"Dear Reclaim Bank Charges,

Many thanks to Filipe. I recovered £555 from First Direct and it took just one month from contacting him. Great service. I would highly recommend ..."

Mr Link, West Yorkshire, 5th of March, 2007

CURRENT/BUSINESS ACCOUNT CHARGES - CREDIT CARD CHARGES - LOAN CHARGES - UNFAIR CREDIT AGREEMENTS - MISSOLD PPI - MIS-SOLD WHOLE OF LIFE INSURANCE

The questions listed below are ones that come up regularly. We have decided to put them on the website for convenience.

Please can you supply some other websites to look for more information on the bank charges issues?

How does the latest test case affect reclaiming my bank charges?

Why have you changed from Handler status to Introducer status?

We've heard good things about your company. Why should we trust Ratio Money Ltd?

What exactly will it cost me if I decide to employ the service of Ratio Money Ltd to claim back my unlawful bank charges?

Who pays the court fees if the claim goes to court?

What will I have to do if a court claim is made?

Why may I be entitled to my bank charges back?

Couldn't I just do this myself?

Can I claim back unfair charges from my mortgage lender?

What if my claim is over the small claims limit (£5,000 in England and Wales; £750 in Scotland)?

What are your security measures?

What if I am in an IVA?

You used to refer cases to The Sherwood Partnership Ltd. Why have you switched to Ratio Money Ltd?

You now offer a service for making a claim for mis-sold PPI. Tell me more.

Other questions:

Please can you supply some other websites to look for more information on the bank charges issues?

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6170209.stm
www.fool.co.uk/news/your-money/current-accounts/2008/04/24/bank-charges-ruling-not-straightforward.aspx
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7587840.stm
www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/bank-charges.html
www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/court-presses-oft-to-rule-on-bank-charges-832932.html
www.thisismoney.co.uk/bankcharges
www.which.co.uk/campaigns/banking-and-credit/

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How does the latest test case affect reclaiming my bank charges?

See our breaking news for more answers.

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Why have you changed from Handler status to Introducer status?

We used to run a company to reclaim unfair bank/credit card/loan charges for people. Due to the huge demand for the service and the relatively small size of our company, we have decided to source a much larger company whom we have vetted and can assure people will provide the excellent service which we used to provide.

They, like us, are a friendly, approachable, professional company. They also often get up to 29% interest on the claims they take which greatly increases the size of the refunds they achieve.

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What exactly will it cost me if I decide to employ the service of Ratio Money Ltd to claim back my unlawful charges?

The full and complete list of costs you will incur are:

1. Once you have received your refund from your bank: 20% (plus VAT) of this refund.
2. Up to £10 (depending on the bank's fees), for a copy of the account information and statements.

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Who pays the court fees if the claim goes to court?

Ratio Money Ltd pay the court fees. Ratio Money Ltd take the full risk for the claim. If they lose the claim, then they lose the court fees.

Ratio Money Ltd almost always get a full refund by complaining to The Financial Ombudsman Service which greatly reduces the chances that the courts will be involved at all.

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What will I have to do if a court claim is made?

Initially nothing. Taking court action is done via letter.

If the bank defends Ratio Money Ltd may need to attend court along with yourself.

The following website contains documents that should answer any other questions you may have:

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/

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Why may I be entitled to my bank charges back?

In April 2006 the Office of Fair Trading ruled that credit card and debit card issuers may not charge more than the cost incurred by the business for late payment, unauthorised lending, bounced cheques, returned direct debits, etc.

This ruling is based on the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (UTCCR). It states:

• (1) A contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.

Interpreted this means that where in the contract held with the bank, the bank states that it can charge its customer if he/she exceeds his/her overdraft limit without prior agreement it should charge no more than the cost incurred by the bank for the unauthorised lending. As a consequence, where the bank has charged you more than the cost to itself for the unauthorised lending this is unenforceable by this law. It is in fact a penalty and therefore irrecoverable at common law.
Here follows an excerpt from the Office of Fair Trading's document entitled: 'Calculating Fair Default Charges in Credit Card Contracts':

1.16 In applying this test of fairness we have taken the view that a court would be likely to regard as unfair a default charge provision that enabled the issuer to recover more than the damages which would be awarded at common law in the event that a consumer was individually sued for breach of contract. Such a charge should therefore:

• reflect a reasonable pre-estimate of the net limited additional administrative costs which occur as a result of the specific breaches of contract and which can be identified with reasonable precision
• reflect a fair attribution of those costs between defaulting customers
• be based on a genuine estimate of the total numbers of expected instances of default in the relevant period, and
• treat costs other than those net limited additional administrative costs as a general overhead of the credit card business and disregard them for the purpose of calculating a default fee. That said,
• we are not insisting that credit card issuers have default charges that discriminate between the different types of default under consideration
• we accept a reasonable degree of rounding in the level of the default charge calculated in accordance with these principles
• This URL will take you to the OFT website: http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/2006/68-06.htm

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Couldn't I just do this myself?

