About 25% of all current accounts now charge a monthly fee, which can be anything up to £25 a month or more. Are you being charged a fee for your account? Do you know why and what you get for the fee? If not, you have likely been mis-sold the account and you should try to get the fees you have been charged back.
Please contact me now or read more below about these accounts…
There now about 11 million current accounts in force that charge users a monthly fee. Typical fees range from £10 to over £40 per month. The notion that banking is free in the UK has been under sustained attack by the banks for some years.
Keen to make a return from current accounts, most banks began offering customers enhanced accounts. Such accounts were often termed “premium” accounts or “packaged” accounts.
The idea is that a basic current account will have other benefits tacked on, for which users will be charged a fee.
Such add-on benefits typically include travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, breakdown cover, locksmith cover etc.
Some accounts also offer holders (supposedly) better deals on certain financial products from the bank, such as loans or mortgages.
Banks very quickly found that most customers very rarely (if ever) made use of the add-on benefits of their account.
So they were effectively receiving a fee each month and never being asked for anything back in return. As usual with the banks, greed took over and branches were instructed to move as many people as possible to fee charging accounts.
Did the banks worry that the add-on benefits may not be suitable for a lot of customers? No, of course not. Having found this new way to extract money from customers, the mis-selling began. Branch staff were given targets to meet and paid bonuses to sign people up to the new accounts.
Checks on eligibility for the add-on benefits were glossed over in many instances. A lot of customers were told they had no choice but to move to a fee paying account as the bank was ending free banking. Staff would say anything to make the sale.
The result? An awful lot of people with these accounts do not know what they are paying for and have no need of the add-on benefits.
Everyone with a fee paying account should check what they are paying for, whether it is useful and cost effective for them.
For example, travel insurance is a typical add-on benefit. But lots of people take it out with their holiday. You don’t need it twice. And the travel insurance with the account is often basic and full of restrictions. Try claiming and you could find you were never covered at all. You should not be charged for benefits you don’t use or cannot use or are of little benefit to you. If this is your situation, I will try to get your money back
If you were pressured into having this type of account, or told you had no choice, that is grounds to claim mis-selling and you can get your money back.
So, if you think you may have been mis-sold your fee charging current account, please contact me for a no obligation, informal chat. My aim will be to ensure you receive every penny to which you are properly entitled if mis-selling occurred.
