Reclaiming packaged bank account charges (PBA) from Barclays Additions, Ultimate Reward, Premier and Premier Life Accounts.
Rather than learning from their mistakes with regard to the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), the banks have also been the subject of considerable scrutiny with regards to the mis-selling of Packaged Bank Account (PBA) Charges. Barclays, who operate an Additions, Ultimate Reward, Premier and Premier Life account which all have charges attached to them have, in many instances, been mis-sold and as a result the fees and interest can be reclaimed due to the mis-sale taking place.
Packaged Bank Accounts are a normal current account but instead of just the bank allowing you to operate this with no charge, to justify a fee they add on various alleged benefits to the account to justify a fee being charged. The benefits can include travel insurance, life cover, card protection, free gifts and various discounts.
On a number of occasions the accounts themselves can have benefits and the fee can be justified as the benefits outweigh the cost. However, the client of the bank should know these benefits and be happy to pay for them rather than the bank pushing the account unnecessarily – which results in a mis-sale.
Barclays operates a number of accounts all of which incur a charge, and all of which if you do not want the particular package, should not have been sold to you.
The fees for the Packaged Bank Accounts or (PBAs) can range from £10 to £30. The bank should, but have shown historically that they are very adept at not, have sold the account to you in a way which was appropriate, fair and ethical. If they did not do this, and instead used the normal bully boy tactics which they tend to adopt, there is a reasonable chance that the product that you have by way of a Packaged Account has been mis-sold and a claim can be made.
The instances of mis-sale include, not being offered a free account, the various exclusions for the policy not being detailed where cover was either being duplicated with policies that you already have, or whether the cover would not have applied due to previous conditions. In addition if you were not informed fully of your obligations to register products for particular aspects of the policy to be covered, such as registering your mobile phone, then this is also deemed as an avenue where a mis-sale has taken place.
With Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) still a flavour of the month, Packaged Bank Accounts have been left to one side. However individuals are becoming more and more aware of their abilities to recover these fees. At present we are obtaining refunds for our clients which range from anywhere between £1,000 and £2,500 on cases where we have successfully argued a mis-sale has taken place.