Introduction


This web-site is about the thefts that all banks and other financial institutions (building societies, credit unions, non-bank mortgage lenders and credit card suppliers) currently engage in, in Australia, AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, HOW TO GET YOUR MONEY BACK, WITH INTEREST, and compensation.

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  Recover Illegal Excessive Fees and Charges for:
  · exceeding credit limits and overdrafts
  · dishonoured periodic payments and direct debits
  · dishonoured cheques
  · dishonoured deposited cheques
  · credit card/loan late payments

All illegal fees/charges can be reclaimed for up to 6 years after they were imposed!

 

Explanation


There are two reasons for regarding these fees/charges as thefts.

  1.
They are illegal by virtue of being excessive.  An example of why a penalty fee or charge is excessive is:
     
You exceed your credit card credit limit.  The bank puts a line of type on your next statement saying words to the effect “Exceeding credit limit, fee $35”.  This line of type has cost the bank maybe 10 cents, which by law it is allowed to recover.  What it is NOT* allowed to do, however, is charge you a penalty fee for your error.
      * 
The Legal Precedent for this is the well-known case of O'Dea v. Allstates Leasing System (WA) Pty. Ltd., High Court of Australia 17/2/1983; a unanimous decision of five judges.
       
This precedent is binding on all other courts: Supreme, Federal, District, Magistrates' and Small Claims Courts/Tribunals (the CTTT in N.S.W.), in all states and territories.

  2.
Most contracts (for a credit card this usually comprises a letter of offer and a terms and conditions booklet) which purport to allow the deduction of these fees/charges do not have “sufficient certainty of terms” which is one of the requirements for a contract to be legally binding.
     
A credit card contract that states that fees/charges and interest rates can be varied, and new fees and charges imposed, unilaterally, without the consent of, and with little or no notice to the customer, undoubtedly breaches this requirement.

 

Extract of definition of contract taken from Osborn’s Concise Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, by John Burke of Lincoln’s Inn, Barrister-at-Law:

For a contract to be valid and legally enforceable there must be:

  1. capacity to contract
  2. intention to contract
  3. consensus ad idem  (agreement as to the same thing)
  4. valuable consideration
  5. legality of purpose
  6. sufficient certainty of terms

 

The General Manager of the Federal Treasury concurs with the assertion that contracts which lack sufficient certainty of terms are illegal; see see paragraphs 3, 4 and 6 of his letter.