UK: Supreme Court Rules Bank Charges Are Legal.

I'm not digging through the thread to find it but Ayoubob already posted some examples of "decent" unauthorized overdraft charges (if I remember correctly it was something like 50p/day and capped at £5/month).  If you do a search on google (like I did lastnight out of curiousity) you can find dozens (possible hundreds, I didn't dig into that far since I don't need a new bank) of banks that offer different (and better) options for unauthorized overdrafts...I found several banks that will deny the charges, I found several banks that capped the unauthorized overdraft charge at £20 - or below - for each month, I found several banks that offered a set interest rate fee (i.e. you pay 6% interest on however much your unauthorized overdraft is).  It's easily accessible and readily available information for anyone who is serious.  If unauthorized overdraft fees are a problem you experience habitually, I would definitely suggest you look around because there are much better options available.

This is the sort of thing that I think is the problem.  While I agree that Sweetpeach's husband was liable for the unauthorized overdraft on his account and should've had to pay a fee, £180 for a £5 unauthorized overdraft is exorbitant and unfair.

Those of you who say that Sweetpeach's husband agreed to the bank's terms, and thus the bank can charge whatever fee it likes - even to the point of applying multiple fee charges to multiple attempts to clear one check - should be ashamed of yourselves.  Charging a fee once for one unauthorized overdraft is fair; charging multiple fees for the same incident is fraudulent.

I don't deny that he was liable for a penalty, just that the punishment was disproportionate to the crime.

That's the problem that this case was about.

I imagine the bank that have fair charges didn't receive many complaints.

I'm not digging through the thread to find it but Ayoubob already posted some examples of "decent" unauthorized overdraft charges (if I remember correctly it was something like 50p/day and capped at £5/month).  If you do a search on google (like I did lastnight out of curiousity) you can find dozens (possible hundreds, I didn't dig into that far since I don't need a new bank) of banks that offer different (and better) options for unauthorized overdrafts...I found several banks that will deny the charges, I found several banks that capped the unauthorized overdraft charge at £20 - or below - for each month, I found several banks that offered a set interest rate fee (i.e. you pay 6% interest on however much your unauthorized overdraft is).  It's easily accessible and readily available information for anyone who is serious.  If unauthorized overdraft fees are a problem you experience habitually, I would definitely suggest you look around because there are much better options available.

Since I'm no longer with RBS, not overdrawn and have a new current account with Santander having it made it clear to them I do not wish to have any kind of overdraft facility, authorised or otherwise, no this is not something I "experience habitually", although this is frankly none of your business.  However, since you are telling people to go and bank somewhere else, I thought you might have an idea of which banks offer a better deal.  Not being able to name any yourself belies your contention that there are possibly hundreds.  The fact is, if you wish to have the convenience of banking with a company that has many branches and cash machines doted abbout all over the place, which let's face it most people need, you are limited to a handful of big names like Lloyds, Barclays, RBS etc which charge these fees.

I sincerely hope you never have any kind of debt, whether it be  an overdraft, a loan, mortgage or credit card because this ruling has implications for all of them.

[MOD NOTE]

Locked so everybody can calm down and because it's Thanksgiving and we really don't need a bickerfest.

REMEMBER that you're talking to real people here and that  you should be very careful of sounding judgemental.  Especially on Thanksgiving.

Go talk about Turkeys. 

This is locked until vnicepeeps opens it up again.