Many leading banks, insurers and energy companies are making existing customers pay to phone them while offering free numbers to new customers, consumer group Which? has found.
Mobile phone payment technology took another step forward with the launch of a scheme allowing people to take cash from an ATM without using their debit card.
Santander is offering a £50 sign-up bonus to university-goers who open a Student Current Account before 30 June, in a revival of the student cash bonus.
Lenders paid out £500 million compensation in March to victims of payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling, the highest single month of redress in 2012 .
RBS has set aside an additional £125 million to cover payment protection insurance (PPI) claims, as the realisation of the true scale of the mis-selling scandal grows by the day.