Franky on Finance

The Office of Fair Trading has won its High Court battle against UK biggest banks on unfair charges.  A judge has decided that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) can rule on the fairness of the charges, which many customers have been trying to reclaim.  Mr Justice Andrew Smith said his judgement did not necessarily mean the charges were unfair.  This judgement means the OFT should be able to decide what a fair charge would be for unauthorised overdrafts.  Both the banks and the courts have been deluged with claims since the beginning of 2006, which they were finding very difficult to deal with.  But since both sides agreed to stage the test case, tens of thousands of claims have been put on hold in either the county courts or with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).  Banks earn approximately £3.5bn a year from the charges, which are believed to affect one in 10 of bank’s 45m customers, according to price comparison group uSwitch.  Go here or more details.