Bank Charges, those nasty fees of around £20-£30 which are levied on our bank and credit card accounts when we pay late or go over our unauthorised overdraft limits etc, are now deemed to be contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. This means that not only is there a light at the end of the tunnel in regards to getting these fees reimbursed - the light is as bright as the midday sun. The strategy for reimbursement of these fees is not ours, it has been devised and introduced by two excellent websites -

• ConsumerActionGroup.com, and
• PenaltyCharges.co.uk

If you're serious about fighting your bank and/or credit card companies then those two sites have all the information that you'll need to fight a very effective campaign, a campaign at present that seems to have a 100% success rate. We are therefore indebted to the two sites because they have helped with the strategy below which enabled us to reclaim £2,237.48 on behalf of a friend. Published below are all the steps that we took to reclaim the bank charges.

Why This Strategy Works

We believe that the reason this strategy works is simple - It's good business for the banks to pay up rather than make a fuss. Collectively the finance companies are rumoured to have made multi billions of pounds in profits over the years by charging these fees. So ask yourself a question, how many people are going to complain and be bothered to fight? 1%, 2%, 5%? We'd put the figure around 1% and many of these won't last the struggle because they won't know what to do, will be scared about taking on the banks and dealing with the courts, or will take a quick settlement perhaps 33% of the total amount they're claiming. So if you’ve made £1billion in profit and have to payback say £10million you've still made a £990million profit.

What The Banks Will Try To Do

David and Goliath is purely a biblical story - most people who fight with giants get crushed. So the man or woman on the street fears big business, thinking that taking them on is an unwinnable endeavour. But with this penalty charges strategy this is clearly not the case because in our research we can find no one that has gone the course and taken a finance company to court who has lost. The Banks know that many of their clients will be intimidated so they try some of the following tactics -

• Won't reply to your letters - This is why you have to always send them by recorded delivery
• Offer to settle for a smaller amount than you are claiming for, around 1/3rd of the amount
• Let you take the matter to court knowing that many won’t want to do this, won’t know how to or be petrified because most people have no experience of the courts or believe wrongly that they’ll have to hire a solicitor which involves spending money
• If you do sue them they’ll likely enter a defence which again will scare many people and force them to drop out