A step-by-step guide to reclaiming your bank charges

If you want to skip directly to another section of our guide to reclaiming unfair bank charges, you can click on one of the links below:

• An introduction to reclaiming bank charges
• The legal position on bank charges
• Bank charges: what happens next

If you are among those who want to claim back unfair bank charges, how do you go about it?

Even though the test case is yet to be heard, it still makes sense to file a claim. As we have said, you will be at the top of any queue in the event of the court finding in favour of complainants.

Plus, any claim you make will be backdated six years from today, as opposed to the time when the case is settled. That means you stand a chance of winning more compensation.

Here are some simple steps to claiming your money back:

1. Find out how much you have been charged: you are entitled to reclaim up to six years' worth of charges. So dig out your statements or write to your bank asking them to furnish you with the past six years' statements.

   Your bank must provide this information within 40 days, according to the Data Protection Act 1998.

   Some banks may try to charge you a reprint fee. To avoid this, ask for a computer printout of charges, which are acceptable evidence in a small claims court, and they cannot charge you more than £10.

   Here is a template letter you can use to ask for this information.

2. The first claim letter: write to your bank saying that as a loyal customer you are dissatisfied with the way they have charged you and ask for your money back.

   Note that you may be able to claim back interest in respect of the charges - but only if you win a court case on the issue.

   You can ask for this interest to be paid as a negotiating ploy - but be aware that a bank faced with claims for interest well in excess of the amount of the charges themselves is more likely to want to resist a claim.

   However, if you do want to claim interest, the MoneySavingExpert website carries helpful details of how to calculate the interest on bank charges. You can find them here.

   For a template letter reclaiming the charges, but without the interest, go here.

   For a template letter where you claim interest on your charges, go here.

What each of these letters is basically telling your bank is that you are aware that:

• You have a claim and for how much
• You know that there is a test case and are willing to wait until the outcome of the case
• You want the bank to place you in the queue for compensation in the event that the court rules in complainants' favour
• You want an acknowledgement from the bank that it has received your claim and it is now on file.

TOP TIP: make sure that you send this letter and, indeed, any other correspondence with your bank, by recorded delivery.

The Financial Ombudsman Service

Until now, one option was for you to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and have your case decided by its free arbitration service.

The FOS is an independent arbitrator to whom consumers can go if they have a dispute with a financial company or advisers. It has the power to award compensation of up to £100,000. Its services are totally free - you pay nothing.

Up to now, the banks were willing to settle complaints brought to the FOS in EVERY case, making offers to customers to repay ALL disputed charges on a "goodwill" basis.

But the forthcoming test case has called a temporary halt to this particular compensation route. You may still want to consider the FOS if the case goes in consumers' favour AND you believe that the scale of any compensation on offer from your bank is not enough.