Get Your Own Back

Our delightful high street banks are in the process of announcing yet another round of humongous profits. Barclays went first this year clocking up a stonking pre-tax profit of £7.14bn in 2006 - up by 35%. By the time all the other results are in, the total take is expected to be a whopping £38bn. Yet all this comes at a time when the banks are pulling one scam after another. Old favourites include:

• Taking an age to clear cheques despite the technology having long been available to do it instantaneously
• Whacking us with exorbitant exchange rate charges when traveling abroad
• Pushing up mortgage rates the moment base rate rise while taking forever to lower them when base rates move the other way
• Flogging us "quality" insurance and investment products that are available at half the price elsewhere
• Suckering us into savings accounts with good rates only to slash them quietly once we're in

But now it seems Britain's banks may have met their match. One of my heroes, the money saving expert Martin Lewis, has launched a campaign ...

to win back billions of pounds taken by the banks in unauthorised overdraft charges. If you've ever had a letter from your bank hitting you with a £30 charge or similar for accidentally exceeding your spending limit by a few quid, then you're almost certainly now due your money back - with interest.

The scale of the scam is such that Lewis estimates the banks took £4.7bn in unauthorised charges last year alone. Now thousands of consumers have joined him in a campaign to get this money back. I urge you to join them today. After all, it looks like the banks can afford it. Full details on how to apply for a refund are available here. There is also an excellent read in The Sunday Times explaining how it all started here.

Get your claim letter in now before the rush!