Bank Charge Complaints Continue To Rise

Bank Charge Complaints Continue To Rise

Thursday 24th May 2007

The Financial Ombudsman Service released figures this week highlighting the continuing surge in complaints over bank charges with a rise in 47% in the past financial year to 20,000.

The report states that whilst complaints regarding endowment policies are beginning to fall there are around 1,000 new bank charge complaints being investigated every week: "This increase has been driven by the flood of enquiries and complaints about current account charges for customers who go overdrawn without prior authorisation,".

The Ombudsman stated that in each case they had dealt with the banks had refunded the money disputed by customers and as a result has been unable so far to carry out a detailed investigation into the complaints.

The war over disputed bank charges continues to rage on however and we will see without doubt more cases coming through the courts in the months to come.