What is the point of a packaged bank account during COVID-19 lockdowns?

darkh0rse

Hi all

As the title suggests, I realised I'm paying Nationwide £13/month for FlexPlus, for nothing. Can't use the travel insurance, breakdown cover is pointless too as I'm not going anywhere, and same for mobile phone, in that I don't go anywhere to make and it'd be covered under house insurance anyway as out-of-home cover.

I asked Nationwide on the chat if they would refund me, they said no. I asked instead for another 12 months fee-free. They said no. I said I would like to open a complaint and we shall see what they say.

Any thoughts? Why aren't we being offered anything? The banks must be raking it in from these packaged accounts over the last 12 months.

Thanks

eskbanker

If the insurances aren't useful to you, move to a non-packaged product.

darkh0rse

Of course, this is an option, but it doesn't solve the problem of paying full price for a reduced service. What use is worldwide travel insurance to anybody right now?

eskbanker

darkh0rse said:

Of course, this is an option, but it doesn't solve the problem of paying full price for a reduced service. What use is worldwide travel insurance to anybody right now?

Some people are travelling, for a variety of legitimate reasons, and others will be benefitting from holding ongoing continuous travel insurance cover for booked future trips (protecting against cancellation for medical reasons, etc).

darkh0rse

Yes, I see, if a trip was booked pre March 19th 2020 and has been rolled over, I guess that insurance would still be valid if held. Can't imagine many would be in that situation - I think most would have had a cash refund by now from summer 2020 holidays. 

Zanderman

darkh0rse said:

Hi all

As the title suggests, I realised I'm paying Nationwide £13/month for FlexPlus, for nothing. Can't use the travel insurance, breakdown cover is pointless too as I'm not going anywhere, and same for mobile phone, in that I don't go anywhere to make and it'd be covered under house insurance anyway as out-of-home cover.

I asked Nationwide on the chat if they would refund me, they said no. I asked instead for another 12 months fee-free. They said no. I said I would like to open a complaint and we shall see what they say.

Any thoughts? Why aren't we being offered anything? The banks must be raking it in from these packaged accounts over the last 12 months.

Thanks

Travel insurance could still be useful - you might still be travelling despite lockdown.  And it's not Nationwide's problem that you aren't. If you don't want the cover change the account.  If you had bought, say, annual travel insurance direct from an insurance company you'd be in the same situation. It's up to you to decide whether the cover's worth it not for Nationwide to refund you!

Breakdown cover isn't pointless if you drive. Doesn't matter if it's only to, say, Tescos once a week in lockdown.  You could still breakdown.  That's not Nationwide's problem.  Again it would be the same if you were, say, paying the RAC for cover, it covers you when you drive.  It's not their problem if you don't drive often. Would you try to cancel your RAC cover if you had it?  What would you do if you did breakdown?

As for mobile phone you're implying you think you're already covered regardless of lockdown.  In which case you've covered yourself twice.  But that's also not Nationwide's problem.  And nothing to do with lockdown if you're covered anyway. 

Actually, as it's a packaged account that you can downgrade you're better off than if you had bought the cover separately, as annual cover with, say, the RAC, isn't normally cancellable halfway through the term, but cover linked to a premium bank account is instantly cancellable by just downgrading the account. 

So I'd say count your blessings that you can downgrade and aren't stuck in an annual contract for travel, breakdown and mobile cover.  You can cancel immediately by downgrading the account.  

eskbanker

darkh0rse said:

Yes, I see, if a trip was booked pre March 19th 2020 and has been rolled over, I guess that insurance would still be valid if held. Can't imagine many would be in that situation - I think most would have had a cash refund by now from summer 2020 holidays. 

That's only a fraction of what I'm referring to - there were large volumes of people who went on holiday during summer 2020 (some would have booked before March, many wouldn't) who'd have benefitted from having insurance, and there will be many who booked for 2021 either last year or more recently, not just those that rolled over.

darkh0rse

Zanderman said:

So I'd say count your blessings that you can downgrade and aren't stuck in an annual contract for travel, breakdown and mobile cover.  You can cancel immediately by downgrading the account.  

All fair points, Zanderman. 

Could I just state at this point I'm thinking slightly bigger picture here, on behalf of all of us, not only for my individual case. Might there be other readers who have suddenly realised the same thing and noticed their bank hasn't tried to offer them anything? Could we see Bank Charges Reclaiming v2.0?

Also I'm thinking along the lines of when some car insurance companies provided automatic refunds to account for less mileage usage as a sweetener and presumably to stop an influx of refund requests.

And if I remember rightly, a lot of annual travel insurance providers did offer pro-rata refunds for policies bought pre-COVID.

 Just food for thought.

darkh0rse

eskbanker said:
there were large volumes of people who went on holiday during summer 2020 

Lucky them! Ha!

eskbanker

darkh0rse said:

Also I'm thinking along the lines of when some car insurance companies provided automatic refunds to account for less mileage usage as a sweetener and presumably to stop an influx of refund requests.

And if I remember rightly, a lot of annual travel insurance providers did offer pro-rata refunds for policies bought pre-COVID.

There were certainly car insurance companies who offered a one-off token gesture in April 2020, on the basis that there was significantly less driving happening.

However, without knowing the details, my suspicion would be that travel insurers will conversely have become busier during the pandemic, as many more travellers sought recovery of costs for affected trips, so there would have been less scope for concessions there - I don't recall any providers offering pro rata refunds, do you have examples?

colsten

darkh0rse said:

Could I just state at this point I'm thinking slightly bigger picture here, on behalf of all of us, not only for my individual case. 

How can you think on behalf of others, without knowing the circumstances of all FlexPlus account holders? People may not be travelling in the pre-pandemic sense, but many might be key workers with kids in school, and who could benefit from breakdown cover and (family) mobile insurance. It is down to everyone to decide whether an account is still providing value for them - and if it isn't, it's a doddle to change to a more suitable account.