You can. We have supplied links to some useful websites that give the information necessary to proceed on your own. These are on the DIY websites page.

The question is, for the sake of 20% (plus VAT), do you want to? For the same reason that a person would rather pay someone else to change the oil in their car, some people prefer to pay someone else to get their unlawful charges back.

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Can I claim back unfair charges from my mortgage lender?

Yes.

Unfair charges or penalties, as per the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, applied by a company to its customer are unlawful where those charges were not individually negotiated between the two parties. This includes: - banks - credit card issuers - mortgage lenders. That is not an exhaustive list. Please contact us if you feel you have been the subject of unfair charges by any other type of company.

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What if my claim is over the small claims limit (£5,000 in England and Wales; £750 in Scotland)?

In the vast majority of cases, Ratio Money Ltd successfully recover 100% of the charges + interest without the need for court action. It is only when using the courts that these limits apply.

Legally, you cannot repeat a claim for the same account. The majority of companies like mine, and advice sites, state that to deal with a claim larger than the Small Claims limit, you simply have to split the claim into time-bands and to put each claim through as a small claim. We have been advised by solicitors and by the courts that you cannot split a claim of any sort simply to keep each one within the Small Claims limit.

The only reason that this works is that the banks never and probably never will defend a second action on the same account. We, however, have and will continue to put claims of any size through in full.

Ratio Money Ltd have a full understanding of what costs could be awarded to the bank if they lost a case. The business holds a fund to cover such an occasion. You, the customer have absolutely no risk whatsoever in taking your claim through Ratio Money Ltd. They take 100% of the risk. They have completed many cases so far and not lost a single one so that risk is extremely small anyway.

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What are the security measures?

1. Ratio Money Ltd and ourselves are registered Data Handlers with the Information Commissioners Office (Our reg no: Z965544X; Ratio Money Ltd reg no: Z9816427)
2. Filipe McManus is a qualified programmer and also has a diploma in Health Informatics. This enables him to know the importance of and how to secure a network and all data on the network. Ratio Money Ltd use a qualified IT company who equally know and understand IT management.
3. Both company's networks are protected using virus protection software and a firewall.
4. Both company's data are backed up and password protected and stored in a Fire-Proof box every day.
5. The databases are password protected
6. All physical information (statements, correspondence, etc) are stored in folders which are kept in locked cabinets in the office. The office is security controlled.

Despite all the above protection measures, it is worth remembering that you cannot take money out of someone's account simply with their name, address and account number. You can only put money in. For example, many invoices all have the name, address, sort code and account number of the company. This is so customers can bank transfer money into their account instead of paying by cheque if they wish. Customers would not be able to get money out of the invoicer's account with that info.

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What if I am in an IVA?

If the bank/credit card company/lender you wish to reclaim unfair bank charges from is one of the ones in your IVA, then when a refund is due it will be used by them to reduce your debt with them. This means that you will not see any of the refund and actually be worse off as you will also be unable to pay the subsequent invoice.

Also, the part of the debt that they will use your refund to pay, will be the part that you had originally been written off as a result of your IVA. So it would not even reduce your IVA payments.

It is only worth taking on a bank or credit card company if they are not one of the ones in your IVA, or the IVA has finished, or the total original amount owed to the company is less than the amount you expect to recover in unfair charges.

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You used to refer cases to The Sherwood Partnership Ltd. Why have you switched to Ratio Money Ltd?

The Sherwood Partnership Ltd have and still do provide an excellent service. They have decided to put a temporary stop on accepting new claims to ensure they keep up with the workload they have received thus far. As a consequence we have sourced another company to carry out our claims.

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You now offer a service for making a claim for mis-sold PPI. Tell me more.

Ratio Money do also make claims for mis-sold PPI. Please see following quote from their website:

Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) is offered with nearly every type of credit and if it was mis-sold to you we can claim back every premium previously paid, which could be thousands of pounds. There are many reasons why you may have a valid claim, when obtaining credit were you:

• Self-Employed, Retired, Student or Homemaker?
• Told you had to take out the PPI to get the credit?
• Pressured into taking PPI?
• Not told that you could buy PPI from an independent provider (which can be 80% cheaper)?

If you answer yes to any of the above you may have been mis-sold and are therefore entitled to a full refund.

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Other questions:

Please email/write/call 5.30pm to 7.30pm Mon - Thurs, 9.30am to 12.30pm Sat (answer phone messages will be responded to in the evening) and we will be happy to discuss this service with you and answer any questions you may have.

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