If you pay a monthly fee for your bank account, it may be that you have a packaged bank account which includes insurance products and other beneficial features. It is thought that around 1 in 5 of these were mis-sold, meaning in some cases, they were sold without checking whether they were beneficial or useful for the consumer.
For instance, if a packaged bank account that only included travel insurance and breakdown cover was sold to a pensioner who was too old to qualify for the travel cover and didn’t drive, this would be an example of mis-selling if the product suitability was not confirmed. There are many different ways in which packaged bank accounts were mis-sold. In some cases, account holders weren’t even aware that they were paying a monthly fee, or they were “upgraded” by their bank without their knowledge.
In other circumstances, customers were told that they had to take out the packaged bank account. Take a look at the following list: if any of these sound familiar to you, then you may be eligible to reclaim the fees you have paid.
You can talk to one of our friendly claims experts to find out!
• “The bank told me I had to have this account to get a mortgage or an overdraft.”
In some cases, this tactic was used to mis-sell financial packaged bank accounts: tell the consumer they have to have the product in order to make a successful application for a mortgage, overdraft or loan that they need. What staff often failed to mention is that in some cases, free alternatives were available that also satisfied the criteria to obtain the required financial product or service.
• “I tried to claim on my insurance, but I was told I didn’t qualify.”
Travel insurance is often sold in with packaged accounts, but many travel insurance providers have an age limit or exclusions for pre-existing medical conditions. In many cases, banks didn’t check whether the insurance was appropriate for the customer. If this has happened to you, you may have a case to reclaim your fees.
• “I tried to make a claim, but was told my car/smartphone wasn’t registered.”
If your packaged account included car or mobile phone insurance, you might have needed to register your items with the insurer – but in some scenarios, the banks did not tell customers that, meaning they paid for months while still being effectively uninsured.
• “I was told I was not eligible for a fee-free account”
Wherever a packaged bank account was offered, there may have been a fee-free account available to you as an alternative. If you were told by the bank that you had no free alternative when there was actually one available from them, you may have a case to reclaim the packaged bank account fees.
• “The bank just started charging me for my account without notice.”
In other cases, banks simply “upgraded” their customers to packaged accounts without letting them know. Some customers only noticed that this was happening when they spotted the monthly payments leaving their accounts on a bank statement. If this happened to you, you could be due a refund.
• “I tried to cancel my packaged account, but I was told I had to keep it.”
If you were told by the bank that you had to keep your packaged account even after you asked to be moved onto a free one, you could have a case to reclaim your money if there was a fee-free account available from them at the time. If this sounds familiar to you, you might be able to make a claim – especially if the products in the package were inappropriate for you.