Making That Payment Protection Claim

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by: BTLewis
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Word Count: 467
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 Time: 3:48 AM
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Here's a joke - how many people have been affected by PPI mis-selling? Millions. That's the punch line. And it's not very funny.

Absolutely millions of people have been affected by the PPI scandal; victims at the hands of financial institutions which fraudulently duped them into taking out insurance that in some cases they didn't even want but in most cases definitely didn't need.

Payment Protection claims shot through the roof in 2011 after a major and decisive high court ruling, and the following years will mean tough times for many banks and their claims departments as they are continually flooded with mis-sold PPI compensation claims from individual claimants and independent services acting on their behalf (such as claims management companies/CMCs).

The extent of the damage done to each bank's reputation is not yet known, although they are certainly feeling the sting of having to give back billions of pounds in premiums plus interest to disgruntled customers.

The banks may take solace in the fact that some people may not even bother to claim (and therefore allow them to keep some of their ill-gotten gains) and also from the fact that it is difficult for a consumer to turn around and say: "right, they've ripped me off - I'm going to another bank". PPI mis-selling wasn't simply isolated to a few financial service providers - the vast majority of banks across the UK were involved in this far-reaching scandal, and an aggrieved customer's choice of where to go next is very limited.

By handling payment protection claims fairly and with the attention they deserve, banks may win back the trust of their customers. Coupled with the fact that many have succumbed to the High Court ruling in April 2011 in which they were ordered to speed up their claims procedures and stop trying to deny claims from already wronged customers, banks may help this to happen in the long run.

As banks deal with the fallout caused by their dubious, unethical and insincere tactics to extract unjustifiable amounts of money from their customers (a practice that didn't even stop during the tough times people faced when the recession hit), people who have been mis-sold PPI along with their loans, mortgages or credit cards over the past ten years should be enjoying the feeling of getting a cheque that fully reimburses them the money that is rightfully theirs.

If nothing else, it is comforting to think that bank customers will now be extra cautious and vigilant when checking the conditions of their insurance and/or banking contracts and agreements - one of the only truly good things to come from this whole mis-selling PPI debacle.

About the Author

Rhiannon Warner has been keeping an eye on the PPI fiasco for some time, writing for Claims Financial, one of the UK's leading claims management companies.