Bank Fees Class Action
Maurice Blackburn announced in May 2010 that it intended to sue
12 Australian banks for charging customers unfair fees. These fees
include honour and dishonour fees on bank accounts, as
well as over limit fees and late payment fees on credit
cards.
Hundreds of thousands of Australians who were charged these
unfair fees by the banks have signed up online to be part of the
action to redeem their money plus interest - and it's not too late
to
join.
Maurice Blackburn issued proceedings in the Federal Court of
Australia against the ANZ bank in September 2010 in the first
of a series of bank fee class actions for repayment of
fees they have charged their customers over the last six
years.
On 16 December 2011, proceedings
were issued against Citibank, Commonwealth Bank, NAB
and Westpac.
The seven other banks against which proceedings are proposed to
be issued are Bank of Queensland, BankSA, BankWest, Bendigo Bank,
HSBC, St George and Suncorp.
The value of the ANZ claim is estimated at $50 million plus
interest, to be recovered on behalf of 34,000 class action group
members holding about 40,000 personal and business ANZ
accounts. It is the largest single group of people ever to
take legal action in Australia. It is not too late to
join the action against the ANZ, even though proceedings have
been launched.
The claim against the ANZ, which will be a template for the
other actions, alleges that exception fees are fees incurred as a
result of a breach of contract by the customer which
are more than a reasonable pre-estimate of the
actual cost to the bank of that breach.
Such fees are lawfully recoverable if they constitute a penalty
charged by the bank - that is, if they are out of all
proportion to the true cost of any breach to the bank. Maurice
Blackburn estimates that the 12 banks have charged their customers
in excess of $5 billion dollars for late payment, dishonour fees
and other exception fees over the last six years.
The claim also alleges that the charging of the exception
fees was unconscionable, unfair and unjust.
On Monday 5 December 2011, the Federal Court of Australia found
in favour of ANZ account holders who were charged late credit card
fees. The judgment has been lauded by Andrew Watson, the lawyer
overseeing the class action, as a small step in the case but a
significant leap for Australian bank customers.
The Federal Court found in favour of the ANZ bank regarding four
other types of exception fees. Maurice Blackburn is appealing this
ruling.
The class actions are funded by IMF (Australia)
Ltd, on a 'no win no charge' basis. This means that IMF covers
all the legal costs and only gets paid if the cases are successful.
IMF also agrees to meet the banks' costs if the cases are
unsuccessful. There is no cost to class action participants unless
they successfully recover money.
For more information about the bank fees class actions, go to
the secure website
http://www.financialredress.com.au/. Financial Redress is a
wholly owned subsidiary of IMF. Registration of your
interest can only be made on this website.
If you have further queries after visiting the
Financial Redress website you can telephone 1300 4
REDRESS (1300 473 373). It is a matter for you whether or
not you join these class actions. Although we consider the cases
have reasonable prospects of success, you should feel free to
obtain independent legal advice.
Maurice Blackburn is aware that scammers have
been contacting people and asking for payment and
bank account details in order supposedly to
process refunds due from exception fees paid. Anyone who
receives a call asking for this type of information should be wary.
The calls appear to be designed to extract money or information
from people fraudulently. Neither Maurice Blackburn nor Financial
Redress ask anyone for such information over the phone, nor demands
such advance payments.
Owing to the number of bank customers participating in
the cases, please do not telephone our office as we will be unable
to deal with your enquiry. Please call 1300 4 REDRESS (1300 474
373).
Watch Andrew
Watson talking about the first five banks in the class
action.
Read our media statements:
Five
banks including the 'Big Four' in class action
Maurice Blackburn announces legal action against
12 banks
Fraudsters not stopping thousands of bank
customers signing up for class action
ANZ first of the banks to face penalty fees class
action
ANZ class action still open; members reminded of
safety
Federal Court blasts ANZ over abuse of process in
bank fees case
ANZ Bank fees class action steps up a gear
tomorrow
Federal
Court rules against bank's credit card fees
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