When the Office of Fair Trading investigated credit card charges it said that it would not launch a specific investigation on any credit card companies with charges lower than £12.

As a result of this investigation most credit card companies reduced their charges to £12.

In practice it has been lot easier to reclaim back the difference between what you were charged and the £12 figure, although it is possible to receive a refund of the charge in full. You may also be entitled to add 8% interest to the charge.

People often ask about the impact that reclaiming charges will have on their Credit Rating. Banks and credit card companies can't put a note about your reclaim on your credit reference files, and therefore shouldn’t have a negative impact.

We can assist with credit card charges that go back six years, which is a time frame limited by law. Standard account fees or interest cannot be reclaimed.

In order to progress your claim we require full details of all charges levied in the last six years. Credit card companies charge £10 to produce such details, which are then sent to us to assist with your claim.

The card company only has a maximum 40 days to respond to our request for information. If 40 days is exceeded we report the credit card company to the Information Commissioner for a breach of rules.

The waiver applied to bank charges placing bank charge reclaims on hold does not apply to credit cards charges.

What can be claimed:

• Exceeding your credit card limit fees

• Late payment fees