If you pay or paid a monthly fee for your bank account, you may be able to reclaim all the fees paid for years. Banks mis-sold paid bank accounts specially to migrants, with Lithuanians, Poles and other A8 migrants being targeted the most. According to financial experts, over 20 million bank accounts were mis-sold.
Some bank’s customer claim as much as £3,000 per bank account. The longer you paid for your bank account, the more money you get. It’s worth to claim the money back as it does not impact the relationship with bank.
Packaged Bank Accounts Explained
Packaged Bank Accounts are bank accounts with added benefits (like travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, car breakdown cover, discounts or vouchers for many products or services). You get those benefits for a fixed monthly fee. It means that every month bank takes from your account the same amount of money, even though you do not use any of the benefit added. Packaged Bank Accounts were widely sold, specially to migrants, like Lithuanians, who were less aware of UK banking rules and were easy target.
Why can I claim bank fees back?
For many people, the benefits were irrelevant, offered poor value for money or the benefits would never have been payable (for example you were self-employed, while benefit was only for employed people or you have car breakdown cover, but you didn’t own a car).
Some customers were told that they have to take a packaged account to obtain an overdraft, mortgage or loan (which is against a law) or were never told that bank offered free accounts, which is a case for many Lithuanians.
Many customers had never used any of the benefits included in their packaged bank account. It means they paid £10-35 a month for many years for nothing. They can now get a refund of all this money.
Which banks sold Packaged Bank Accounts?
Packaged bank accounts can cost between £6.50 and £40 a month and are offered by all UK banks. Name of accounts are were “Account Plus”, “Premier Account”, “Gold Account”, “Privileged Account”, “Silver”, “Reward Account” and other.
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Lloyds
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Co-Operative
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First Direct
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Barclays
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Halifax
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HSBC
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Santander
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Natwest
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Bank of Scotland
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Clydesdale Bank
It there a deadline to claim bank fees?
You can claim up to 6 years back so it is worth claiming as soon as possible.
