About reclaiming credit card & store card charges

[Smasher]

Reclaiming credit card and store card charges works in a pretty similar way to reclaiming bank charges. Credit card issuers have not adopted the terms & conditions changes that banks have by describing their charges as fees for services. This is most likely because there are only 2 types of instances where you can be charged: Late payment & speding past your agreed limit.
It would be particularly difficult to persuade a judge that either of these two could be a service.
So, on this principle, credit card, store card & catalogue charges can be reclaimed in the same way that bank charges used to, simply by arguing that ir is either a penalty, or the terms & conditions deliberately misrepresented their true nature.

Credit card charges are not part of the OFT test case.
If you decide to issue a claim for a refund of charges for anything other than a bank account, it will not be affected by the ongoing test case currently being fought out by the major banks (now owned by us!) and the OFT. Your case will proceed & follow its course as normal.

The issue that most often causes confusion is the so-called '£12 cap' on credit card charges. Many credit card & store card issuers may lead you to believe that the OFT say that a charge of £12 is allowed. This is absolutely not the case!
Back in April 2006, the OFT published a report into credit card charges, which were, at the time, as high as current bank charges. In their report, they considered that anything over £12 would automatically be considered unfair and would be investigated.
They also stated that just because a charge was £12 or below didn't mean that it could be considered fair or lawful. The principle that the charges should be equal to their costs still stands. Charges of £12 for late payment & overlimit can and have been successfully reclaimed.

Read the full OFT report on credit card charges here

Full step by step guide & template letters to follow..