Overdraft charges ‘have a serious knock-on impact’

The charges levied by banks against their customers who use an overdraft without authorisation have a serious and damaging knock-on impact, it has been claimed.

According to Marc Gander, founder of the Consumer Action Group, there are thousands of people who have seen their ability to borrow money severely hindered as a result of facing charges that could soon be ruled unfair by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

In fact, Mr Gander maintains that under certain circumstances, consumers can be left with an uphill battle to become debt free because of the charges levied by their bank.

He asked the rhetorical question: “If all of these charges really are unfair and unjust and should never have been levied, what are the banks going to do about clearing up the credit register and repairing all these broken lives and broken reputations?”

The OFT was recently granted legal permission to rule on whether banks’ charging practices are unfair on their customers following a landmark case at the High Court.