High Court Rules on Bank Charges

The High Court has ruled on Bank Charges, and the ruling is a triumph for fairness and reason.

For my overseas friends, the uproar is about banks charging £39 for unauthorised overdrafts, failed direct debits, bounced cheques etc. Now that everything is done by computer, it probably costs them about £1 to notify a client. If they charged £5, people would not complain. But £39 is excessive.

I know people whose total income is £43 per week, so losing £39 of that in bank charges can cripple them for months. If you don't have the money to cover your bank charges, they charge you another £39 for that too and so on ad infinitum, so you might never get out of a financial mess. My daughter had a direct debit fail for the silly sum of 4 pence. The account now has so many charges on it that she has had to open another account with a different bank.

Being fined £39 for the sake of 4p is ridiculous.

Read the story of the High Court Ruling on Martins Money Tips. Just click the link.