OFT report due March 2007?

[xlr8r_y2k]

From what I can find on the net there is a report being compiled by the Competition Commission arising from a reference from the OFT into "Northern Irish personal banking". The schedule which can be found here Competition Commission - Inquiries - Northern Irish personal banking states that the 31st of March is the deadline for information submission. The report is 'officially' published to late April / EarlyMay 2007.

 

The provisional findings of this report can be found here http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/inquiries/ref2005/banking/prov_find_report.pdf If you look at section 4.25 you will see that it states in regards to bank charges "It remains to be seen whether there is a permanent change in the public perception and acceptance of these charges, whether adverse publicity may motivate any changes in charging levels and policies, and if the OFT will seek to apply similar findings to PCAs as it has done to credit cards."

 

Basically the NI banks are saying like all the others that the OFT's findings are for credit card charges not Bank Charges so thet judge is waiting on clarification fom the OFT if it does or not.

 

Hope this helps

xL

[xlr8r_y2k]

Hi carriexs87, the thing is surely this report will only confirm the earlier OFT findings regarding credit card charges AND confirm that it is also applicable to bank charges won't it?

 

The issue is the banks interpretation of the charges and how these can be calculated but already the OFT gave guidelines on this, the banks are obviously disagreeing with this. You can see the OFT's position on how charges are calculated with regard to credit cards in this pdf http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/2EBC491E-303E-4FAA-A24D-32EF8396255E/0/oft842.pdf basically if the OFT confirms this position also applies to bank charges then it seems to be only a stalling tatic from the banks in the hope that someone somewhere will come up with a way for them to get out of this hole they've dug themselves.

 

xL

[xlr8r_y2k]

hi carriexs87,

 

firstly think on it this way your banks solicitor is quoting you their best possible scenario 'hoping' for a limit of around £20 which I would very very much doubt is going to happen. They've already offered you x £'s but they know they're right and your wrong and they don't owe you anything - something about that isn't quite right from their side don't you think?

 

secondly the £12 that OFT quote isn't any sort of limit at all, it's basically the limit a limit below which the OFT won't investigate AT THE MOMENT until all the charges above this are sorted out, to quote the OFT "The OFT is not proposing that default fees should be equivalent to the threshold, and a court will certainly not consider that a default fee is fair just because it is below the threshold". They will have to prove in court how they calculate their fee and so far no bank has put this forward in a 'public' way (one did get away with it showing their calculation in private to the judge and he accepted it but the claimant couldn't argue against it becasue he couldn't see how it was worked out - that cost calculation only came to £12.88 and no one knows how they even got that figure! - judges have wised up to this tatic too and are asking for disclosure to all parties of their calculations and thats basically scaring the banks even more - hence why they're relying on the OFT rather than coming up with their own defence of a true cost calculation)

 

thirdly - yes there are exceptional circumstances that it may be over £12 an example that the OFT gave was where a card issuer has a policy of requiring customers to pay minimum monthly repayments by direct debits, such as that operated by Egg, and offers credit cards only to customers that satisfy a relatively high scoring requirement it may be able to set a fair default fee at a level above the threshold. HOWEVER you will be able to get that fee investigated and approved by the OFT and it will be the bank who will have to prove it is fair.

 

Basically stick to your guns, take a look around and see how many other institutions are really fighting to the bitter end with a claim - I know of only citibank and they're under pressure and settling most before court.

 

Don't worry, it's definately daunting when court and all starts but it wil lbe worth it in the end.

 

xL