Credit Card charges

Credit card Charges are also referred to as unfair charges. Below is some detail on the current status in relation to the process of reclaiming unfair credit card charges.

What are credit card charges?

Credit card charges are charges issued to customers for simple mistakes such as going beyond their agreed credit card limit or for making a late payment. Often these are viewed as unfair charges, especially those received before April 2006. Any credit card charges received prior to April 2006 could have been for as much as £35.00 each. Credit companies now will charge £12.00 for these mistakes but many people including us still believe this is excessive. The question we ask is, will it really cost your credit card provider £12.00 (or indeed £35.00 prior to April 2006) to send out an automated letter when you could have gone as little as a penny over your agreed credit limit? The answer you will find is no, of course not, of course it doesn't cost that much, even with administration costs, costs of the paper, costs of the stamp to post the letter, it still won't come to that amount.
Over the years, credit card providers have been charging their customers these unfair charges whenever they missed their credit card repayment date or if they just went over their limit. These charges are unfair and we can help you to reclaim them.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has even expressed their support of lower credit card charges. In April 2006, the OFT investigated the credit card charges that providers were charging their customers. They send they would launch a specific investigation into any providers that were charging over £12.00 as they believed this to be an excessive amount, after this many customers reduced their credit card charges to £12.00. We still believe a charge of £12.00 is an unfair credit card charge, it does not cost the credit card provider that much to deal with you going over your limit or making a late payment. It is for these reason that we want to help you reclaim these credit card charges.
Due to the OFT's investigation, for any charges prior to April 2006, we are able to reclaim the difference between the charge you received and the £12.00 charge, the OFT believes is acceptable.
For any charges received after April 2006, we are able to investigate to see if they are unfair charges.

Can I claim back credit card charges?

If you have received unfair charges for simple mistakes on a credit card, you will definitely have a case for reclaiming them. For us to attempt to reclaim your credit card charges, we will need to be made aware of all the unfair charges you have received. You are able to go back six years with the charges in England and Wales, and five years in Scotland, this is because it is the period of time banks and credit card providers are legally obliged to keep details of your credit card.
Credit card charges we can claim back include late payment and charges for going over your agreed credit limit. We cannot claim back standard account fees or interest added to your account.
If you don't have the details for your credit card because it is expired, you should first see what is available online if you have online banking. If you don't, we can send a letter on your behalf to your credit card provider requesting a list of all the charges you have received on your credit card. Some credit card providers may charge for this information. You do have a legal right to the information under the Data Protection Act but credit card providers are also legally allowed to charge for it with the maximum amount being £10.00.
The credit card provider has a maximum of 40 days to respond, during this time we will keep you informed of our progress.
Once we have heard from your credit card provider, on your behalf we will calculate all unfair charges and the interest added on to these charges and then negotiate with your credit card provider to request a full refund.

How much can I claim?

Our average amount of charges claimed back on a credit card is £430.
To date we have helped over 120,000 customers to reclaim unfair charges, recovering more than £57 million in refunds for them.
We are also able to investigate whether you are owed money for mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).

If your claim for unfair credit card charges is successful, our fee is 25% of the total compensation offered plus VAT.