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Are You Doing All Of This To Maximise Your Cash In 2012?…

Filed Under: money saving tips by Steven — Leave a comment
January 4, 2012

With little sign of a miracle cure for our ailing economy, 2012 looks like another year of triple checking the best price and keeping those luxuries on hold. So in the spirit of cutting back and making your money work hard, we’ve put together a few tips to give your finances a new year’s resolution-style work out…

Pay as little tax as possible:

From April this year, you can place £300 more in a cash Isa, taking the yearly deposit limit to £5,640. Another trick is possible if you’re a couple and one partner doesn’t work; use their personal allowance rules to pay less tax by transferring savings into their name.

Use your unemployed partner

Save money around the home:

Try out that cheaper supermarket, switch to paperless billing on your utilities, install low energy bulbs, ask your gas/electric supplier about free insulation schemes, buy a draught-excluder (or use an old scarf), invest in thermostatic radiator valves (for slightly longer term savings), turn down your heating a degree or two and put on a jumper.

Wear a jumper

Cut the cost of your debts:

If your bank manager loves your credit rating then transfer credit card debts to a 0% or long-term low interest offering, it’s the obvious thing to do but it really can help with monthly outgoings. That said, you should always pay more than the minimum amount. Manageable debt is the norm but if things get heavy, remember you can always contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau or seek Consumer Credit Counselling on 0800 138 1111.

Make the most of a happy bank manager

Get rid of ‘fear products’ that you don’t need:

Ditch that expensive mobile phone insurance as your home insurance usually covers it, credit card and ID fraud is often covered by the card provider and both of these may be covered by perks on your current account. The big one you need to look at is Payment Protection Insurance, not only can you save money by switching to a better-suited policy but you can also claim a full refund of all the payments you’ve ever paid towards it, going back years.

This is because it’s been mis sold and lenders are refunding those who make PPI claims. Our highest refund payout was to William Robb, who received £32,799.63 back in June 2011 from his lender, in fact since then William has also won back a further £28,000!! Imagine that being transferred into your bank account and all you have to do is start a claim.

'Robb' your lender! William Robb has received over £60,000 in mis sold PPI refunds, so far. You can claim too!

So…

…now you know a few more ways to help maximise the money in your pocket and make it work as hard as possible in 2012. If you want to add any other tips or ideas, feel free to make a comment below and share it with our readers!

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Statements from Claims Management Firms to be Wary Of

Filed Under: Latest PPI News by Kalen — Leave a comment
January 1, 2012

Many customers have  received a number of cold calls from claims management firms. However, these firms have made a number of erroneous claims that you shouldn’t take at face value. Here are a few of the claims that you need to be aware of:

  1. They only know some of your details. Most notably, many unscrupulous claims management firms don’t usually look heavily into the details of the applicants they are speaking with. Many claims management firms tell their prospective customers right away that they are eligible for a claim. However, all many of these firms know is that the customer purchased a plan. The customer may have sold the mortgage or other financial plan the PPI plan was attached to. In actuality, the claims management firms may not even know if the plan was ever purchased at all. Anytime the firm fails to do its due diligence, you should be wary. They are likely either incompetent or dishonest.
  2. They make false promises. Another problem with many PPI claims management firms is that they make false promises to their targets. For example, they may say that they can guarantee a claim. They may also tell you that they will be able to expedite your claim and get you your money back faster. There is no way they can make this promise. No claims management firm has any control over the procedures of the turnaround times of a PPI repayment.
Using a PPI claims management firm can be a good idea. However, you should make sure you understand what you are looking for. You need to have a clear understanding of the firm you are going to be working with. You should be wary of any firm that cold calls you.
Always make sure that you can research the firm carefully. Get the name of the company and ask for a track record of the company. At the very least, you want to make sure you can identify who you are talking to. Cold callers often aren’t who they claim to be.
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Ministry of Justice Going After PPI Claims Fraud

Filed Under: ppi claims by Kalen — Leave a comment
January 1, 2012

Apparently there is no shortage of institutions willing to take advantage of customers who have been mis-sold PPI claims. As customers struggle to get their money back from the big banks,they are flocking to PPI claims management firms. These firms are setup to help customers get their money back. Or so it would seem.

Unfortunately, many confidence men are trying to take advantage of the desperate customers trying to get their money back after being mis-sold PPI claims. According to undercover journalists, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that illicit companies offering fake PPI management services are scamming customers out of billions of dollars.

