THE MONEY WELL
Unfair Additional Charges
THE MONEY WELL
Copyright @
Moneywell.co.uk 2006-07
Credit Card
Debt Reduction
Moneywell.co.uk 2006-07
Credit Card
Debt Reduction
If you have a 0% balance transfer on your credit card. Never use that card for purchases.
Most of the offers will use any repayments made to pay off the 0% part first so your purchases will never be paid off until your 0% balance has reached zero.
Most of the offers will use any repayments made to pay off the 0% part first so your purchases will never be paid off until your 0% balance has reached zero.
Excessive Credit Card Charges - Illegal?
The Office Of Fair Trading have recently looked into excessive credit card charges and decided they may be illegal.
The OFT wrote to eight major credit card issuers about their credit card charges to customers for going over their agreed credit limit or for missed or delayed payments.
Following discussions with the credit card issuers and after consideration of complaints they have released a Statement of Principles that they advise the credit card companies to follow. You can download a consumer guide...> here
A contract term is considered to be unfair if customers are charged more than the reasonable costs involved in dealing with the default. These might include administrative costs, postage and a proportion of the cost of using computers and paying staff costs. The OFT say that a figure for those reasonable costs could only be established in a court of law.
The OFT say they expect card issuers to recalculate the default credit card charges in line with the principles they have outlined and they consider that charges above £12.00 would be likely to prove excessive. They also make the point that they see this fugure as an upper limit of what might be considered reasonable so it should not be considered a standard figure. They then go on to say that they would expect to challenge a fee that was above this threshold.
This will be good news for many people who have suffered the whims of credit card companies. Many people with a previously good payment record will have had the experience of phoning up to complain about credit card charges appearing on their statement and having them removed "as a gesture of goodwill" which leaves you wondering why they imposed them if they were so willing to remove them again. Now it would seem they should never have been imposed anyway.
The OFT set a date of 31 May 2006 for credit card issuers to amend their credit card charges and most, if not all, had done so by 1st June 2006 or announced their intention to do so.
.
It would seem likely that credit card users all over the UK will now be making claims against the credit card companies for repayment of at least a proportion of these credit card charges which are considered unfair by the Office of Fair Trading. Just as with unreasonable bank charges it is quite likely that credit card companies will be willing to refund fees charged rather than go to court and risk being shown to have acted illegally. Next...>
The Office Of Fair Trading have recently looked into excessive credit card charges and decided they may be illegal.
The OFT wrote to eight major credit card issuers about their credit card charges to customers for going over their agreed credit limit or for missed or delayed payments.
Following discussions with the credit card issuers and after consideration of complaints they have released a Statement of Principles that they advise the credit card companies to follow. You can download a consumer guide...> here
A contract term is considered to be unfair if customers are charged more than the reasonable costs involved in dealing with the default. These might include administrative costs, postage and a proportion of the cost of using computers and paying staff costs. The OFT say that a figure for those reasonable costs could only be established in a court of law.
The OFT say they expect card issuers to recalculate the default credit card charges in line with the principles they have outlined and they consider that charges above £12.00 would be likely to prove excessive. They also make the point that they see this fugure as an upper limit of what might be considered reasonable so it should not be considered a standard figure. They then go on to say that they would expect to challenge a fee that was above this threshold.
This will be good news for many people who have suffered the whims of credit card companies. Many people with a previously good payment record will have had the experience of phoning up to complain about credit card charges appearing on their statement and having them removed "as a gesture of goodwill" which leaves you wondering why they imposed them if they were so willing to remove them again. Now it would seem they should never have been imposed anyway.
The OFT set a date of 31 May 2006 for credit card issuers to amend their credit card charges and most, if not all, had done so by 1st June 2006 or announced their intention to do so.
.
It would seem likely that credit card users all over the UK will now be making claims against the credit card companies for repayment of at least a proportion of these credit card charges which are considered unfair by the Office of Fair Trading. Just as with unreasonable bank charges it is quite likely that credit card companies will be willing to refund fees charged rather than go to court and risk being shown to have acted illegally. Next...>
Copyright Moneywell.co.uk 2007
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