Also some banks fail to pay their legally adjudge debts to probably many of their customers who have taken County Court actions against the banks – and WON!

For just £8 anybody can obtain from Registry Trust Ltd a list of County Court Judgments (CCJs) lodged against any person or company - which is public information. Those who have access to online company reports such as FAME can see at a glance that as at 24/01/08 HSBC Bank plc has 68 CCJs recorded against it in the last 12 months totalling £218,471 with £201,429 remaining unsatisfied. An unsubstantial sum however when compared to Lloyds TSB Bank plc which as at 24/01/08 has 550 CCJs recorded against it for the same period which totals a whopping £1,354,703 with £1,247,189 unsatisfied.

I doubt that a bank would grant any lending facilities to me if I were to walk into one of their branches with a credit history showing unsatisfied CCJs in a much smaller sum than over One Million Pounds!

Lex Talionis, Chester,

Anyone taking an overdraft has to accept the consequences. The message has to be to learn to better manage ones finances and minimise debt!

Tony, Birmingham, GB

Heres a new one. On January 3 i purchased 130 Euros the FX currency Services At Marks and Spencer, at a cost of £100.31 using my Barclays debit card, however when receiving the bank statement the total amount deducted was £102.31. When querying this I was informed that Visa, the debit card company, was entitled to make a charge when used to purchase foreign currency, and not goods, despite the fact that the charge to me was in sterling. In future it would be far better to pay by cheque and avoid the use of plastic altogether.
Brian Priestley

B.B.Priestley, Mickleover, Derby, England

Re - Peter Taylor, moving to Nationwide... beware that Nationwide credit cards charge the same cash advance fee as Natwest (I've been caught out too!). It is only their debit card which does not charge when purchasing a foreign currency. An even better way is to take your nationwide debit card to Japan and withdrawal your cash from an ATM here - you can do so at any post office. No commission fees at all and an excellent exchange rate.

Antony, Tokyo, Japan

I recently moved a sum of money from my on-line savings account to my current account to cover a forthcoming credit card bill.

The money was taken from my savings account immediately but did not appear in my current account for several working days. I believe this is common practice but, firstly, why do these transactions take so long? Secondly, where is the money for those few days? Call me cynical but I suspect the banks may be profiting from this 'black hole'. If this is not the case I would be delighted to stand corrected, my faith in financial institutions (partially) restored!

Tina Lloyd, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire

A&L now charge an overdraft fee of 50p per day, for a max of 10 days (ie £5), whether you are overdrawn £0.01 or £1000. is this fair?

chubbs, cambridge, uk

Another way the Credit Card companies - the RBS Visa for example - are tightening the screws, is shortening the period you have to make the minimum payment, from round about 50 days to just over 20 !!!!!! By the time you actually receive the statement sometime it can be less than a fortnight !!!!!

John Robson, Edinburgh,

I never thought I would be writing in defence of payment protection insurance but a few years ago, my then husband was off sick from his job for three months and was then laid off when his condition didn't improve quickly enough for his employers. We had PPI on our car loan and it was a godsend, it covered our loan repayments at a time when we really had very little money and it saved us having to sell the car. The insurance company was surprisingly easy to deal with and the claim process was quick. Not all insurance companies are bad!

Heather, Edinburgh,

Clare
If an IFA or a broker gives a customer bad advice they can go to the Financial Ombudsman and demand recourse.
If someone cancels a PPI policy because this article tells them it's a rip-off, and then they lose their job or get sick, will The Times be willing to pick up the tab for their mortgage until they get back on their feet?
I think not!
Before advising anyone to cancel any insurance you should at least get them to review exactly what they are getting for their money and what alternatives they have.
Your 'experts' say 75% of people don't need PPI insurance - even if this were true then you could be telling 25% of your readers to cancel a policy which might be just what they need if the oncoming recession hits them.

Brian Brown, Bicester, England

Please add to your list of 5 ways to fleece the spread on foreign currency exchange rates notably the EURO which sells at 1.25 and buys ar 1.48

Captain J. Leeson , Wetherby, England

Re: Rip off. I have had a NatWest account for over forty years and currently have a NatWest Gold MasterCard, for the privilege of which I pay £100 per annum. I travel to Japan about once a year as an academic at the University of London and researched the best way to obtain Yen - Japan is a cash-based society and I wanted to take the equivalent of £1500 in local currency. I took the advice of your paper and ordered currency from Travelex Online at a very good rate with no fees. I had to provide a credit card number. My bank has charged me £37.50 for this. I phoned then and was told we always do this. I then wrote and got a letter telling me, basically: "hard luck, we treat this as a cah advance and charge you interest on a daily basis". I am in the process of changing my bank to Nationwide.

Peter Taylor, Billingshurst, England

Did anyone really think banks would not fight this challenge. All this claiming back overdraft charges etc seems barmy to me. As shown in your article, the banks have already increased charges elsewhere to ensure their profits don't dip. This whole scenario seems a complete waste of time and has all come about because there are so many financially irresponsible people about. 'I've claimed £5k back, i've claimed 2k back' i hear people say. I just look at them and think what kind of idiot goes overdrawn so much in the first place !!!

Andrew, Huddersfield,

No wonder A&L's Esaver account is internet based. I don't think that branch staff could keep a straight face trying to sell this product with customers.
If any sucker er saver falls for this product they deserve to be fleeced.

SRB, Abergele, UK