Hello, I recently spent a year in South America, where I believe that I was charged in total about £200-£300 to withdraw money on my debit/credit card. These were cash machine fees applied to the withdrawals by HSBC. I would like to know if there is any scope in reclaiming these charges. I am not sure if this could be considered a penalty charge as I had no other option to withdraw money from my account whilst abroad. Further, it certainly does not cost £1.75/£2.75 for HSBC to administer each withdrawal! I should be grateful for any and all replies, as I truly believe that everyone needs to teach these banks a lesson! And could the OFT ever say to banks, "you must now pay back the surplus amount (i.e. more than £12) on every single penalty charge levied against a client in the last six years". Now wouldn't that be sweet! Cheers, Stephan.