Lloyds TSB leads charge to cut overdraft costs
There’s been an interesting development in the battle over bank penalty charges.
At the end of July, the Financial Services Authority gave the banks permission to put all refund claims on hold pending the result of a High Court test case.
This won’t be known until next year, but if it goes as campaigners expect, the Office of Fair Trading will order a clampdown on these charges – just as it did with credit card charges (see The costly truth about credit card transfers, below).
Now, out of the blue, Lloyds TSB has announced it’s cutting its unauthorised overdraft charges.
It claims it’s merely responding to requests from customers.
More likely it’s bowing to the inevitable and wants to make some good publicity out of it.
What’s the betting that when its fellow lenders follow suit, Lloyds will be heard reminding anyone who’ll listen that it made the first move and they are only copying its generous action?
