The team at Money Saving Expert said you may have been “mis-sold” a bank account
Brits who’ve held a bank account for years could be “owed thousands of pounds”. Anyone who has had a packaged account might be able to claim back some money.
Packaged accounts are those where you pay a monthly fee for your account in return for benefits. These are often bundled insurance policies, such as travel insurance, mobile phone insurance and car breakdown.
While for many people these are a good option, it could be the case that you were “mis-sold”. This could be that you were told you could only get a mortgage by signing up, or you might have been “upgraded” without your permission.
In an update provided by the team at Money Saving Expert (MSE), the website founded by Martin Lewis, they explained that you could be owed money as a result. MSE said: “Were you flogged a packaged bank account years ago?
“You may be owed £1,000s. Actively choosing a packaged account for the right reasons is great. Yet while it’s not so much of an issue anymore, many were hard sold them in the past, eg, if you were told you had no option, told you could only get a mortgage if you opted for the account, or were ‘upgraded’ without consent.
“If so, you could be owed all the fees back.” On another page, MSE warned that this has been a systemic issue.
It continued: “But if you were flogged one by a pushy sales agent, told you could only get a mortgage if you opted for the account, or “upgraded” without your consent, you could be owed serious cash. Banks have been found to have systemically mis-sold many of these accounts.”
MSE then shared what to do if you have a packed account and think you might have been mis-sold.
Confirm if you were mis-sold
The first step is to check if you were mis-sold. MSE said: “Mis-selling can happen in a variety of ways – in some instances it’s clear cut, but in others it can be that you were mis-sold without even realising it.
“Also it’s worth pointing out that mis-selling doesn’t only happen at the point of sale, it can happen later on too – for example, you weren’t told you had to register your phone or car for the insurance to be active.”
These are some ways that count as mis-selling:
- You were wrongly told you had to get it – for example, to get a mortgage
- You were ineligible for the insurance – for example, you were too old to qualify, or had a medical condition
- You were misled into taking out the account. This could include you were told it was a privilege to get the account, but the product wasn’t fully explained to you, a pushy salesperson wouldn’t take no for an answer, you were told you’d be eligible to claim when you weren’t, you were wrongly told you’d get big discounts on other insurance if you took a packaged account, or you weren’t told the full cost
- The fee was added without your knowledge
- You tried to cancel but were forced to keep it
- You were told it was the only way to get an overdraft
- No one mentioned you needed to register your phone/car
- You were told having one would improve your credit score
- Your bank hiked the price and didn’t tell you
MSE added: “There is no time limit on how far back you can claim, but in England and Wales the statute of limitation is six years, while in Scotland it is five years. The further back you go, the harder it is to complain, but it is possible.
“So even if something was sold more than 20 years ago, if the firm was regulated at the time and you didn’t become aware of a problem until recently, you can make (and win) a complaint.”
Complain to your bank
If you think you meet one of the above criteria, you should complain to your bank. You can do this using MSE’s free online reclaim tool here, or you can use its free template letter available here.
Before doing either of these, make sure you have:
- Your account number
- The reason you think you were mis-sold (see the mis-selling checklist above)
- The date you took out the product
- Copies of your statements or other relevant documents
MSE said: “If your complaint’s rejected or you don’t hear back, after eight weeks Resolver will prompt you to escalate it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (you still have to escalate it yourself).”
How much could you get?
If your complaint is upheld, you should get back all the fees you paid out, plus interest. MSE warned: “But be prepared for a fight. We’ve seen some banks just change the insurance so customers become eligible, as a way of appeasing complainants.
“But that doesn’t change the fact that you were still paying for useless cover in the past, so hammer home that you want all your fees back.”
If you were mis-sold, you should get the fees you paid back, as a base. For example, if you paid £15 a month for two years, you should get £360 back.
You should also get eight per cent annual interest on any claim, as it’s assumed you’d have earned money on that amount had it not been taken from you. For more information, visit the MSE website here.
