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 been 5 days since the bank charges test case result and those 5 days have been used by many to disect the decision and find out what it really means for bank charges claims. We’ll tackle this in three questions

How did the banks win?

The Supreme Court were not deciding on the fairness of bank charges, they were deciding whether or not the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) could investigate the fairness of bank charges. The 5 Lords, led by Court President Lord Phillips said that overdraft charges are part of the core charges and services outlined in the contract of a bank account and therefore are accepted by the consumer when they sign for the account. For this reason, there is no legal basis to investigate under Regulation 6 but the OFT are free to try all other routes.

What happens next?

The Judges stated that a fairness claim could not be brought under Regulation 6 but it might be brought under Regulation 5. Regulation 5 concerns contracts and negotiations, including the point that: “charges not agreed individually should not cause a significant imbalance to the detriment of the consumer.” So when the OFT release their statement on the matter in December, they may discuss using Regulation 5 as the basis for their case next time round.

Will I get my bank charges back?

Top and bottom of it… It doesn’t look good for bank charges claims. The banks at least have to process all claims but they have no need or obligation to repay any money. Martin Lewis said yesterday that he expects only 10 – 20% of bank charges refund claims to be successful, but it’s still worth claiming.

Does the decision impact on other unfair charges claims?

In short: No. The Supreme Court decision only relates to bank charges claims and all mis-sold PPI, unfair credit card charges and mortgage exit claims are unaffected.

The next month will be a crucial one in the fight to get back bank charges, as campaigners figure out the way forward and legal teams find a way to use Regulation 5 to help claims. Hopefully the OFT will continue the fight and many sources are saying that they have support from No. 10 to ensure the banks start treating customers fairly.

Two days on from the Supreme Court decision to not allow The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate the fairness of bank charges, the mist has settled and there is some hope for those with a claim. Here’s what Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis had to say:

“We were winning 2-0, with this decision the banks have scored 3 quick goals and are leading 3-2 but there’s still extra time to play”.

As Lewis intimates, there is still hope, the bank may have won this battle but we haven’t lost the war. Here’s the good news:

- The OFT is still expected to fight against unfair bank charges under Regulation 5 which relates to the negotiation of contracts.

- With the test case coming to a conclusion, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has lifted its waiver on bank charge claim processing which means the banks are now obliged to consider and assess all outstanding claims.

- Plus: Bank charges refunds may be on hold but unfair credit card charges and mis-sold PPI (Payment Protection Insurance) claims are unaffected by the decision and can still be paid back.

Check out this video from the BBC show ‘Working Lunch’, in it finance expert Simon Gompertz outlines why there is still hope for bank charges victims…Take a look.

12:19pm – Gordon Brown Speaks about the bank charges test case result in Prime Minister’s Questions:

“While the Court judgment has not upheld the case of the OFT, it is right that we examine how there can be fairness in all cases to people who are banking customers in this country. As far as the banks that we are responsible for at this moment, Northern Rock and HBOS Lloyds, we have asked them to and they have reviewed their overdraft charges over the last few weeks so that they can be fairer to the customers that are part of their banks”.

11.08am – Martin Lewis talks to BBC News about ‘Regulation 5′:

“I think the door is open and that’s what this case was about, this case is about whether there were unfair terms in consumer contract regulations, that is: is the amount that was being charged proportionate to the cost to the bank. They (the Supreme Court) are saying the OFT cannot consider it on those grounds”.

Martin goes on to say:

“What regulation 5 is about is whether: when you set up a contract with someone; you’ve negotiated those terms and they were fair. And of course none of us have negotiated those terms with the banks so if they’re deemed to be unfair because we didn’t have negotiations then that is another route that the OFT could take”.

“There is still some hope here but we have to do a lot of reading and a lot of legal work and you know, just over there is No. 10 Downing street, I got a message saying that the Prime Minister’s taking a personal interest in this. I hope that’s right and I hope that he’s going to pull his finger out and make sure it’s sorted too”.

Shocking result, After 2 years of litigation, the Banks have won their Appeal in the Supreme Court. By backing the Bank’s appeal, the Supreme Court have over-turned both the High Court and Court of Appeal who both said overdraft charges are not part of core terms and can therefore be assessed for fairness”.

