Banks to appeal charges case

Category: Banking
Date: 4/2/2009

The House of Lords has given a group of UK banks permission to appeal a recent Appeal Court judgement on bank charges.

An appeal to overturn a ruling that the overdraft charges could be investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) had been thrown out by the High Court in February, and subsequently upheld by the Appeal Court.

The judgement is a blow for the thousands of consumers whose claims for the return of bank charges have been put on hold in the county courts and at the Financial Ombudsman Service.

It has been estimated that a negative result for the banks could see them ordered to pay back customers to the tune of up to £30 billion, with some banks charging anywhere up to £38 for breaching overdraft limits or bouncing cheques.

The ruling drew scathing criticism from Doug Taylor of Which? "It's outrageous that public money is being used to drag this saga out for even longer when the banks should accept the Court of Appeal's decision and draw the line under this issue once and for all," he said.

"Not only are the banks prolonging the misery for their customers, many of who are struggling to make ends meet, they are doing further damage to their already battered public image."