Bank compensation may reach the billions
Banks might have to make compensation claims valued at billions to their customers for unfair charges.
Moneyexpert.com has revealed that up to 50,000 template letters intended for requesting compensation from banks were downloaded from its website recently.
If processed the letters could amount to a huge £9 billion compensation amount, calculated This is the Northeast.
Banks are believed to collect up to £3.5 billion per year from charges such as bounced cheques and unauthorised overdrafts.So far up to £700 million is thought to have been refunded to 380,000 bank customers.
At present the Office of Fair Trading is scheduled to set charges at an affordable level and a further meeting will be held this month.
However, the compensation is a lengthy process and might not be resolved quickly, said industry experts.
"This is the very first stage in what could be an extremely long process which in reality will take years, not months to conclude, " said Simeon Linstead, head of personal finance at uSwitch.com.
Updated on 5/15/2008