Maurice Blackburn principal confident victims of credit card fees will be compensated by class action

Hundreds of thousands of people are set to benefit from a class action over late payment credit card fees.

The class action, filed in the NSW Supreme Court today by law firm Maurice Blackburn, is against ANZ, Westpac and Citibank, on behalf of anyone who has ever paid a late payment fee on a credit card from those banks.

“We’re talking about an enormous action, it covers all of the customers of those banks who have ever paid a late payment fee,” Maurice Blackburn principal Andrew Watson said.

“If people are a bit like myself and not always as careful as they should be about paying off their credit card then they will be in the action and stand to benefit if we obtain compensation.”

The action filed today only covers claims for customers of ANZ, Westpac and Citibank, however Mr Watson has confirmed the firm will be filing further claims against other banks on the same basis in the near future.

Previously, the firm ran a case against ANZ on behalf of only those who signed up to the action.

Those claims were successful but are subject to an appeal to be heard next week.

In its ruling, the court noted that customers were being charged up to $35, despite the delay only costing the bank as little as 50 cents.

Charges on late credit card payments consist of around a quarter of the $6 billion the big banks have reaped in what they term “exception fees”.

Mr Watson is confident the class action filed today will be successful in obtaining compensation for the “victims” of late payment fees.