Bank charges and mis-sold loans – can you reclaim?

Bank charges have gone under scrutiny in the past decade and they’ve been told to stop charging needlessly, and to compensate people who claim. If you’ve had bank charges you think are unfair – you can read Mr Financial’s advice on how you can reclaim.

Bank charges and mis-sold loans – can you reclaim?

There are lots of charges that you can fight, in connection to your bank account, for example fees for having a bank account in the first place (which have mis-sold to you), fees for breeching your overdraft, bouncing a cheque and/or defaulting on a direct debit. You can also claim for tax rebate on PPI pay-outs and/or mis-sold payday loans.

PACKAGED BANK ACCOUNTS

If you pay (or indeed historically have paid) a subscription fee for your bank account, it’s possible you might be able to claim back hundreds or even thousands. Account in the past 20 years have been mis-sold with lots of banks adding unnecessary insurance costs.

The fee you pay is meant to be in return for benefits (usually bundled insurance). While there are some people for whom packaged bank accounts are a good fit, for the vast majority, it’s because they’re “sold” the account by an aggressive sales agent. It’s really quite simple – you only need a packaged account if you need insurance. Often, even if you do need insurance – it can be cheaper to get it from an insurance provider.

Mr Financial recommends you talk to your bank immediately if you pay a fee for holding an account with them. There could be hundreds of pounds waiting to be returned to you!

RECLAIM BANK CHARGES

People regularly apply to get bank charges back. For example, banks charge you for breeching your overdraft, bounced cheques and/or direct debits, but you are entitled to reclaim the charges. It’s much harder than it used to be to claim historical costs back, but it is still possible – especially if you can prove you’re in financial hardship. If the charge happened very recently – Mr Financial recommends it’s worth a call to the bank to negotiate the charge.

CAN I STILL CLAIM FOR PPI?

The PPI deadline has indeed passed (29 August 2019), so it now is much more difficult to reclaim PPI. For a few people with exceptional circumstances, claiming might still be possible, but for the majority, the opportunity has been missed.

However, if you are one of the lucky people who did reclaim and had a pay-out for mis-sold PPI after 6th April 2016, you can reclaim the tax you paid on your pay-out – which could be hundreds of pounds.

HAVE YOU EVER TAKEN OUT A PAYDAY LOAN?

Payday loans were created as very short-term loans of £100 to £1,000 to help before payday – where they would be repaid, plus a high amount of interest. However, historically they became far too easy to attain – and lenders did not conduct any due diligence and played tricks with fees to sting people who borrowed. That meant rendering people with a debt that snowballed as they were unable to repay.

If you or someone you know has had that happen, money might be available to claim back. You must fight a lender before it liquidates because if the company’s in administration, you’ll only get a small amount back.

A pay day loan is never an advisable idea and Mr Financial recommends debt counselling before you contemplate a pay day loan.

If you have taken one out though, and you believe you should never have received it (i.e. it was never within your means or affordable for you to repay), it is definitely worth claiming for a mis-sold loan.

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