The Financial Ombudsman is currently receiving more than 800 complaints A WEEK about controversial Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). The poor mans head must be spinning – there were only around 5000 complaints received about PPI in the whole of 2007!

Complaints concerning PPI now account for more than a third of all complaints received by the Financial Ombudsman Service with over 26000 made in 2008.

This mass increase of complaints is partly due to recent media coverage as well as campaigns by consumer groups. Also with the UK firmly in a recession, many are chasing compensation that wasn’t previously a priority, even just a year ago.

PPI is often mis sold which means you might spend a lot of money on expensive insurance you’ll never be able to claim on. Recent figures showed that around 12 million PPI policies have been sold in the UK to over 20 million people many of whom do not need or cannot use the insurance.

‘Low Cost’ Airline, Ryanair, are charging their customers seemingly excessive credit card charges when paying for flights. Charges of up to £16 have been noted when customers have paid using any type of credit card, including Ryanair’s own branded one. Debit card charges come in at £7.20 for a return flight when it’s said that the true figure should be closer to 40p.

A Ryanair spokesman said: ” Please note that it is an avoidable fee, since you can choose Visa Electron as a method of payment free of charge.”

Ryanair owner, Michael O’Leary has openly defended his companies credit card charges policy and there’s no doubting that their flights are cheap but come on, a £16 charge – and who has a Visa Electron these days?!

Check out this article in The Independent, it’s about bank charges and how the Banks are trying to claw money more from the Great British public. It also touches on how they’re in the firing line for mis-selling PPI – take a look.

Thursday saw Interest Rates fall to (another) all-time-low of 0.5% in a move by the Bank of England that’s hoped to kick-start the UK economy. In the full 315 years of Interest Rate history, the cost of borrowing has never dropped this low, it has been done to increase lending and lower the rate that your bank charges you to borrow.

But as usual, the banks aren’t playing ball so to further ease the economy, the Bank of England is to expand the amount of money in the system by £75bn through a policy called quantitative easing. This could increase to £150bn if the banks don’t pass on the cuts and begin to increase lending.

Thinking about it, that’s more of a ‘when’ than an ‘if’ considering how the majority of British banks treat their customers. Whether it’s mi-selling PPI or taking billion pound bail outs, the banks really are pushing their luck. If the full quantitative easing budget is used, that’s another £150bn IOU to the taxpayer, are you keeping a record of what they owe – we are!

Figures from the Ministry of Justice have revealed that at least 65,000 people have claims for specific bank charges frozen in the court system.

These claims should have begun to move forward after the ousting of the Banks appeal against the High Court ruling that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) can investigate the fairness of overdraft charges. However, because the Banks are applying to the House of Lords for permission to appeal again; the unfair bank charges claims have remained in limbo.

In 2007, the FSA enforced a waiver on those wanting to reclaim bank charges meaning the banks don’t have to deal with any new complaints until the case is settled. The waiver, which was due to run out in January, was extended for a further six months until July 2009 or until the High Court case comes to a conclusion.

According to Nick Spooner of Legal Beagles, ”The 65,000 figure only applies to the cases which the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was absolutely sure related to claims against banks” and he believes the MOJ figures are an underestimate of the number of cases on hold.

One thing’s for sure, those who have a claim or are not sure if they have a claim, should start the process of getting their bank charges refund as soon as possible.

Check out this BBC video on bank charges. In just over 3 minutes, it explains all about bank charges case and reveals how (even now while the case goes on) the Banks are taking your money without currently offering a bank charges refund service. Typical Banks.

Thankfully, you can fight back by getting bank charges advice and submitting your claim for any over-draught or credit card charges.

So… When someone mentions ‘Bankers’ – what are your thoughts?

Actually, hold those thoughts, we can guess and this is a family show! There’s no doubting that, to many people, they’re up there with the Taxman and Traffic Wardens, especially right now.

With this in mind, it comes as a shock to discover that there are actually some conscientious bankers out there, a case-in-point being NatWest employee Tim Keirman. For over 2 years, he helped thousands of customers get their money back after incurring bank charges.

Keirman provided bank charges advice by posting anonymous guidance on forum websites. However, his identity was finally discovered by the bank and its revenge was typically heavy handed and swift, to see how heavy handed; read the full article.

Did you see Panorama last night? It was called ‘What happens after sorry?’ and was presented by reporter Mark Daly. The topic was RBS and Sir Fred Goodwin, who featured in the Bank Charges blog yesterday after he refused to hand back his £693,000 a-year pension.

The program highlighted the catalogue of errors, unbelievable over confidence and seriously bad judgement calls that lead to the downfall of the 200 year old British Institution, not to mention the loss of billions of pounds. And remember, this was all while customers of many banks throughout the UK were being Mis sold products and services.

It told how despite being in turmoil, RBS spent £300m on their new head quarters in Edinburgh and a new office in the USA and committed to million pound sports contracts and celeb endorsement. Plus, ex-Chief Exec, Fred Goodwin did all this while his bank pretty much forced their share-holders in to buying more shares so RBS could buy a failing bank, ABN AMRO.

The outcome as we all know and will start to feel, is that the bank needed £20bn of our money to stay afloat and left individuals who’d invested their life savings in the institution, with absolutely nothing. Apart from maybe some varied types of bank charges!

So, What does happen after sorry? Well, an American law firm is representing 2000 victims in a civil court case against Sir Fred Goodwin himself. This case will try to claw back the money that many have lost, the basis of which is that RBS may not have been entirely upfront about the state of the Bank when asking the shareholders to invest.

Let’s hope justice is served. To catch the program again, head to BBC iPlayer.

As if the banks haven’t had enough tax-payers money over the last two months (what with millions of unfair bank charges and billion pound bail outs), ex RBS Chief Exec, Sir Fred Goodwin, has now said he wont give up his monstrous £693,000 a year pension.

We’ve just got one question – Can you justify that Fred?

Lets look at the facts: Goodwin led RBS to the brink of collapse, risking livelihoods, savings and businesses throughout the UK. Ultimately, the bank ended up on it’s knees; taking a £20bn Government bail out. But it seems this is one time the banks can’t just stick two fingers up at us and get away with it…

Gordon brown has threatened legal action to make sure Goodwin doesn’t get his massive pension payout and the ex-Chief Exec recently had to sit in-front of a Treasury Committee panel and explain himself and the reason for his huge pension. To see him squirm, take a look at the video of his RBS pension hearing.