Have a look at the thread "NAB admit their charges are penalties" in the Yorkshire/Clydesdale Bank sub-forum which was started by Diddled. Richard McKinnon, Chief Financial Officer of the National Australian Bank called the charges "penalty fees" in the Half Year Financial Results in 2004. I have sent a transcript of this section Mr. McKinnon's report to the FOS along with my complaint form re. the Clydesdale Bank.

BOS(Ireland) is a subsidiary of HBOS Plc.

Is there any way in which the CAG can publish an open letter in, say, The Times to Angela Knight of the BBA, the OFT, the Financial Services Authority, the FOS, the Government et al. regarding the unfairness of the default charges levied in British Banks in comparison to the charges levied by the self-same banks in the Republic of Ireland?I feel that the more this type of information is made public, the more that the banks will have to justify their fees and the nearer we will get to a fair resolution of this situation.

Dusary, it might be worthwhile checking out the charges made by the Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and comparing these with the Bank of Scotland charges here. There is a huge difference in the charges. You could perhaps get a copy of the charges levied by the BOS (Ireland) from their website and use this as evidence that the BOS in Britain appear to have disproportionately high default charges as part of your court bundle.

Dom2 , Try the Halifax Bank of Scotland (Ireland). Their fees for a returned unpaid item is about 12.70 euros. Quite a difference from their British counterparts!

Mistermind, It is easy to find the fees for Irish subsidiaries of British Banks on their websites. It makes very interesting reading!

Sorry about that - I hit the wrong key! To get back to the two questions. 1. Is the Bank of Scotland (Ireland) so much more efficiently run than the BoS here, that they can charge just 12.70 euros for the same procedure that costs £39 here? 2. If the Irish Financial Regulator has to approve the Bank charges in Eire, why does the OFT and the Financial Services Authority in Britain allow British Banks to levy such exorbitant penalty charges? Also, if you check the British Banks that have subsidiaries in the Republic of Ireland, for example, the Royal Bank of Scotland owns the Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland and the Ulster Bank (Ireland), it becomes clear that banking fees in Britain for default charges across the board are much higher than in Eire. Why is this? I am going to send the OFT a copy of the letter sent to my husband and ask if anyone there can explain this anomaly. I'll post any response I get.

My husband phoned the Dublin Branch of the Bank of Scotland (Ireland) to ask what the returned item charge was on a business account. He was told that it was 12.70 euros. He then phoned the Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh to ask why he was being charged £39 for returned items on his account when their Republic of Ireland customers were charged much lower fees. The Customer Care Manager could not answer this question but he said he would find out and write a letter of explanation. Yesterday the letter arrived with the following explanation: "Having spoken to our colleagues in Bank of Scotland (Ireland), they have advised that whilst the Bank of Scotland (Ireland) is a subsidiary of HBOS Plc., it is in fact a separate entity and they therefore specify their own level of charges which have been approved by the Irish Financial Regulator." This begs (at least) 2 questions. 1.Given

Ask them why the Ulster Bank (Republic of Ireland) charges 12.70 euro for an unpaid direct debit or standing order and the Ulster Bank (UK) charges £30.00 for the same procedure. Get them to put their reply in writing!

I have just been reading posts in the Lloyds sub-forum and the thread Appeal for Price Comparisons in Space and Time started by Mistermind refers to the anomaly in the fees charged by Irish and British Banks. He suggests that this information should be part of a claimant's court bundle. Also, since Diddled is interested in information about the NAB, he should read the Australian Report on Default charges by Nicole Rich of the Consumer Law Centre Victoria which is available on this site as it seems to show that the NAB have the highest penalty charges in Australia. This report should also be added to court bundles since it comes to the conclusion that penalty charges are disproportionate to the bank's costs which may be particulary relevant given the NAB's connection to the CB/YB group. Unfortunately, I don't know how to provide a link to these other threads.

Thanks for the information Alphageek - it was very useful and very revealing. I looked up the Allied Irish Bank (Republic of Ireland) website and found that they charge 4.44 euros for "a cheque lodged to your account and returned unpaid". They charge 6.35 euros for a "cheque, direct debit or standing order presented on your account and returned unpaid." The Allied Irish Bank also have branches in Great Britain where customers are charged £25.00 for an "unpaid item" and £3.50 or £7.50 for sending out a letter presumably to tell you about the charges. It is the same story with the Ulster Bank which is owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland. The Ulster Bank (Northern Ireland) charges £30.00 for an unpaid direct debit, standing order etc., whereas the Ulster Bank (Eire) charges 12.70 euros. I don't know if these unequitable charges are common knowledge, but I was certainly unaware of it. Why is the Office of Fair Trading procrastinating about coming to a decision regarding bank charges in this country when bank customers here are clearly being ripped-off by the banking establishment? Perhaps someone else could check out these figures in case I am missing something or have misinterpreted them. I have found that the easiest way to get access to non-British Banks is through Wikipedia. Sorry if this information already exists somewhere on this site.

This is interesting. Do you think that Angela Knight, the Chief Executive of the BBA, has read the information provided by the institution which she represents? I saw her being interviewed on TV and she stated emphatically that banks did not have "penalty fees", they had "service fees"!

I'm new here but I have been a lurker for months and I have found the advice and information invaluable in pursuing my claim against the Clydesdale Bank, so thanks to all. I seem to remember that someone mentioned an Irish bank where it costs about £3.00 for each penalty charge. Does anyone know the name of this bank and its parent company?