It is now possible to reclaim what many of us consider to be unreasonable bank charges and for a lot of people this can mean a cash injection of several hundred pounds. At present there is a High Court battle going on between the banks and the consumers and so far the consumers are winning. Saying this all claims are at being put on hold by banks until an official ruling is made about the unfairness of bank charges but it’s definitely still worth making your claim.

There are two main ways to reclaim charges; either by yourself or with the help of a negotiating company but any company you do use will take a cut of the money you get back.

Using a Negotiating Company

There are plenty of negotiating companies advertising on the internet who will do all the hard work of claiming for you. They write the letters and make the calls and even work out how much money you should be entitled to. Be warned though, some of the companies take a hefty percentage of your reclaimed money while others won’t make claims for values less than a set minimum.

Making your own Claim

In order to make your own claim you need to know how much you’ve paid in bank charges over the last six years, as this is the length of time you’re allowed to claim for. If you don’t have this information you can write to your bank and ask for a full list of charges you’ve paid. Your bank is obliged to provide this information within 40 days under the Data Protection Act, although it may cost you £10 to get it (and no you can’t claim this back as well!)

Next, you write to your bank and state that you think the charges mentioned in the letter are disproportionate and unfair and you would like your money back. Include a full list of the charges you’ve paid and the dates you paid them on. As mentioned above all claims are at present being put on hold however if you mention that you’re on state benefits, a pension or you’re experiencing financial difficulties your claim may still be processed.

Your bank should reply to acknowledge your complaint however they aren’t under any obligation to actually deal with the claim. You can try writing again and threatening to take the claim to court and in a few cases this has led to the offer of a settlement – whether you take the settlement though is down to you. Alternatively you can threaten to go to the Financial Ombudsman and let them settle the argument. The Ombudsman will look into your case and contact your bank and in a lot of cases the result has been a successful reclamation.

Obviously this is just a shortened version of the bank charge reclaiming process. For more information on the matter and a number of letter templates for claiming you should visit the ‘Bank Charges’ section of the Money Saving Expert website.