Customers won’t face £300 a year bank charges says the OFT

The Office of Fair Trading has thrown out suggestions that current account holders in the UK will face bank charges of around £300 if banks are forced to scrap their controversial penalty charges.

The OFT is currenly embroiled in a test with the UKs 8th largest banks to assertain the legailty of the charges banks imposed breach their contract, such as going overdrawn.

The British bankers Association though has warned that if the banks loss this case banks could imposed yearly service charges as well as transactional fees, as many banks do abroad.

(Banks) could follow patterns abroad where banks charge for transactions such as ATM usage, direct debits and standing orders, in addition to an annual fee” if the courts ruled in the OFT’s favour.

The OFT though are less than impressed by the suggestion,

There’s no excuse for the £300 charge. It would raise between six and 10 times the amount the penalty fees cost consumers.

Many feel the release of the £300 figure is a ploy by the banks to get customers use to the idea of beieng charged for banking services, before reducing the actual amount customers would be charged if such a system were introduced.

The OFT has stated that if it wins the test case that this will not remove all bank charges across the board in the future, some of the charges banks imposed are fair in some cases.

UK banks still maintain that all the charges they currently imposed and have done so in the past are fair and just.

Posted in: British bankers Association, Legal, The Office of Fair Trading

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