Marks & Spencer is to charge its bank customers up to £20 a month for a current account, the company has announced.

The high street retailer, which plans to open 50 bank branches by the end of 2013, said M&S premium account holders will have an automatic £500 overdraft, with the first £100 interest free.

The account also offers travel insurance and discount vouchers to be used in-store, while a similar account without insurance will cost £15 a month. There will be no debit card charges for ATM use abroad.

Kevin Mountford, head of banking at comparison site MoneySupermarket, said: “This is definitely a product from a brand that knows its customers.

“The new account launch will coincide with the launch of the M&S Money stores and they hope to capitalise on the recent wave of anti-bank sentiment.”

The account will not pay any credit interest but account holders will be able to open a saving account at a fixed rate of six per cent AER.

In June, M&S announced it was to launch in-store banking later this year, backed by HSBC, with the first branch to open at its flagship Marble Arch London store.

The bank branches will follow store opening hours, it said.

Many major banks offer packaged accounts which charge a monthly fee and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) estimates that a fifth of UK adults have one.

But the FSA warned recently that in some cases people are being sold accounts offering services that they do not use.

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