What a very exciting day (2)

The people rose up and protested against the obscene and excessive charges levied by the banks for things like slipping over your withdrawal limit, or a cheque not being cleared (often £30 or more).

The Office for Fair Trading supported them. So did the High Court. It seemed like the Establishment was going to side with us for a change. Until today: the banks' appeal to the Supreme Court has been upheld.

The judges say the banks can charge what they want for the fees - that they do not have to reflect the cost of the administration involved. They say the charges were not concealed and consumers knew what they were in for when they signed up for the accounts, which means the OFT could not test them under the regulations.

Apparently you can charge whatever you like for services without regard for the actual costs. The OFT has been told that 'fairness' doesn't apply to account charges. How weird.

If you don't have a mortgage, according to Moneyfacts at Abbey you will pay £25 a month for going overdrawn without permission, plus up to £35 for bounced cheques and payments. At Alliance & Leicester, the overdraft fee is £5 a day, subject to a maximum of £100, while bounced payments cost up to £25.

The costliest bank on the high street seems to be Clydesdale, where Moneyfacts says going overdrawn without asking will cost you £25 a month, plus £25 each time the overdraft increases, plus £35 for every bounced payment.

Lloyds TSB charges £15 a month, plus £20 for each bounced payment, subject to a maximum of three a day. Halifax is charging a flat £5 a day for unauthorised borrowing, with no additional fees for bounced items.

I'm not affected by this - I claimed £700 in bank charges three years ago and the Co-op paid up without demur, which I took as an admission of guilt, though it may have been the case that it was cheaper to pay than to fight it through the courts. I stayed with Co-op and am generally happy with it, especially as it has an ethical investment only policy.

I do feel for everybody else though. Our banks have hardly covered themselves in glory recently, and as taxpayers we now own most of them, and now this. Banking isn't free, but they make billions by paying us 0.01% on our current accounts and lending it at 8.5%: these charges are excessive.