Claiming Bank Charges – Verdict Scheduled

1 Comment | Posted on November 18th, 2009 in Claims.

The long awaited Supreme Court decision on unfair bank charges will finally be made next week. The judges will decide whether or not the Office of Fair Trading has the power to assess the fairness of bank charges. Both the Appeal Court and the High Court have already previously judged that the OFT does have such powers and the step up to the  new Supreme Court was brought about by banks still fighting that decision. Realistically, however, it could still be a long time before consumers find out whether they have a right to reclaim such charges.

The applications for reclaims were suspended in July 2007, when the banks and the Office of Fair Trading agreed to stage a test case. Prior to this though, around £1 billion was refunded by the banks to individuals claiming bank charges and there are currently almost one million claims on hold awaiting a decision.

Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert has warned that even if the Supreme Court Rules that the OFT does have the power to assess bank charges, the banks could continue to fight and ‘drag this out for years,’ unless there is some political intervention.

In a three day appeal hearing at the House of Lords in June 2009, the seven banks and one building society in question argued that upholding the OFT right to regulate bank charges would lead to a ‘deluge of litigation.’

The final Supreme Court Decision is expected at 9.45am on Wednesday 25^th November.