Yet another report shows how careful we have to be when visiting our bank branch. The latest statistics from the Financial Ombudsman reveal that large numbers of bank customers are complaining that they have been mis-sold expensive packaged bank accounts.
These are the sorts of accounts that come with all sorts of bells and whistles on them, such as travel insurance, all fine and dandy if you need everything you get but otherwise an expensive way to bank.
Complaints have more than doubled on 2012-13 and some bank customers were unaware that they had “bought” a packaged account. The most expensive were costing an extra £25 a month or £300 a year. And often the insurances and services offered were already being provided to the customers by their household insurance.
It is yet another banking mis-selling just like the insurance policies that were sold to protect credit card customers from identity fraud when they were already protected by their credit card company.
Of the 3,107 who took their complaint to the ombudsman in the nine months to December 2013 80% won compensation.
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Anyone who is being charged for packaged account services they do not need should cancel it and think about taking a complaint to the financial ombudsman.
How to complain – some useful tips on the ombudsman site
