Banks And Credit Cards Companies Agree To Make Ppi Claims Simpler
On Monday (23/04/12) consumer champion Which? and Money Saving Expert took on the banks and credit card companies over PPI refunds - and won.
From now on, banks and credit card companies are going to simplify and make clearer the process of making a claim for Personal Protection Insurance (PPI) - so that consumers diddled out of thousands of pounds through paying premiums on insurance policies (which some consumers didn't even know they had) can apply directly to the institution which "mis-sold" the policy to them in the first place (much politer than "diddled").
If you had to take a deep breath after reading that, its understandable.
Banks and credit card companies suddenly concerned about the consumer being able to claim money back off them? (Estimated at the last click of the virtual abacus to be somewhere in the region of 9 billion.)
What was agreed this week is that:
- Banks and credit card companies will call for tighter regulation of claims companies
- Consumers who believe they were mis-sold PPI can claim compensation by writing to the financial institution concerned, rather than make a claim through a PPI claims company
- Complaints procedures across the banking and credit industry will be standardised
- Banks and credit card companies will explain to customers why they do not need a PPI claims company to help them make a claim.
PPI problem solved then. No, actually.
A meeting is schedule between the consumer champions and representatives from claims companies - and the body which regulates most claims companies (the Claims Standards Council) has thrown a spanner into the works by pointing out that many consumers trying to drag their PPI payments back out of a bank vault might actually not find the procedure as "clear and simple" as we would all like.
Step forward Anthony Sultan of the Claims Standards Council:
"We routinely find that banks do not pay the full amount of compensation to the consumer. They short-changed them - only by doing some fairly complex calculations can you work out what the consumer is actually entitled to."
There is no doubt that some unscrupulous claims companies charged too much, drummed up custom by bombarding consumers with unsolicited phone calls or emails - and promised much more than they delivered.
Not all claims companies are like that - and unless consumers are given the choice of how they handle the PPI claims process, those who feel unable to handle making a claim for themselves may simply lose the opportunity.
There is a limited time to make a PPI claim - The Financial Services Authority supports PPI refunds and has extended the deadline for making claims.
Protecting consumers and making the claims process clearer and simpler - as well as fair - is something all companies should strive for.
But in the case of PPI, who mis-sold the policies and profited from them in the first place?
That would be the banks and the credit card companies.
To make enquiries about a PPI claim handled on a No win No fee basis, call PPI Refund 4 Me.co.uk on 0800 044 5196.
We are regulated by the Ministry of Justice and in November 2011, we had 350,000-worth of claims successes.
Next month, one of our PPI claim successes could be yours.
by: Nik Jones
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