Case 5 - Businessman

This client had a number of accounts with their bank, some of which held large credit monies and some of which were in large debit figures. The company's understanding was that all the account balances were combined together with the resultant balance liable for interest if in overall debit. The bank confirmed the customers understanding.

An audit was conducted by BANKCheck on the accounts and ongoing overcharging was uncovered. When the case was brought to the bank the client was advised that the accounts had been worked together but there was a fee involved for doing so.

The client had not been advised of this fee at any time and on searching all the bank statements the actual fee could not be located although the bank had stated it was charged on a quarterly basis.

It transpired that the bank had added the fee onto the quarterly interest amount and debited the one amount to the clients account all under the heading of bank interest.

It was pointed out to the bank that this fee should have been independently debited to the Bank account. This would then have highlighted the charge to the customer and given the opportunity to query the amount.

After a number of meetings between BANKCheck and the bank, the bank finally admitted to the fact that the fee had been hidden in the interest charge and a refund of £135,000 was made to cover a three year period