Ever felt you have been robbed?

Well you have been, four times in fact.
1.First off by the banks who stick these charges on, often for their own admin errors or for the "crime" of going 2p overdrawn and then your fiscally raped by the banks for £35 quid plus as a penalty.

2.Then after stealing your money, the supreme court that we pay for decides it will support the banks in their theft of your money.

Seven major banks and Nationwide Building Society had challenged High Court and Court of Appeal decisions that the charges come under 'unfair contract' rules and are therefore subject to regulation by the Office of Fair Trading.

Today's shock ruling will come as a severe blow to the hopes of millions of bank customers who had hoped to claim back billions in charges.

Campaigners had claimed that the cost to a bank of a customer going overdrawn was less than £2.50 - while banks were charging up to £35 if they went over their agreed overdraft limit.

3.Now the Office of Fair Trading(should that be unfair) has stated that it will happily bow down to the almighty corporate banks and take no further action against banks over unauthorised overdraft charges, but will continue to monitor the personal current account market.

It said it still has 'significant concerns' about current accounts. Although not 'significant enough' to actually do anything for the public.

But the OFT said it still believed 'fundamental changes' were needed to ensure the market worked in customers' best interests. Well that's jolly nice of them, but don't expect any action from them.

4.Oh and just to rub salt in the wounds, these are the same banks who all fucked up and were bailed out by money from you. The banks generate around £2.6billion a year from the charges, which they claim is used to subsidise free banking for other consumers; this is an out and out lie and an excuse to carry on what is extortion and backed up by threats should it not be paid.

 The fact is they do not want to lose the money extorted by bank charges.

We have a situation where banks refuse customers on low incomes over draft facilities and after they have been hit by charges, often leave them caught in an expanding loop of debt.

So what's a fiscally raped customer to do? Well first off move, let the bank know an just give them a few days notice that if they don't do something your off. The other bank will even transfer all standing orders etc across for you.

Then complain, so what if you can't win don't let that stop you. Tie the fuckers up in complaints, then stick in a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman. After all they are there in theory to support you in any dispute.

Since I left Shat West a few months back, I have three ongoing complaints with them and enjoying every minute of it.

Log each an every conversation, dates, times and the names of the people you speak to. Note the excuses and refuse to accept them, all the banks want is the complaints to go away.

Oh, there may well be that the reason the good overtaxed, put upon people have ended up losing at each and every turn. Yes, it's the good old curse of Gordoom who cursed the process.

The long-running court battle over bank charges could reach an early conclusion after the prime minister, Gordon Brown, told bank chiefs today to negotiate a solution and resolve the dispute "without further delay".

More than 1m reclaim requests over excessive bank fees and charges have been on hold since July 2007, following the start of a test case brought by the Office of Fair Trading against seven banks and one building society. The case has gone through the high court and the court of appeal and is currently in front of the newly created supreme court.

But in his first intervention in the case, Gordon Brown said : "I believe that a negotiated solution could be in everyone's best interests, and so we have called on the banks and the regulators to explore a quicker way to resolve this without further delay."

Ahhhh! That's why we are a lot poorer.

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