COMPLAINTS about paid-for current accounts have more than doubled over the past year, amid a sharp increase in people saying they were mis-sold one of these products, figures from the ombudsman reveal.
Some 3107 new complaints were made to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) about "packaged" accounts in the first three quarters of this financial year, against 1629 cases for the whole of 2012/13.
FOS is seeing around 100 new packaged account complaints each week, up from 40 a week this time last year, with 80% being upheld.
Around one in five UK adults has a packaged account, paying up to £300 a year in return for perks such as breakdown cover and mobile phone insurance.
Richard Lloyd, executive director of consumer group Which?, said: "It's worrying to see increasing complaints about packaged accounts when rules were introduced last year to protect consumers from being sold products they don't need or can't use."
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