Next month the Office of Fair Trading will produce its long-awaited report into parking fines. It is expected to rule that charging motorists £60 for overstaying their welcome at a parking meter is unfair, and that in future councils must charge motorists only what it costs to issue the parking ticket.
Actually, that’s not quite right: hell will freeze over before councils stop raising revenue through parking fines. What the OFT is really going to produce is a report on what it considers to be the ‘unreasonable’ practice of banks charging customers up to £39 for going into unauthorised overdraft. It will propose that banks be allowed to charge those who go into the red without permission only as much as it costs the bank to send a warning letter — which consumer groups claim is as little as £2.50 and the OFT is believed to estimate at £12 to £20.
But what’s the difference between overdraft charges and parking fines? Both exist to penalise those who break the rules.
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