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Originally Posted by Gareth
Just a minor point... the banks involved have not won a single court case but neither have they lost a single court case. They've all been settled out of court with the banks repaying the fees (which is more cost efficient for them to do, as the individual amounts are relatively small, albeit numerous), and of course no admission of guilt has ever been announced by any of the banks concerned.
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Gareth, with all due respect, I've explained why this excuse is "rubbish" before and I'll do it again. I, personally, over the past sixteen or so months, have been involved in several dozen cases where almost £90,000 has been refunded in penalty charges.
Please explain your "cost efficency" theory. If the banks wanted to put a stop to losing these cases all they have to do is disprove one - just one - case and they're home free. Are you telling me that the bean counters at the banks think it's better to sit back and let many thousands of people successfully claim possibly millions in unfair charges rather than engage a solicitor (at best a barrister) at a cost of say £10,000 to destroy the entire claims process?
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Originally Posted by Gareth
The OFT finding wasn't that charges per-se are unlawful, but they did find that the charges were excessive. The OFT's suggested limit is £12, they have never said that all charges are illegal or should be discontinued. Their press release can be read here |
The OFT press release states "Only a court can finally decide whether a charge is unfair or not. The OFT has today set out a statement of
its view of the law. This has not generally been accepted by most of the eight credit card issuers".
The "law" to which the OFT refers is the very same law which states that penalty charges are illegal. This has been proven in court on several occasions. We were extremely disappointed that after months of legal discussions the OFT sought to offer their "view" of the law rather than to actually use the law to clamp down on this abusive practice and empower consumers with the knowledge that their entitlement to refunds of penalty charges are a legal right.