Martin Lewis explains how you could be owed £1,000s in packaged bank account fees

Lynsey Barber

Published: 12:40, 28 Jul 2021
Updated: 14:57, 1 Sep 2021

BRITS could be owed thousands of pounds from fees they paid for having a bank account.

has explained that banks mis-sold packaged bank accounts and that means anyone who paid for them could get money back.

If you paid a fee for a bank account you could be owed money backCredit: Rex

Packaged bank accounts come with extras like insurance and perks like better savings rates - for a fee, usually paid monthly.

In Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert newsletter, he explains: "We often say they're the Marmite of banking - while they can be good value for some, they were mis-sold on a mass scale to others."

Like PPI, these accounts were mis-sold, which means that people were not properly told by the bank what they were getting and paying for.

It could be that you were paying a fee without knowing, or you couldn't actually use the insurance that came with the account.

How do I know if I've been mis-sold a package bank account?

IF any of the below points apply to you, you should be able to make a claim.

You were wrongly told that you had to get it if you wanted to get something else, such as a mortgage or an overdraft.
You couldn't actually claim on the insurance because of a pre-existing medical condition or you were too old.
You were told it was a privilege to get the account but it wasn't explained properly to you; the salesman wouldn't say no for an answer or you weren't told the full cost.
The price was hiked but the bank didn't tell you.
The fee was added without you knowing, for example, it was "upgraded" without your permission.
You were forced to keep the account, even though you tried to close it.
You weren't told that you needed to register your car or gadget before claiming.
You were told the account would improve your credit score.

One bank account owner wrote to Martin to say he had managed to claim back £3,500 for fees they forked out back in the 1990s.

The letter appeared in , and said they opened the packaged account back in the 1990s when taking out a loan for a car.

He said he believes he was told that he had to open the account to get the loan, otherwise the application would not be successful.

The man who is also called Martin, said that he used to reclaiming the charges and will now use the cash to help him out after taking early retirement because of an accident.

How can I make a claim for mis-sold packaged bank accounts?

If you think you've been mis-sold a packaged bank account, you'll need to get in touch with the bank you had the account with to make a claim.

There are free tools available online, such as , so make sure you don't pay a claims firm to help you.

If the bank rejects your claim, you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman for free.

But it won't look at your complaint until you've contacted your bank first and given it eight weeks to respond.

How much can I get back if I was mis-sold a packaged bank account?

If you were mis-sold and your claim is succesful, you should get the monthly fees you paid back plus interest.

How much you get will depend on how long you had the account and how much you paid for it.

A viewer of the The Martin Lewis Money Show previously said they managed to get a £1,400 payout from NatWest after paying for a packaged account for 10 years.

If you've got a useless packaged account, you can cancel it first to stop paying the monthly fees and then reclaim the cash later.

In 2019, the worst packaged bank accounts for offering poor savings and limited insurance cover were revealed by consumer champion Which?.