Frequently Answered Questions

Your Questions answered in brief:

Q. What charges can I reclaim from my bank?

A. Charges for any referred (bounced) cheques, any Direct Debits that have not been honoured and for any excess overdraft fees.

Q. I have not kept copies of my bank statements for the last 6 years so how do I know how what charges I have incurred?

A. We will obtain your statements for the last 6 years to enable us to calculate the charges.

Q. Will interest be payable?

A. We will submit a claim for interest on any refund due to you.

Q. Can I claim for more than 6 years of charges?

A. No we are only able to claim for charges taken within the last 6 years.

Q. Could the bank close my account?

A. This is not likely as your bank is not allowed to close your account just because you have a claim against them.

Q. Will the bank reduce my overdraft?

A. There is a possibility that your bank may reduce any overdraft you may have so that you cannot reclaim further fees from them but again this is unlikely. We’d like to think that any monies we can reclaim for you will clear your overdraft anyway.

Q. Will my case proceed to court stage?

A. Possibly. However, should it reach this stage we will attend and act on your behalf.

Q. What are your charges and will making a claim cost me any money at all?

A. Only if we are successful in your claim will we charge our fee of 20% (which we will simply deduct from any final settlement figure we obtain on your behalf). Should you cancel your agreement with ourselves at any time we reserve the right to make a cancellation charge which will reflect the work undertaken by us in pursuit of your claim.

Q. Will a final settlement due to me have to be paid into my bank account (typically to reduce any overdraft that I may have)?

A. No. We will pay your final settlement cheque directly to you for you to deal with as you wish.

Frequently Asked Questions in more detail

Firstly, please let us provide you with an explanation as to why we believe you are entitled to claim back any charges that your bank or credit card provider has taken from you in the last six years irrespective as to whether the charge taken was your fault or not.

Ask yourself the question, does it really cost your bank £25 to charge you for exceeding your overdraft limit or for bouncing a cheque? Given that that the process is entirely computerised and does not involve any costly human intervention it is clear that a more appropriate charge would be a matter of a few pence. An obscure piece of case law determined that a charge is in fact a PENALTY if it does not reflect an items true cost.

In more recent years two pieces of law have been passed which prohibit banks or other financial institutions from imposing PENALTIES on their customers. This being so it is now clear that any Court would determine that these transaction charges taken from your account are unlawful extravagant penalties and YOU CAN CLAIM THEM BACK!

The banks however are not simply going to contact all of their customers to reimburse all charges they have taken unlawfully so you have to ask for them back. In the vast majority of cases this will involve instigating legal proceedings against your bank and taking them to Court if necessary.

The banks will try to settle for as little as possible however with our expertise we will ensure that not only do you claim back all of your charges but we will also ask for interest on any amount due back to you.

Our commitment to you is to ensure that you reclaim the maximum amount that is rightfully yours.

Your questions answered

What charges can I reclaim from my bank?

Typically you can reclaim for cheques that have been referred (otherwise known as bounced cheques), charges made for overdraft fees or exceeding agreed overdraft limits and any charges your bank has charged you for late payments on loans or credit cards. You cannot reclaim for any monthly account fee charged on your account as the banks are allowed, by law, to charge for a service that is provided.


I have not kept copies of my bank statements for the last 6 years so how do I know how what charges I have incurred?

This is not a problem as should this be the case we will write to your bank requesting a full request of your previous 6 years statements or a list of charges incurred for the last 6 years. We will have to pay them a £10 fee per account for this request however under the Data Protection Act the bank are obliged to supply us with this information within 40 days. Once we have this information we will be able to calculate the amount that you have been charged and commence proceedings to recover this amount PLUS interest on those charges on your behalf.


Can I claim for more than 6 years of charges?

No. Due to the Statute of Limitations Act you can only claim back six years from the date of your claim.


Could the bank close my account?

This is extremely unlikely and this has never happened to any of our clients before, however, we are aware of a handful of cases where the bank has chosen this course of action. If the bank was to close your account we would raise an official complaint with the Financial Services Authority on your behalf citing retaliatory action against your claim. This could be much more damaging for the bank than your claim against them.


Will my case proceed to court stage?

Banks do not want your case to get to the stage of a Court Hearing and very few cases have got to this stage. However, should this happen we will produce all the documentation required and we will represent you in court. Whilst the vast majority of cases do not get to a court hearing stage most cases will involve issuing a County Court Claim against your bank which will incur a court fee. We will pay this fee on your behalf and reclaim this cost along with your charges from the bank.


Does any final settlement due to me have to be paid into the account I hold with my bank (typically to reduce any overdraft that I may have)?

No - as long as we deal with your claim on your behalf. We will request that any settlement due from your bank is paid to ourselves so that your final settlement cheque is made payable to yourself from JSL Associates Ltd ensuring that you can then decide how you wish to use your refund. Once a final settlement is reached with your bank we will deduct our fee and any costs that we have incurred and make a cheque payable to yourself within 14 days upon receiving a settlement from your bank. Once your claim is completed we will then send you your individual file containing the entire contents of your claim including all correspondence between ourselves and your bank along with all of your bank statements that we have requested. At the end of your claim we will also ask you to sign and return to us a final letter instructing your bank that we have no further authority to deal with your account on your behalf and we will forward this letter to your bank on your behalf.

Please, if you have ANY further questions at all or would like to discuss your case in further detail with one of our consultants please do not hesitate to contact us and will be happy to answer any of your queries. We appreciate that you may have questions that have not been answered or may require clarification of any of the above points so please feel free to call us on 08700 845 700 in order that we can advise you further.

YOU ARE ENTITLED TO ANY CHARGES INCURRED ON YOUR BANK OR CREDIT CARD ACCOUNTS BUT UNLESS YOU CONTACT US WE CAN DO NO MORE.