Here’s what Supreme Court President Lord Phillips said when he revealed the decision:

“The Court of Appeal had held that this exclusion only applied to core terms and that overdraft charges did not constitute core terms. The Supreme Court did not agree with this approach. We have held that overdraft charges form part of the price or rumuneration for the package of services that the banks provide to their current account customers. This means that the OFT can not consider whether in imposing those charges the banks are giving fair value for money”.

A fairly definitive answer then but Phillips did sign off with this statement: “It may still be open to the OFT to assess the fairness of the charges by other criteria”.

Whatever these criteria may be, crucially, the OFT investigation won’t be backed by Consumer Protection Rules which means it could end up being ‘toothless’.

Mark Gander from the Consumer Action Group had this to say about the investigation:

“The OFT did announce two or three months a go that regardless of the decision, they consider the charges unfair and they didn’t intend to let it go and will persue the issue of charges, to bring them down and bring the banks under control”.

Phil Jones from Which?:

“It’s Utterly outrageous that banks seem to be able to get away with charging whatever they like for overdraft charges. This the third time this has been looked at by the Courts, in the previous two cases they came down decisively on the side of the OFT, I think the public will find it surprising that there’s no protection against what the banks want to do”.

To find out why the Supreme Court backed the banks, you can read the full report of the decision here.

Ok, here we are – less than an hour to go until the bank charges test case result, you’re excited, right?

If the Office Of Fair Trading (OFT) win, just think of all the unfairly treated consumers that will be able to get a bank charges refund and get their hard-earned back. But… chickens before they’ve hatched and all that – there could be a delayed decision or even one in favour of the banks.

Although; seeing as the banks had already paid back over £1billion in unfair charges before the test case started, plus the local, High and Appeal Courts have all backed the OFT, the banks actually winning this case seems unlikely (but not impossible).

Whatever happens, remember: the BankCharges Blog will be all over the latest test case news throughout the day, so keep this window open!

Is anyone else excited? You should be! There are less than 17 hours until the Supreme Court anncounces the result of the bank charges test case. If, as expected, they find in favour of the Officr of Fair Trading (OFT), then the investigation into the fairness of bank charges can begin in ernest.

What this means is all those thousands of bank charges refund claims that are on hold will be given the green light. Plus, the flood gates will open for hundreds of thousands more claims to begin and the banks could end up paying back billions.

To make sure you stay up to date with the decision and the events as they unfold, the BankCharges.com Blog will become a vidiprinter for the day. You’ll get a blow by blow, minute by minute account of what’s happening, including any press releases or comments from the banks plus any interviews we can wrangle. So, make sure you’re in front of a computer from 9.45am onwards tomorrow.

We’re two days away from potentially one of the biggest days in banking history, definately in the top ten at least. This Wednesday at 9.45 am, the Supreme Court will make it’s decision on the bank charges test case and in doing so; could open the flood gates to millions of bank charges refund applications.

The upshot: billions paid back by the banks. But let’s not kid ourselves, in the financial world: every silver lining has a cloud and although hundreds of thousands of people will get their money back, the banks may already be planning it’s return journey.

Which?, the consumer watchdog, believe that the banks will introduce new charges across their products and services if they lose the long-running court battle. Potential new charges include an end to free-banking in the form of monthly or annual account fees and even charging to use an ATM.

The thing is though, the game has changed in the last 12 months and the future of UK banking looks very different compared to its recent past. There’ll be smaller banks, more of them and more competition with the arrival of new players like Tesco. All of which means that consumers will have choice, which in turn means that if we don’t like charges, we go where there isn’t any. That’s right people, Customer Power is coming to the banking industry – mount up!

So here we are, it’s 9.45am, Friday morning and 5 days untill a bank charges refund frenzy potentially takes over the UK. Hundreds of thousands of Britons have already put in an application to claim back bank charges but these have been frozen since June 2007. And with the possible conclusion of the bank charges test case just around the corner, there stands to be billions of pounds in refunds up for grabs.

The case has been at all manner of courts and now finds itself at the most Supreme after countless appeals by multiple banks and one building society to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation. It is believed by many that the court will rule in the OFT’s favour and with this in mind, you may well be best getting your claim in pronto as there’s likely to be a bit of a queue!