Packaged bank account claim

Is the next big scandal upon us? You will have already heard about the vast mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) and how consumers have claimed back over £25 billion since January 2011 as published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Now the banks have been found to be mis-selling once again, this time the ‘bundles’ sold with their bank accounts known as Package Bank Accounts (PBA). They are also known as gold, premium or platinum accounts and come with different packages however any type of bank account where you have to pay for the extra benefits received is classed as a package account.

These package accounts offer a range of insurance policies such as VIP airport lounge, discounts in restaurants and many more. All of these benefits may sound like a seductive proposition one monthly payment could include cover for car breakdown, travel insurance or even damages to your mobile phone. But let’s look at the small print, you are paying for all these insurances, are you even eligible to claim on them? These attractive packages may have benefited a few people, but for the majority they were not suitable.

In September 2012 the FSA (now known as FCA) published evidence of the banks poor practice for selling their products, the findings showed that the banks sales staff were driven to sell PBA through risky incentive schemes, rewards and commission which contributed to the mis-selling. It was the unrealistic targets that encouraged the staff to push the sales of PBA’s even though a consumer would have been more suited to a fee free account.

• Incentive schemes were likely to drive staff to mis-sell and these risks were not being properly managed.
• Banks failing to identify how incentive schemes might encourage staff to mis-sell, suggesting they had not properly thought about the risks or simply turned a blind eye to them.
• Firms failing to understand their incentive schemes because they were so complex, therefore making it hard to control them.
• Firms relying too much on routine monitoring of staff rather than taking account of the specific features of their incentive schemes.
• The sales managers to have conflicts of interests, such as a responsibility to manage the conduct of their sales staff whilst themselves able to earn a bonus if their team made more sales.

• Basically, if the extras on the account are not suitable for you, or you were not aware of the features on the account, then you may be able to claim. Things to look for:
• Have you noticed additional charges on your monthly statement? You could have been ‘upgraded’ to a fee-paying bank account, just through being a loyal customer.
• The full costs were not explained.
• You were advised you had to upgrade your account if you wanted to benefit from an overdraft.
• You had to have a PBA to be offered preferential Loan/Mortgage rates.
• You did not request all of the products that came with your account.
• There was no discussion as to whether you were eligible to claim on the policies.
• You have tried to make a claim on the insurances, and found that you were not covered.
• You tried to cancel the account but were told you had to keep it.

We operate on a No Win No Fee basis*. We are seeing an increase in packaged bank account complaints. In the last year the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has seen a rise of more than threefold. If you feel like a victim of a mis-sold bank account you are not alone, the Financial Services Regulator estimated that there were 10 million packaged bank accounts open in the UK – meaning around one in five adults has one; find out more from the Financial Ombudsman..

The number of complaints is steadily rising as people become more aware of the problem, and media interest increases after the huge Payment Protection Insurance mis-selling scandal.

We will process all the paperwork for you, and speak to the banks to ensure that your claim is handled as quickly as possible!