Test Case Facts & Fiction

[Stoked]

THE FICTION

 

 

 

1.The contention that the OFT ‘didn’t consult consumer groups’ in the run up to the test case is an uninformed myth. Four consumer groups were consulted including Which? and the NCC. Due to disclosure restraints, only ‘designated’ consumer groups could legally have been involved.

 

2. The Office of Fair Trading worked with the court service to accommodate public provision at the hearing and were directly responsible for securing the 75 feed room places, the vast majority of which were unused.

 

3. In the past year the OFT have put significantly more resources into the department handling bank charges and have moved more senior personnel on to the case.

 

4. To the horror of the British Banking Association ,late last year Chief Executive John Fingleton went on national television to describe bank charges as ‘’tricks’’.

 

5. The OFT publishes a newsletter to update stakeholders on the progress of their fight against bank charges, of which this site is a recipient.

 

6. Although it is not in the OFT’s remit to help individual consumers with complaints, it does use complaints to build cases against firms and it’s the volume of complaints that determines if an investigation should proceed. In the year before the OFT began it’s investigation into bank charges it received just 500.

 

 

THE FACTS

 

 

1. Contrary to popular belief, the OFT were not consulted about the test case agreement but were simply informed about it 24 hours before the announcement in letter on Barclays headed notepaper which gave a list of instructions on what to say.

 

2. The video feed room actually showed a mock up of the hearing which was performed by actors, many of which have appeared in bit parts Casualty and Eastenders.

 

3. The OFT department that handles bank charges has an annual budget of £10.50 and is run by a Lithuanian plumbing student on YTS.

 

4. John Fingleton, the OFT’s Chief Executive, is a puppet installed by the UK banking industry and is controlled from the basement of NatWest’s head office. If you look very carefully you can just make out the fine titanium wires that control the moving parts of his body.

 

5. The OFT’s stakeholder newsletter is a cynical ploy to give the impression that it somehow cares about consumers. The content is actually produced by the BBA and includes the odd word in Lithuanian to give it credibility.

 

6. All complaints that the OFT receives about banks are shredded and pulped onsite. There is a weekly pick-up from a recycling firm to dispose of it.