penalty charges extort money from those who can least afford it. The law is clear in this area. Penalty charges are permitted for the recovery only of losses caused by a contractual breach. Penalty charges which make profit are unlawful under Common Law and The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. “The Government is pushing and cajoling pensioners and benefits recipients away from the Post Office counter and into the arms of the banks with an appalling track record of exploiting the vulnerable position of their poorest customers.”

Mr George met the informant alongside The Consumer Action Group, an organisation established in January 2006 which pursues consumer rights for no profit. Thus far 6,500 members have claimed back unlawful charges worth some £10million from banks.

Mr George is also working with ‘Bob the Bankbuster’, the Cornish bank campaigner Bob Egerton.

ENDS

Here's what I sent to Goggsy Brown MP.

xxxx xxxxxx
xxx xxxxx Street
Kirkcaldy
Fife
KY1 xxx



Dear Gordon Brown,
Does your Government intend to stop Banks charging upwards of £30 for overdrafts and the like?. You seem to advocate helping the poorest of our society getting out of the quagmire, but your government is helping the banks to fleece the poorest in our society by recommending state payments are made in to a bank account. If you have any doubt about the under hand tactics employed by these members of the financial sector, then maybe you should watch the whistle-blower episode from BBC aired in mid March. As my MP and the future Prime minister, I hope you will give this matter very serious consideration. It is a shameful practice and should be addressed, with urgency.

Yours sincerely,
Cascade

Future Prime minister is a bit presumtuous, but hey! Who knows?.

Any replies will be posted here.

Here's my reply From Goggsy, signed by the man himself. Came snail mail on commons headed paper.

10 April 2007


Dear Mr xxxxxx,

Thank you for your Email of the 6 April. Afull reply will be sent to you in
due course.

Yours sincerely

signed

Gordon Brown MP

Will post the full reply when I receive it.