Mis-sold bank accounts are now taking over, to some extent, from the numbers of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims that have been seen throughout the Banking Industry over recent years. The PPI claims market has so far looked at the Banks refunding (to the end of 2015) approximately £30billion. Whilst the mis-sold Packaged Bank Accounts (PBA) or mis-sold bank accounts will not reach this level, they will still reach several billions of pounds.
There are approximately 11 million users of Packaged Bank Accounts in the Country. The selling process in relation to the promotion of these products was investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2013. The FCA highlighted a number of difficulties in relation to these accounts and highlighted that the process of sale was not dealt with in a fashion that they would have expected to comply with the bank and client relationship.
We have seen ever growing numbers of mis-sold bank account complaints in recent months (in particular over the last year or so) where the Banks themselves are having to address many thousands of these complaints each week. This number is only likely to grow in 2016, and certainly beyond, as people challenge the Banks in relation to these account and why they, as customers, should have paid between £10 and £30 per month for a product which is largely ineffective, does not offer any other benefit other than that of a free bank account, and which should have been offered at the point of sale.
Part of the main reason behind the mis-selling of these particular accounts is the fact that the fee free based account was not offered as a viable alternative. In addition to this, the Banks did not offer any credible reason to take this particular account. The product itself would offer mobile phone cover as well as some degree of travel insurance, and some other elements of protection. However, these products were largely duplicated by clients through policies outside of this particular avenue, and the Banks did not establish whether the cover was duplicated, or whether there was a vastly better alternative to the consumer. Needless to say, the numbers of clients who have made use of the account (and despite the fact that the FCA highlighted the flaws in the sale of these in large numbers) does not mean that everyone is due a refund.
If you are unhappy with the account and the way that it was promoted to you (and the reasons behind you having to pay the monthly fee) then it is worthwhile establishing whether the correct sales procedures were applied. We undertake all of our work on a “No Win No Fee” basis so should, for some reason, the claim be unsuccessful – there is no fee to pay. If a refund is made, we would look to take into account the fees that you were charged, in addition to interest and the compensatory interest set at 8%.