NatWest in court over bank charges
April 11, 2007Thanks for visiting! If you like what you're reading, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed.
It looks as if someone is finally talking serious with regards to the hideous bank charges one can easily accumulate by mistake. The young London Barrister Tom Brennan is taking NatWest to court on Friday despite being offered £4,000 to settle his claims of £2,500 worth of bank charges which he racked up in overdraft fees while at University.
He is accepting a considerable risk since losing could mean having to cover NatWest’s cost, which would bankrupt him and thus prevent a career in the legal profession.
I’ve had some trouble with my bank myself when they charged me £30 after my account had accidentally gone overdrawn by 20 pence for a few hours. I got an appointment with the branch manager, who finally agreed to refund my money after I had threatened that I would take my money (and the prospects of being able to sell me a mortgage and/or car insurance) and go some place else.
It all worked out fine in the end, but was a real nuisance and cost me a considerable amount of time, so I’m hoping that the court ruling on Friday will be in the consumers’ favour.
According to Tom Brennan, the administrative costs of a bounced cheque (for instance) are roughly £2.50 while banks frequently charge well above £30 - I don’t even want to calculate that profit margin. However, even if Brennan might win on Friday, he said that the ruling might not necessarily apply to other retail banks as well, but at least it should be a step in the right direction…
BBC Radio 4 interviewed Brennan last week and a transcript of the show can be found here in case you are keen on the details.
Thanks to MoneyWatch for making me aware of the news.
