You have to know your rights as a customer. The expenses imposed by the banks to their clients if a cheque bounces or an overdraft limit is exceeded can range from 25 pounds to 40 pounds. If the money is not paid into the bank to cover the extra as well as the charges, then the charges keep on escalating. Parliament has deemed these charges to be not fair to the customers and a large number of clients have learned to reclaim bank charges which were imposed by their banks.
You need to know how to spot charges immediately. Always check bank statements and see immediately in case you have incurred any charges to your account. If you have, the first thing that you need to do is dispute the charges. Banks will be more than conscious that these charges are increased when compared with the amount of work they put in sending you out a letter to inform you that you have been charged.
Don't take no for an answer. The banks won't wish to give your charges back. The excuse of the banks to clients who reclaim bank charges will come up with will be the fact that you had been conscious that these bank charges can be applied if you exceeded funds. These will no longer change now that the true figures of how much banks are making from these penalties have been recorded.
You ought to phone your head office instantly once you spot the bank charges. If you get no satisfaction from your local branch, take the second step and phone the bank's head office's customer relations division. Make them aware how angry you are and they might just give you some or all of the charges back just to get rid of you. This will usually be followed by a statement calling it a gesture of goodwill.
In case you still do not get satisfaction, ten the next phase to reclaim bank charges is to send out a letter of intent to the financial institution. You may go after the charges that have been applied recently or you can apply for charges going back over 5 years. If you need to get 5 years worth of charges you should be prepared for what this entails. It may mean taking your claim completely to a small claims court.
Author Resource:
Nancy Williams blogs about mis sold ppi and other financial products for United Kingdom based site bankcharges.com She also lifts the lid on unfair loan charges and the financial claims niche generally, as well as writing posts on personal finance, house sales, repossession and business finance.