2012: The Year of PPI...Again

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by: BTLewis
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Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 Time: 9:02 AM
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It's 2012, and today is a good day to start a claim for mis-sold PPI.

Over the last few years, banks in the UK have been inundated with mis-sold PPI complaints from angry customers, each claiming that the PPI policy (which was sold to them by one of their respective bank's employees) was unfair, and that they are therefore owed back a whole bunch of premiums (plus interest).

The banks haven't really got a leg to stand on, and it's time they held their hands up and admitted their error (or well-calculated scam strategy), particularly as there is an overwhelming amount of evidence pointing to the fact that they were making customers pay insurance premiums for a policy that turned out to be as useless as a knife in a gunfight.
There are a number of ways that the PPI could have been mis-sold to you, and some of the more common methods are as follows:

A) Failed to check whether you were eligible for the policy
B) Coerced you into taking it
C) Failed to inform you that it was being added to your mortgage, loan or credit card automatically
D) Ignored your medical history when you tried to tell them
E) Ignored the fact that you had another insurance policy in place (maybe from your workplace) which protected you in the event that you suffered an illness, got into an accident, died or lost your job.

To make a claim, an aggrieved customer can take it upon themselves to send their bank an angry PPI letter of complaint, and use the Financial Ombudsman Service in case their initial claim is rejected, or they can solicit the assistance of a Claims Management Company (CMC) to get into the ring with the banks and slug it out for rightful compensation.

Claims Management Companies
CMCs will usually work on a no win no fee basis and charge a percentage of the winnings, so it is important to check how much they are expecting from you and any clauses they may have in their terms and conditions involving court costs and legal fees, as you obviously don't want to be ripped off again.

There are a number of CMCs in the market right now, many of which sprang up simply to capitalise on the PPI debacle. The sheer number of them make choosing a little difficult so make sure that it is a reputable company and not simply one offering what looks like the cheapest deal.

Make sure they don't use any hard-sell tactics on you or tell you that you can get more money back with them than by other means because this just isn't the case, and if they act pushy or strange then they most probably are as fraudulent as the banks who mis-sold you the PPI in the first place.

A decent CMC will be well-versed in the PPI claims process - and will probably have a long history of handling other claims - so it only requires you to be patient and wait to receive the money should they win. For a fee this could definitely save someone the hassle, time and frustration of dealing with banks disputing their rightful claims.

About the Author

Bryan Lewis has been following the PPI scandal for some time, writing for one of the UK's leading claims management companies.