Earlier this week, Martin Lewis’ website MoneySavingExpert.com launched it’s new “bank charges reclaiming guide” with the headline that up to £480million of unfair bank charges could still be reclaimed. They’ve calculated that more than 500,000 people could still claim, despite last year’s Supreme Court ruling to the contrary.

The GMTV money expert said: “Rumours of the death of bank charges reclaiming have been greatly exaggerated, certainly the number of people who can do it has decreased – it’s now mainly those people suffering financial hardship.” If anyone watched the live announcement by the Supreme Court at the end of last year, they’d have seen how angry Lewis was, so it’s no surprise that he’s starting the fightback so soon.

It’s ok, don’t worry… they’re gonna be alllllright.

I know you’ve been fretting that those poor bankers might miss out on their bonuses what with the country being economically rogered by their bosses and us having to pick up the counseling bill. But everything’s back to normal now, all the major banks are forcasting that a quarter of all London-based investment bankers will earn average pay packages of £1m each for the past year. Back to normal, just the way it was before the recession, which is… erm… worrying.

Now, you and I may see a problem with this, but it seems the financial industry has had a jolly good year so it’s back-patting time. After getting a nice big wedge from HM Government 12 months ago, the banks have removed all the competitive products from the market, cut back on value for money and hiked up the interest rates. The result of which means that we struggle for a loan or credit card deal that doesn’t involve double digit interest and the bankers get wage packets that start at £100,000 minimum and go well into eye-watering, forehead slapping territory.

And our only hope of preventing another recession is the Queen periodically checking up on the boys in the City. (More forehead slapping).

Whoopy!! The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show a halt in the rise of unemployment and early calculations show the recession is over after the economy grew in the 4th quarter of ‘09. This is yet to be confirmed and a more in-depth assessment will release figures this month and next to solidify the economic growth.

Despite this good news, more and more people are cancelling all non-essentials to try and prepare in case they lose their job. Top of the list of money-saving cuts are insurance products, in particular payment protection insurance (PPI). No doubt the countless PPI compensation claims has contributed to the cancelling of policies but those who do axe correctly sold cover are leaving themselves wide-open to greater problems.

As if the raft of unfair bank charges and mis-sold PPI wasn’t enough to contend with, the banks then went and put us into a recession which has led to record unemployment levels. Meanwhile, billions of our money was used to bail them out and now they all have their million pound bonuses back.

Corruption is the only word I can think of at this point. And don’t think that they’ve been made to turn over a new leaf by a slap on the wrist from a toothless QUANGO or Government investigation panel. The new way that we’re getting shafted is through personal loan interest rates which are at the highest level since 2001. When it comes to extracting cash from our pockets; you’ve got to give the banks some credit, even if they overcharge you for doing the same.