“No win, no fee” firms under investigation in relation to bank charge cases

Amid all the other investigations ongoing in respect to questions about bank fees, the Ministry of Justice has taken on an inquiry into the way that “no win, no fee” firms that say they will help customers recover unfair bank charges. The Ministry has taken over the investigation from the Department of Constitutional Affairs. In addition, the Information Commissioner’s Office is specifically looking into automated cold calls from those firms which seek cases to take on. The Commissioner’s Office says it has already warned one firm that they could be in violation of Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations by making the automated calls.

Consumer groups have also warned against responding to such calls. While the “no win, no fee” groups promise that the bank customer will not have to pay a fee if they do not recover their bank charges, most of them charge around 25 percent of the recover if the consumer does get their charges refunded. According to groups such as Consumer Action Group, such fees are an unnecessary expense. It is relatively easy, the group says, to file claims for bank charge refunds on one’s own rather than paying others to do it for them.

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