Millions of bank customers could be hit with £100 fee under new rules - how to avoid

Banks are now required to reimburse customers who've been tricked into handing over money to fraudsters - but there's a catch

A shake-up of rules requiring banks to reimburse customers who've been tricked by fraudsters has today come into effect. Banks have been told they must act unless it is proved customers were "grossly negligent" in their actions.

Under the new rules, banks must reimburse victims of authorised push payments (APP). A cap of £85,000 has been implemented on the scheme after reimbursements were initially set to go as high as £415,000, although banks can exceed the former limit if they wish.

But banks will be able to set a £100 excess fee for customers settling claims, meaning customers will have to pay it as part of the process. The excess policy has been adopted by five banks but only four banks - TSB, Virgin Money, AIB and Nationwide - have said they won't apply the charge, reports The Sun.

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Meanwhile five banks, Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Halifax, First Direct and Lloyds, have said fraud claims of below £100 won't be covered. With the excess fee policy in place, it means it might not be worth claiming back on claims of £100.

However, under the Payment Systems Regulator's (PSR) rules, vulnerable customers cannot be made to pay the £100 excess fee. Liz Edwards, money expert at Finder, said: "£100 is a lot of money to many people. It doesn't help that 12 banks said they might apply it - customers don't know where they stand."