Harry's Blog

One of the really annoying things about this week has been the £90 in bank charges Barclays flung at me. This was due to the couple of days between me having some money in my account, direct debits going out and my December paycheck clearing.

The initial charge of £30 was levied for going less than £5 over my overdraft limit and I'm sure you know how these charges can spiral from there.

£90 can bring a whole lot of Christmas cheer to a couple that doesn't demand diamonds and a BMW for Christmas. And £90 will coveral several monthly household bills.

Now one might argue I deserved these charges as I didn't keep my account within limits. On that I shall agree with you. I am quite happy for the bank to do either of two things, stop the payment going out at all or charge me the actual cost of administrating this problem - the cost of sending me a letter etc.

Do you think a computer flagging up a payment then automatically sending you a letter costs £30. No neither do I. Nor did the panel of experts on a Money Programme special tonight on BBC2 about bank charges.

A panel of experts investigated these charges and found that the most manual of procedures (bouncing a cheque) might cost a bank at the very most £4.60 and administrating a bounced direct debit could be no more than £2.40.

So if the bank had charged me three lots of £2.40, even though that's at the top end of the experts' scale, I really wouldn't have had much problem with the action of Barclays.

The banks say that these charges are to administer you defaulting on your account. That's the levy they are charging you with. But as you can now see there's no justification for charging £30 other than to rake in a big profit. The banks have made billions by charging these disproportionate fees.

Now many people are seeking redress from the banks and repayment. The Money Programme special looked at several people doing this. It's something I've considered for quite a while but have been waiting for the right time and situation to start the process.

The events of the last few days coinciding with this TV programme tonight have spurred me on. My beloved L is going to have the first crack at it and will be taking on TSB and HSBC. Depending how things go then I will take a look at my dealings with Barclays and HSBC too.

I wish I'd known all this stuff years ago. You can claim back six years. But back in the late nineties I was screwed over every month by the Co-Op Bank. I was earning a pittance as a shop monkey at Electronics Boutique and regular bank charges at the end of each month created a Kafkaesque perpetual motion machine.

Bank charges begat more bank charges and so I lost almost £100 a month. I once approached the Co-Op Bank, the so called ethical bank, to say if they stopped the charges one month, the next month my account would run fine within limits. Did they care? Guess.

But anyway, let's return to the original subject - last week's charges from Barclays. Well normally I grit my teeth and bear them. But this week, with Christmas approaching, I really was pissed off.

So I just clicked the "contact us" link on my online banking page and wrote an email of complaint. I actually mentioned the Office of Fair Trading judgement from earlier this year that has finally limited credit card companies to charging a maximum of £12 in penalty fees.

Well this morning I was delighted to see that £90 refunded into my bank account. No doubt in the next few days I'll get a snotty letter from Barclays explaining this was just a good will gesture, it sets no president etc. But we know where they stand legaly and for now I'm happy we've got a bit more money for Christmas.

But come the new year I'll be looking for six years of bank charges.