Customers Legal Rights Over Bank Charges

Amendments could also mean more protection against efforts by retailers or companies to include potentially expensive hidden extra charges into their deals with customers. Contracts that required a consumer to purchase supplementary goods or services which had not been advertised in the price of the main contract, would normally considered unfair.

Everyone maybe experienced those hidden charges in a contract that we did not expect. There had been reports about these in numerous products that we purchase. Some of these were noticed in mortgages, loans, car hire and a lot more. There are some active campaigns against too much bank charges recently, particularly in great britain. However, more than a year ago, a ruling in England’s highest court obstructed action on unfair bank charges on overdraft by the Office of Fair Trading.

The amendments were approved when the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee voted on the proposed legislation in Strasbourg. The European consumer association’ umbrella group said it believed extending the fairness test was very good. However, the underlying client rights legislation, that has been the subject of intense wrangling for two years, remains unclear up to now.

A lot of the dispute focuses on whatever the new rules, which deal with guarantees, contract terms, the rights of consumers to return goods, and so on, should be imposed similarly in all 27 European countries, even if some have already higher levels of protection of consumers.

We believe that bank charges are far too high. Although it’s reasonable for the banks to charge fees for certain services such as financial loans and overdrafts, we believe that the high charges attached to unauthorized overdrafts aren’t fair and improper. Anyone that has felt this pinch in the few days before payday understands the fear of starting an unauthorized overdraft. It is not only those who are reckless with money that ends up facing bank charges that are unfair. When a direct debit or a cheque takes you into this issue, you could be left out of pocket. High bank charges could also lead to some clients spiraling into debt because the charges are simply too high to pay off.
Since 2006, campaigns are already going on to stop bank charges that are unfair for clients who go into an unauthorized overdraft. If you are able to prove that you’ve been treated unfairly, then the initial thing to do is complain on paper to your bank.