Earlier today, I searched Google for the words “bank” and “rip off” and found around 160,000 results for UK-based websites, including several of my own articles.

Indeed, as I explained in A Tale Of Two Bankers, the days of bank managers in bowler hats are long gone. Nowadays, many bank managers are glorified salesmen, under constant pressure from head office to meet ever-higher sales targets. Other than banking staff, who most detests these sales targets? The banks’ customers, of course, who are constantly bombarded with unwanted sales pitches in branches and by telephone and post!

Alas, the products which banks desperately try to force on us are pretty ropey, too. In these six sections, I examine their most dreadful deals:

1) Bad Bank Accounts

We want two things from a bank account: a decent rate of interest paid on our balances while we’re in credit, plus reasonable interest and other charges when we’re forced to borrow or inadvertently slip into the red. However, what the vast majority of us have is a current account which pays a pathetic 0.1% a year before tax on credit balances, which works out at £1 per £1,000 of funds per year before tax. Furthermore, a typical current account charges interest of 15% to 30% a year on debit balances, plus ridiculously high penalties for exceeding any overdraft limit.

I was a guest at the annual Moneyfacts Awards on 9 June, where 26 Best Buy awards were handed out to deserving winners. Alliance & Leicester won both awards for Best Current Account Provider (credit interest and debit interest) for its market-leading Premier Direct current account. This pays 5% AER on credit balances up to £2,500, plus offers a 0% overdraft for a year, then 5.9% AER. Other short-listed providers included Cahoot and Smile, which you’ll also find in our Banking centre. Why put up with pests when you can have the best?

2) Cruel Credit Cards

A few years ago, I took to calling credit cards WMDs (Weapons of Money Destruction), thanks to their ability to harm the hands that use them! Here’s a short summary of the worst tricks played by our plastic (there’s more about plastic ploys in How Credit Cards Rip Us Off):

a) sky-high standard interest rates, averaging over 15% a year, as I revealed here;

b) murderous minimum monthly repayments, which lead to a lifelong debt;

c) rip-off payment protection insurance, on which we waste a £1 billion a year;

d) punitive fines for late payment and so on, which are being reduced at this very moment;

e) credit-card cheques charging rip-off fees and interest rates;

f) excessive cash-withdrawal charges; and

g) sneaky overseas-usage fees.

You can learn how to beat the system in How To Master Your Credit Cards, but the golden rule is simple: choose the right card for the right job, for example, for spending, borrowing or cashback. Make a start today by checking out the cracking cards in the Fool’s Credit Card centre.

3) Inferior Insurance

In the Nineties, I came up with my Rule of Three, which states that a Don’t Buy product costs roughly three times as much as its Best Buy rivals. In some cases, the multiple can be even higher, with travel insurance from tour operators being five (even ten) times as expensive as the top policies.

My Rule of Three works in most areas of personal finance, but works particularly well when it comes to buying insurance. To be blunt, if you buy life, health, motor, home or travel insurance from a high-street bank, you’re going to get mugged, because they usually charge as much, not as little, as they can for this cover. Your best bet is to shop around online for quality quotes and lower premiums: start with a visit to the Fool’s Insurance centre.

4) Miserable Mortgages

Which interest rate would you rather pay on your home loan: 6.5% or 4.5% a year? The former is the typical standard variable rate charged by leading mortgage lenders, which is paid by borrowers who don’t have a special-rate deal. The latter rate (4.5%) is roughly what you’d pay with a Best Buy fixed- or discounted-rate mortgage.

A reduction of two percentage points may not sound like such a big deal, but it translates into a £1,800-a-year saving on an interest-only mortgage of £90,000, which is a serious saving. However, choosing a new mortgage is far from easy, thanks to an array of upfront and exit fees, plus other pitfalls to beware of. My advice is to employ a reputable, no-fee mortgage broker to search the whole market for you (all 8,500 mortgages!), such as award-winning Fool Partner London & Country Mortgages.

5) Poor Personal Loans

Earlier this month, I showed that borrowing £5,000 over three years could cost you £1,000 too much if you choose the wrong unsecured personal loan. My survey of 79 personal loans proved conclusively that the worst place to find a personal loan is on the high street, and the best approach is to search online for Best Buy loans. However, don’t start shopping around until you’ve read my twelve tips on how to find the perfect personal loan.

6) Substandard Savings Accounts

Here’s a simple rule which I’ve used for years to weigh up savings accounts. Take the Bank of England’s base rate (currently 4.5% a year) and add 0.5%, and then compare this total (5% at present) to the interest rate paid by your savings accounts. If your savings aren’t earning interest at this level, then you’re missing a trick.

If you’d like to improve the returns generated by your spare cash or nest egg, read Your Ultimate Guide To Saving and check out the delightful deals in the Fool’s Savings centre.

That’s almost it from me, apart from one final piece of advice: keep your wits about you when your bank offers you a “great deal”, because it will almost always fall short of your expectations!