The Royal Bank of Scotland has written letters to thousands of small businesses informing them that their previously free bank accounts will now be charged at a flat rate of £10 a month.
On 24th April the High Court ruled that the charges made by banks for going into the red or not having funds to pay a cheque or direct debit are bound by standard legal rules on the fairness of contracts. Read the rest of this entry »
High Street banks have reportedly repaid over £560 million to customers who feel they have been overcharged for unauthorised overdraft fees or unpaid item charges.
Lloyds TSB has announced a cut in the charges it levies on customers who go into the red without prior authorisation, and also a reduction in the amount it charges for bouncing a cheque. It is the first major bank to reduce its fees in light of the ongoing saga over possibly illegal and punitive charging levels, although Lloyds insists that the move is a response to customer feedback and not an attempt to stave off tighter regulation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
A study into the half-year performance of Britain’s largest high street banks has estimated that a total of £200m of ‘unfair’ charges have been refunded to customers who’ve initiated legal action over possibly punitive or excessive charges.
Natwest is to launch a new account aimed at current account holders who regularly go into the red without having an agreed overdraft facility, for which they can be charged up to £38 each time. The new account will have a lower unauthorised ovedraft fee of £17, in exchange for a fixed monthly payment of £10.
An estimated 20,000 customers of First Direct have jumped ship since the direct banking pioneer introduced a monthly fee on its current accounts in February of this year,
The charge of £10 was imposed on all current accounts into which the customer deposited less than £1,500 a month, and is estimated to have affected around 195,000 accounts.