Next Wednesday, judges at the Supreme Court will rule on the legal battle about unfair bank charges.

This is the case between the Office of Fair Trading and the main high street banks and will decide whether the OFT can assess the fairness of overdraft charges – which have been as much as £39 a time for exceeding your account limit. The Court of Appeal has already ruled that charges can be assessed but the banks appealed to the Supreme Court which is the highest court in the land.

It is estimated that 1.1 million people have £1.7 billion worth of charges awaiting this decision because a freeze was placed on complaints back in July 2007 when the banks appealed against the Court of Appeal’s decision in favour of the OFT.

Banking experts believe that the banks could face a £20 billion payout if they were forced to repay all the charges under dispute.