OFT welcomes court decision on overdraft charges

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has welcomed a decision by the High Court to allow it to assess the fairness of unauthorised overdraft charges.

Such charges can often make matters worse for people struggling to become
debt free and it was the OFT that raised the issue of their fairness in the courts.

A series of further hearings are set to be carried out in an process the OFT hopes will ultimately enable it to oblige leading financial services firms in the UK to be less heavy-handed in how they levy charges against their current account customers.

Statements from the office explained: “This is an important early milestone for the OFT and our investigation into this area of high consumer interest.

“We are now analysing the implications of the judgment for our overall investigation into the fairness of the terms.”

Meanwhile, a report from MoneyExpert recently suggested that an increasing number of Britons are seeing their credit card applications turned down by the UK’s leading banking groups.