Card Recovery Fee- Reclaimable or Not? Discuss

[Guest NATTIE]

Deja Vu on his thread brought this fee up and i am surprised I haven;t seen it before on the threads but is it reclaimable or not?

The fee is £125 and is levied for when someone has to go round to someone;s house and recover the bank cards.

There is the argument that this fee is for the service but had the charges not forced the account to go to such a point then this service(which is actually recovering the card by the bank) would not have been needed.

So should it be claimable or not? Views invited on this one.

[hedgey06]

Hmmm.......... wasn't going to post - but couldnt' resist!

 

I'm of the opinion that, in many cases, people facing financial hardship at certain times in their lives are the very same people who find themselves facing further stress due to the charges levied onto their accounts by the banks. Situations such as redundancy, illness (of oneself, child or family member), childbirth, etc., can all contribute to a change in financial circumstances.

 

Many people then find themselves in a catch 22 situation; got no money and every bit that goes into the account is swallowed by the banks due to their 'charges'. Ultimately, this may lead to the banks sending someone round to collect the cards - but how can this be called a service?

 

To my mind, the banks would be providing a much greater service if they supported their customers through financial difficulties instead of heaping misery on top of misery. Their despicable actions often make people go 'over the edge'............. and do the banks care? Do they eckers like!

 

In my job, I see the result of decent, ordinary, hard working people who have fallen on financial hard times due to a range of everyday situations (some listed above). I've also seen these same people end up on anti-depressants, be admitted to psychiatric institutions and have their children taken into care because, ultimately, once the banks waded in with their 'service fees' and 'charges', they just couldn't take any more. Does this make me hate banks and bank workers? NO. Does this make me hate the big-wigs who make/sanction bank policies? TOO RIGHT IS DOES.

 

My own husband got to the point where he couldn't take any more - he honestly thought the 'heavies' would be at the door at one point to 'sort him out'. I couldn't persuade him otherwise and he ended up having a breakdown and spending time in a psychiatric hospital himself. Luckily, he married hedgey - a right big-gobbed no-nonsenser who wasn't lying down for the banks. Persuaded him to go bankrupt, got him better............. and then let rip on every financial institution he'd ever dealt with. Is she winning? Too right I am!

 

But not everyone's that lucky. Some people don't have access to computers/internet so they don't come across places like CAG. Some people just don't realise they don't have to take the banks cr*p - so they end up taking every bit of muck slung at them and going under.

 

However - I digress as usual. But this is a bit of an emotive topic for me, probably for many on here. To answer your question Nattie - NO - I don't think the fee should be considered a service fee and therefore should be reclaimable by anybody going through the process of reclaiming their charges. It is yet another example of blatant, unwarranted charges levied onto decent people who are already suffering financial hardship.

 

Nattie, trust you to start this one up on a Sunday.............. you little naughty you!!!

 

xxx

[Guest NATTIE]

this has actually started with Deja Vu's thread so the context behind it is that kate and my good self were trying to get to whether the fee which is for a service, could be construed as a charge, because of the same arguments that some claim loan interest. That is, that had the charges not caused the bank to use these people to recover the card(s) then it would not have been used and therefore something claimable.

[katesage]

It is definitely a grey area that is for sure.

 

A reclaimable charge is one that comes about because of a breach of contract on the account holders part.

 

This is why only cheque bounces/card misuse/XS O/D fees etc (all contract breaches) are reclaimable and Advantage Gold fees are not reclaimable (despite many people wanting them to be!)

 

In Deja's case she/he was asked to return the card within 1 month but the card collector turned up unannounced a week later. The charge of £125 appeared later.

 

So, Deja was asked to return the card because the account had been closed, due no doubt, to debts caused by penalty charges.

 

If those charges had not been applied and the account had not been closed then this situation would never have occurred.

 

IMO...The card collection fee was an indirect product of the original breaches, the same concepts we apply to defaults should apply here, ie...it wouldn't have happened, were it not for the penalty charges in the first place.

 

So if I were in Dejas shoes, I would add the charge to my claim, because I would feel comfortable arguing the point.

[hedgey06]

Which means that all roads lead to the same opinion - the fee should be reclaimed.

 

Just as an aside - do the banks ever consider the human impact of their charges/service fees to recover cards? Do you think that if they were to see the results of their hardline charging policies they would have a rethink? Would it make them realise that an overhaul of general banking is needed to ensure they don't continue to heap misery?

 

Hmmm..................... discuss!

 

Off to do my gravy - a roast dinner's too dry without it! xxx

[Guest NATTIE]

nope and yes. RBS Group have a policy that they will not charge more than 35% interest which is why they rarely get involved in the sub prime markets. I think the overhaul will happen IMHO because of the number of claims and the negative media coverage. I am aware that some staff will even suggest to friends and relatives to claim back their charges even from banks where they are employed by.

[gizmo111]

I claimed it and it was paid out with no q's asked.

It wouldn't have been misused if they hadn't charged me and forced me to go overdrawn.

[scott150663]

i would have thought that u coulnt claim it back......but the banks aren't going to defend it in a court,so u could include it in the claim and argue your case.....

 

The worst that would happen is when they settle they deduct the fee from the settlement figure.....

 

This is a very similar argument regarding overdraft arrangement fees as this is also linked to unfair bank charges.......On business account its the norm for £200-300 being charged per year for renewal of overdraft facility..... If u required the OD because of unfair bank charges that would mean that it also is reclaimable......

 

I dont think there is a definative answer to this, try to claim it and see what the banks response is..........the worst outcome is they refuse to refund that charge to u.......

 

Scott

[Guest NATTIE]

the argument on card recovery would i suppose be like the business overdraft unless, it was the limit agreed on and was not put up directly as a result of the charges. The card recovery bit in 99.9% of cases is due to unfair charges so the business overdraft argument is not necessarily applicable in all cases.