The Packaged Bank Accounts FCA investigation was conducted in 2012/2013 when the regulators of the financial firms located a number of failings that they had in the promotion and sales of the current accounts that they were providing. All of these were under the guise of Packaged Bank Accounts.
Following this review, many people are now challenging the sales process employed and the validity of the accounts that they have, and are now obtaining considerable refunds. The Banks are looking at refunding the charges that have been applied (many of which had fees between £10 and £30 per month) as well as interest, and compensatory interest. Therefore, the refunds reach several thousands of pounds. Of course, the refund does reflect the level of charges. Some are therefore higher than £3,000, yet some are seen as low as £1,000 or less, depending upon the fees that have been applied.
The current Packaged Bank Account market stands at approximately 11 million, and with a number of these having been mis-sold, there is an excellent opportunity to look at recovery by way of a refund of the fees that have been applied, as well as the interest, and compensatory interest on the account. However, some people are happy with the account that they have, and are happy paying for the various benefits that they see on the facility. If this is the case, then of course recovery does not apply to you.
Many people however felt that they had no alternative but to take the account and no alternative was offered. They were also not informed of how to register the various individual benefits so that they applied in the future, such as registering mobile phones (and of course updating these every time a mobile phone was changed), ascertaining whether their travel insurance was applicable and that there were no exclusions. Of course if, when trying to use these products, you had not undertaken house-keeping to make sure that they all applied and were all registered, then when it came to make a claim, you would be sadly disappointed – which could leave you in a considerable financial black hole.
The Banks have been rocked in recent years with scandals for mis-selling and misappropriation of funds. Therefore it is no shock that they have been pulled up with regards to the mis-selling of the Packaged Bank Account facilities. Many people who have undertaken a claim in relation to their Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) are now looking at these particular accounts.
We represent growing numbers of people who have started to make enquiries into the sales process that was employed. The mis-selling of Packaged Bank Accounts is likely to increase over the next few years. The Banks have made significant provisions in their annual accounts (not to the same levels in relation to PPI – where to date they have refunded almost £30billion to the end of December 2015), but figures which will certainly run into several billions of pounds.
As a Firm, we deal with many thousands of complaints a year on behalf of clients, and we have done so since we began dealing with banking complaints in the late 1990s. We work purely on a “No Win No Fee” basis. If no refund is obtained, there is no fee to pay. Our fee that we charge is inclusive of VAT and is 25%.