Claim Bank Charges Back - Helping you to reclaim Unfair Bank Charges!

Once you have a copy of your statements, you'll need to go through and find all the charges to calculate the total amount you can claim back.

If the bank has given you a list of charges only, so much the better, as it will save you a lot of work! They don't normally do this though, preferring just to print off all your statements and send you those.

Its a good idea to put all your charges into spreadsheet, such as Excel, as it makes it easy to perform all the calculations to total the charges, and if you decide to, add interest.

If you have Microsoft Excel, you can use the spreadsheet below to enter your charges.

Bank Charges Calculator Spreadsheet

To check which charges you can claim back see: Which Bank Charges can I claim Back?

You need to list the date the charge occured, the reason for the charge eg "Unpaid DD Charge", and the charge amount.

The spreadsheet automatically calculates statutory interest at 8% on each charge. However, if you decide not to ask for interest at this point, you can simply delete the relevant columns.

Should I add Interest to the Charges?

This is a matter for debate, with different advice coming from different sources.

To make it clear though, at this stage the banks DO NOT have to pay you interest on the charges, they are only legally obligated to pay interest if you have taken them to court and won the case, in which case statutory interest at 8% can be added to your charges.

However, I can't see the harm in giving them a list of the charges with interest (calculated using the spreadsheet above), and asking them to pay the full amount including interest, for the following reasons:

• There is a small chance they may actually pay you the full amount with interest.
• Much more likely, is that they will make you an offer, which will be the total amount of your charges only. Usually, they make an offer initially, which is lower than the amount you are claiming. If you ask them for the interest on the charges as well, their offer is likely to be closer to the original amount of your charges than it would otherwise be.
• It shows them how much they will have to pay out if they you take them to court, and so should make them more likely to settle without you having to take court action

Once you have calculated the total of your charges, and the interest if you are adding it, the next step is to write to the bank and ask them for the charges back. Make sure you keep a copy of the charges calculated above for yourself, and send a copy to the bank, which is detailed in Step 3 - Write to the Bank asking them to Refund your Bank Charges.