- 08
- Apr
It has been revealed that thousands of customers who took their banks to court in order to reclaim their bank charges and won may never actually see their money.
It is estimated that High Street banks have paid out somewhere in the region of £1 billion in reclaimed charges in the last year. However there is a growing amount of evidence suggesting that banks are increasingly using delay tactics in order to avoid paying back their customers. These delay tactics are even being used in cases where the bank has been told to repay by the courts.
Many unhappy customers who thought they were going to get their money back after banks were deemed to be charging illegal fees are now finding that their banks are stalling on paying them amounts that are in some cases worth thousands of pounds. For customers forced to take out debt-clearing loans on charges since deemed ‘illegal’, this is sickening as the loans are still charged interest whilst the customer awaits the refunds to clear them.
It is very common for banks to lose their cases in the county courts because they do not present a defence. However once they have been ruled against they appeal the judgement which ends up delaying the case for weeks and months.
Banks are also asking that judges dismiss cases in which they have been ruled against pending the outcome of a result in the High Court of a case brought by the Office of Fair Trading.
While the FSA has allowed banks to hold off on payments to customers who have requested repayments from the banks directly this ruling does not carry over to county court judgements.
