Instructions

1

Know your rights. The charges imposed on customers if a cheque bounces or an overdraft limit is exceeded can range from ¡ê25 to ¡ê40. If money is not paid into the bank to cover the excess and the charges, then the charges keep mounting. Parliament has deemed these charges to be unfair to the customer and thousands of customers have started to fight back and reclaim bank charges.
2

Spot charges immediately. Always check bank statements and see immediately if you have incurred any charges to your account. If you have, your first point of contact should be your branch. Either phone or go into the branch to dispute the charges. Banks are more than aware that these charges are excessive in comparison to the amount of work they put in sending you out a letter to tell you that you have been charged.
3

Don't take no for an answer. The bank will not want to give you back your charges. The excuse that the bank will come up with will be the fact that you were aware that these charges would be applied if you exceeded funds. This will no longer wash now that the true figures of how much banks are making from these penalties have been recorded.
4

Phone your head office. If you get no satisfaction from your local branch, take the next step and phone the bank's head office's customer relations department. Make them aware how angry you are and they may just give you some or all of the charges back just to get rid of you. This will usually be followed by a statement calling it a gesture of goodwill.
5

If you still do not get satisfaction, then the next step is to send out a letter of intent to the bank. You can either go after the charges that have been applied recently or you can apply for charges going back over 5 years. If you want to get 5 years worth of charges you should be prepared for what this entails. It could mean taking your claim all the way to a small claims court.
6

Print off the letter. Recently there have been a slew of websites set up to help customers reclaim their bank charges. The websites are free to use and will have templates of letters that can be sent out. If you want to reclaim 5 years worth of charges, you must send ¡ê10 along with a request for a record of all you bank's financial statements.
7

Do your research. Once you have ascertained how much the bank has taken from you over the years, send the letter saying that you intend to claim back all of your charges. The bank should reply within a few weeks, but it may take months. If they do not give some or all of the charges back, then it is time to threaten them with the small claims court. This should not be an idle threat; you must be prepared to follow through.