Before you begin considering claiming back your bank charges, only start the proccess if you plan to follow it through right to the end (which could include going to a claims court), the reason being is that ill thought out or executed claims have a detrimental effect on those wishing to claim in the future, it could take just a few failed test cases to screw things up.

The best resourse on the internet for guidance is the consumer action groups website and forums, and also their Wiki:

 http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/

 http://www.consumerwiki.co.uk/index.php/Guide_to_reclaiming_bank_charges


On these you will find all the templates, letters and spreadsheets legally checked and regularly updated to acount for new legislation you will need to make you claim.

Things to avoid:

There are many guides to claiming back bank charges which will set you up to fail by not arming you properly such as the BBC's guide to claiming back charges:

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6170209.stm

avoid!!!!!

Companies that offer to claim back your bank charges for you for a fee. - not only is it fairly straightforward to do it yourself, but these companies charge a lot and will often strike a deal with your bank meaning you get less.



Things You Can And Can't Claim For
For those that have looked at their statements and may be wondering what they can claim for and why are the descriptions confusing, or whether overdraft interest is claimable as well...Wonder no more.

You can claim for anything which is deemed a penalty charge,

which includes:-

returned direct debits
card misuse fees
unpaid standing orders
unpaid item fees
exceeding your overdraft
referral fee
overdraft interest (see below),
total charges (see below)
See your induvidual bank for a more detailed list (thanks - Michael Brown)

You can NOT claim for: -

ATM (cash machine) usage fees
an agreed overdraft fee
account "service" fees
- i.e. where you pay a fixed monthly amount but receive benefits such as free insurance or travel discounts etc


Overdraft Interest

This is the single most confusing part of most people's claims and one of the most frequently asked questions.

Overdraft interest is applied to your whole overdraft. However, if some of your overdraft is made up from unlawful charges, then a proportion of the interest has been wrongly applied and is therefore reclaimable.


Example

You have a £400 overdraft, you purchase something that day for £200 so now you are -£200 on your current account balance, but on the same day £200 of penalty charges are placed on your account, which means that your current account balance is now -£400 and the bank will charge interest on the whole £400, but as we are contesting that these bank charges are unlawful, then the interest should not be placed on the whole amount, only on the amount that you have actually spent. Therefore, in this example, you can claim back 50% of the interest, however these calculations have to be done daily to truly reflect the amount which can be reclaimed.


Total bank charges

Again this is another issue which many people aren't sure about.

Total charges are reclaimable, they are a separate issue to the other afore-mentioned charges (card misuse, returned d-d's etc), and are not simply all of these charges added together each month. So they are also claimable on top of the other charges.

"Total charges" refers to the penalty charge they put on your account for going over your overdraft limit. This penalty charge is calculated daily, and they can charge up to a maximum of £125 in one month for this, it is then debited from your account on a set date every month.



Good Luck!!