Talk about the worm turning! The consumer campaign being waged against the banks in the pursuit of penalty charge refunds is taking on a life of its own.

There’s nothing like the Brits (normally so passive in matters financial) when they get fired up by an issue. It’s all rather reminiscent of the poll tax riots in the 1980s and the petrol price rise protests in 2000.

Hardly a day passes without a report on the latest number of complaints being made to the Financial Ombudsman’s Service and the estimates of the bill which the banks could face.

The FOS says it has been receiving between 3,000 - 5,000 calls a day since Monday, following saturation media coverage in the weekend’s press.

And as if disgruntled bank customers needed any further encouragement in their pursuit of the banks, Credit Suisse announced earlier this week that the banks could be making as much as £1.2bn a year from overdraft charges.

This is less than the £4.7bn being claimed by campaigners, but bank analysts are warning that the retail banks might have to set aside hefty provisions, if the Office of Fair Trading rules that the level of penalty fees they have been charging is unlawful.

Some reports suggest the total repayment bill faced by banks and building societies could be as high as £10bn, if customers claim for six years’ worth of charges - as many are doing.

The FSA is waking up finally to the issue, and looking at whether banks have been “treating customers fairly,” in particular where banks have closed customers’ accounts after making a complaint.

In the meantime, I would normally tell disgruntled bank customers to buy their banks’ shares to participate in their excessive profits, but if the banks have to make hefty provisions to meet the compensation bill, perhaps that’s not such as good idea.