The latest run of banking complaints to hit the media focuses on
the sales of "packaged accounts" to retail customers.
These accounts have been offered widely by most major high street
banks. For a monthly fee customers are provided with a bank account
together with additional products such as travel insurance, car
breakdown insurance, access to business class lounges at airports
and preferential savings rates.
Over the last two years the rate of complaints about mis-selling
these accounts has risen, with a specific focus on the
ineligibility of some customers to use their insurance products.
The UK media has reported cases where people have taken out
packaged accounts which include travel insurance cover, only to
discover that they are over the age limit of eligibility for any
claims on their policy. In December last year Lloyds announced that
it will stop offering such accounts in branch or on the
telephone.
