Bank Charge issues Post Test case - Repayment: how will charges be repaid?

[BankFodder]

Assuming then that the OFT confirms its preliminary view that bank charges have been historically excessive and therefore unfair: --

 

Repayment: how will charges be repaid?

 

·Proactively or on demand?

 

·How much will be repaid under a FSA repayment scheme?

 

oThe entire charge or the difference between the actual charge and the OFT suggested fair rate?

 

UTCCR 1999 makes no provision for partial validity of unfair terms. It is all or nothing. A judge would be obliged to award the entire charge to the customer in the absence of some valid counterclaim from the bank.

If the FSA approved a differential charge then they or the Oft would have to come up with a formula which allowed a differential to be paid on historical charges which were lower than today. For instance, charges in 1995 might typically have been £10. Would they really be able to say that a figure of 25% of any charge was a fair charge. Or rather than a formula, would they have to examine the charges level for each year and come up with a specific fair figure for that year.

 

 

 

After the heat - post test case issues in full

 

 

 

 

[BankFodder]

What will happen with those of us who made the application through the FOS? Obviously before raising it an application was made to the bank tor efund charges. Do you think we will be treated the same as those that wwent down the court route.

In addition since we raised it with the FOS more bank charges have accummalated although none for the past 18 months. What will happen with these?

We used the FOS as a number of people were having success on that route and we did not have the funds available to go down the court route. Even more so now as I am unemployed and on benefits although the missus is still working albeit not at a great rate.

this is a very interesting question and of course we will only know in the next few weeks or so. It is entirely possible that the ombudsman may decide simply to implement an FSA repayment scheme.

 

Only the courts will be not obliged to implement such a scheme and in fact only the courts will be obliged to apply this strict meaning of the regulations and this means that the courts would be obliged to pay the entire charge.

 

If you have acquired more charges then I suggest that you start putting your claim in immediately. Let me also say that just because you have got claiming with the ombudsman at the moment does not stop you going to court. You will not be able to do both the court and the ombudsman that there is nothing to stop you simply giving up on the ombudsman process completely and issuing your court claim now for the whole lot. It may well be that since you have been on this forum and since you will have read up a great deal about what you are really entitled to claim, that a revised claim submitted to the courts may be far more valuable to you.

[BankFodder]

Hi all,

 

so now the OFT has won the case - how do we get our money back?

 

My claim is frozen in the county court system - what do I do now to get my money back asap?

 

What do I do to claim back the further charges I have suffered since my claim was submitted?

 

I am just looking for simple direction - simple answers to simple questions.

 

the thread system on this website disperses useful information. Surely importnat advice on the key issues that affect the majority of users should be in one place.

 

Regards,

Chris Roberts

as you should know, the OFT has not yet been declared the winner. That will be happening soon.

 

As soon as that happens, you should write to the court and aask themto lift the stay on your case.

[BankFodder]

Thanks Bankfodder a very helpful reply. I don't think another SAR will be necessary as I have all my statemenst since the last SAR. Pity that we cannot use MOL to claim.

We assume that we are not obliged to use the nearest court when submitting our claim as the nearest one has big parking problems. One a bit further away has plenty of parking and no queues as it is in a smaller town.

actually I'm not sure that Money Claim Online can't be used.

 

We rather stopped using it because the banks were causing too many problems about schedule charges not being sent. They were being extremely obstructive about everything.

 

I don't expect them to be obstructive anymore. I only expect them to start quibbling the amount of compensation being claimed.

 

I think that money claim can be used as long as people get a very basic minimum details in: --

 

Account number

date

number of charges

related interest taken

reference to it being unfair under UTCCR

total claimed

restitutionary damages

a percent interest in the alternative

 

I think that that we may try to put up a new template for this. Money claim was very useful and very helpful and a lot of people who might not otherwise have claimed benefited from it

[BankFodder]

On the basis that there is no general stay. There has been a recommendation that individual County Court judges stay bank charges claims - and in fact they have all done so. However, it is down to each judge to make his own decision.

 

Once the the judgment is handed down, then the basis for stays no longer exists because they are all predicated on an outstanding test case.

 

By writing to the judge, there is no costs element.