Credit card charges: How much can be claimed?
Our team will work out how much has been paid in charges including the following areas which could be deemed as unfair charges:
We can only apply to reclaim charges made within the last 6 years. Unless you have kept all the credit card statements for this time, we will need to write to the credit card provider and ask them to provide this information and statements. (We will Issue a Section 77/78 and request these are sent direct to us). Under the Data Protection Act 1998, your credit card company must provide this information within forty days. They can charge an administration fee but it can’t be more than £10.
Complain to the provider.
We write to the credit card provider, telling them we act on behalf of you and that we are unhappy with the charges paid as we believe they have breached regulations. We request they refund the total amount of charges plus 8% interest and also interest based on the APR and seek a rebate for the full amount plus court costs.
If we are refused a refund.
If the provider refuses to refund any of the charges, or they make an offer we are not happy with, we will refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
FOS is a free and independent service that helps settle disputes between financial services business and consumers. They step in when a firm and consumer cannot settle a complaint. Clients must have complained to their credit card provider before approaching the FOS.
We can refer a case to FOS if:
We will need to issue and complete a complaint form and send supporting documents, such as the letter as response from the provider, to the Ombudsman. This will help them understand what exactly the complaint is about. The FOS can help you fill in the form over the phone if necessary, although we will generally do this.
We may take your case to the small claims court.
If we are not happy with the Financial Ombudsman Service decision we can challenge unfair charges in the small claims court without FOS instruction. Companies need to be more open about how penalty charges are worked out. Credit card companies typically charge a penalty fee for one of three reasons:
In April 2006 lenders and credit card companies were told that the penalty fees they were charging were too high, and that any charge over £12 would be considered unfair. Since then most card providers have dropped their fees to £12.
What does it really cost them?
We want credit card companies to explain how levels for penalty charges are worked out and how much it really costs them when one of us misses a payment. We strongly believe that any penalty charge should only cover limited administrative costs.
