Martin Lewis has urged people to check their bank accounts after misleading cashback adverts from a costly monthly subscription were banned.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has taken action against a number of pop-up adverts from Complete Savings, which is owned by shopper reward programme Webloyalty. These pop-ups urge the shopper “to claim the above reward, credited onto your card, when you next place an order” - but underneath in small text, it explains that you’ll need to sign up to a loyalty scheme to get the cashback.

Complete Savings costs £18 a month and in some cases, additional purchases are needed to get the cashback. Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert.com team argued that the adverts imply cashback is credited without having to sign up to a scheme. The adverts investigated by the ASA appeared on the websites of retailers Domino’s Pizza, Papa John’s, Moonpig, Asda and Trainline.

The ASA agreed it was not clear to customers that the pop-ups were coming from a third party, and that by clicking “continue” some people would have thought they were finalising their transaction with the retailer. It also agreed that customers could be led to believe that they had earned a free cashback reward based on the order they had just placed.

Martin said: “These adverts are misleading and I've had people send me complaints about them for years – so I'm proud of my team who've finally got them taken down, at least in this iteration – and we will continue to monitor it. Too many people are caught out by quickly seeing, then clicking the 'Click here to claim your £20.87 cashback, paid on your card' button – which people interpret as a reward for shopping, rather than the reality, which is an £18 a month subscription scheme.”

Martin has urged anyone who may have signed up to one of these schemes to check for recurring payments on their bank statement. MSE said this could appear as WLY*COMPLETESAVE.CO.UK, COMPLETESAVE.CO.UK, CASH.COMPLETESAVE.CO.UK, GO2.COMPLETESAVE.CO.UK or COMPLETESAVE.CO.UK.

You can cancel your Complete Savings subscription by emailing Complete Savings' complaint team or by calling 0800 389 6960. It may also be worth complaining to Complete Savings if you feel you were misled into signing up. As a result of the ruling, Webloyalty must make future marketing communications clearer for shoppers. A spokesperson for Complete Savings said: "Prior to the Council's decision, we had already amended our marketing to make our messaging even clearer and will continue to work to ensure our communications align with the Council's guidance."