Reclaiming Bank Penalty Charges – Success #1

I had some good news today.   A few months ago I read a thisismoney article which stated that banks have been breaking the law for a number of years by charging penalty fees to their customers.    You know the ones; going overdrawn, having a bounced cheque or a problem with a failed direct debit.   Anyhow, the crux of the matter is that banks can only charge back to the customer the amount that it actually costs them to process these payment problems – around £3 for a bounced cheque, for example – not £50.So I went though all of my First Direct statements over the past few years and found around £700 worth of charges on my current account – I wrote a letter (you can find templates of these online) asking for the charges to be refunded and giving them 14 days in which to respond.

Today I heard back – they said that they had refunded £140 back in August 2005 (I still need to check this) but they were willing to pay back £530 to us.   It’s not the full amount, but if the £140 is correct then it’s near enough and all that is left is for a form to be signed and sent back accepting this refund and it will be credit before the new year (and will be going on paying off some of our debts, I suspect).

I’ve since told someone at work about this who has asked if I can do the same process for him and if successful he will give me 25% of the amount reclaimed.    This seems like quite a good business opportunity so if anyone else is interested in the same offer let me know!