As UK Banks Lose Overdrafts Court Case, What Does It Mean For Us All?
In the test case against UK bank overdraft charges, it was ruled that the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) can decide if bank overdraft charges are unfair or not and this means it’s up to the OFT to decide what is a fair overdraft charge. The banks have said “Further court hearings will be required before the test case process is concluded.” Even if the OFT win and we can all claim back our overdraft charges you can bet that the banks will then be charging us all for our current accounts, meaning the end of free banking for everyone. This stemmed from consumers anger with bank charges, sometimes running into hundreds of pounds, for unauthorized overdrafts. Back in 2006 the thinking was that these charges were, in-fact, illegal because they must be reflective of the actual costs incurred by the bank, i.e. the charges must be reasonable. Also the credit card industry had seen an amendment to credit card fees, backed up by the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) – So the question was asked ‘why shou
