South Dorset Support for Clegg's bank plan

BANK CHARGES CHALLENGED BY LIB DEM LEADER

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, has described the refusal of banks to repay unfair charges as “scandalous” & is tabling a parliamentary motion backing a campaign to force banks to repay them automatically, rather than making customers apply for them to do so.

Around a million customers have had refund claims frozen until the result of a test case that will decide whether fairness rules apply to charges of up to £35 a time for unauthorised use of overdrafts.

Seven major banks & a building society have asked the law lords to overturn rulings that the charges for making just one payment over an agreed overdraft limit come under “unfair contract “ rule making them subject to Office of Fair Trading regulation.

“This is a hugely important case – but I don’t think it goes far enough” said Ros Kayes, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for South Dorset. “The banks say they make £2.6 billion a year from these charges. They have the ordinary customer by the short & curlies here. If a payment goes out by direct debit & it’s been a difficult month, even the most careful customer can go over that limit all too easily.

“Perhaps if they win the case, another should be made for making them pay us the interest on the money they make by taking 5 working days to clear a payment into our accounts. I wonder how much they are making from us in that process, in an age when debits can be made at the push of a button. I applaud Nick Clegg & he is right – but all of these antiquated & unfair practices need to be challenged, not just one of them.”