The Ministry of Justice is cracking down on these companies and trying to shut them all down. However, they also advocate that customers use common sense when being solicited for these services.

One of the biggest problems with PPI mis-sellings is that customers are unable to identify these predators. According to reporters who went undercover as customers looking to receive PPI refunds in their efforts to expose the massive PPI racket, these firms have made a number of different claims to mislead them.

One of the scam artists told the undercover reporter that he already knew all the details of her personal life. Obviously, he would have hung up if he even sensed he was speaking to a reporter. Another caller even went so far as to tell the reporter that the only way they could get a refund was by using his services.

The Ministry of Justice issued a statement that they have a team of investigators looking at all companies involved in these scams. As the regulatory body that oversees claims management firms, the Ministry will ban all firms that are caught lying to customers.

Meanwhile, customers are warned to be wary of anyone making such claims. They should hang up on cold callers and be aware of the claims process. Understanding the claims process will help them identify any misleading statements these firms may be making. For example, some firms have promised that they can speed up the claims process. This is a complete fabrication and something that customers shouldn’t work with any firm that makes it.

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PPI Claim Issues With NWS Trust

Filed Under: mis-sold ppi by Kalen — Leave a comment
December 21, 2011

One consumer wrote to This is Money asking for advice on a problem related to a payment protection plan they purchased through NWS Trust and Black Horse. This customer believed that they were mis-sold a PPI plan and wanted to receive a refund. However, the person from NWS Trust and Black Horse wrote back with some very frustrating news.

They advised that they did not have a copy of the agreement on file. Therefore, they could not do much to help them. Fortunately, if you are in a similar situation, you should know that you aren’t going to be left high and dry.

NWS Trust and Black Horse is owned by Lloyds. NWS took over Black Horse back in 2010 when Lloyds decided to close all the offices. Therefore, NWS now is responsible for all of the PPI packages that were formerly owned by Black Horse.

You will need to contact someone at NWS Trust if you are looking for a PPI refund. There is a center in Chester, which belongs to the Bank of Scotland, which is a division of Lloyds.

This has created a number of headaches for some people who have held accounts with the Bank of Scotland for nearly three decades. When they set these accounts up back in those days, they probably had no idea that they were going to have to deal with these PPI claims today. Over time, they have likely forgotten about the PPI claims they took out or where they picked them up. Financial packages and obligations are often sold and re-sold so many times it becomes difficult to keep track of them.

Fortunately, you can almost always trace the originator of the PPI package to the company that oversees it. Afterwards, it is merely a matter of filing your refund claim and waiting to get your money back.

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PPI Funds Fizzle in UK but Flourish in the Mainland

Filed Under: Latest PPI News by Kalen — Leave a comment
December 18, 2011

Citizens throughout the UK are furious over the way banks and other financial institutions have sold PPI claims. However, as payment protection insurance loses favor throughout the UK, it also continues to gain attention throughout mainland Europe. Citizens are purchasing payment protection insurance for both loan and credit card debt.

In fact, throughout nearly two dozen European countries, PPI claims are worth nearly 11 billion euros. Granted, the value of PPI plans have dropped slightly over the past four years, but the drop is barely noticeable. More significantly, the drop in the total value of PPI plans was largely due to the fact that UK citizens decided to shed nearly 3 billion euros worth of the plans. Factoring UK plans out of the plan, the value of all PPI plans in the other 19 countries in the eurozone increased from 7.31 billion euros to 9.99 billion euros.

The demand for PPI plans in the rest of Europe have increased by nearly 40% since 2007. According to these reports from Finaccord, the demand for PPI packages is definitely growing in Europe. They would like an explanation for the discrepancy between the demand for payment protection insurance in the UK and the mainland. Is it possible that other countries have developed a better and more sustainable system for making PPI work for them?

According to their studies, France has developed the best approach for selling PPI plans. Finaccord suggests that banks from other countries look towards France’s approach to selling the products to get a better idea for selling the products. French law requires that banks advise their customers that they have additional options for purchasing PPI packages. This encourages customers to look into other options and minimizes the chances of being defrauded.

Critics within the UK suggest that their government look into the way France regulates PPI packages. This may give them some insight into how to better regulate these packages and minimize the risk of developing another massive case of PPI fraud that could cost customers hundreds of billions of dollars.

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Banks Criticized for Offering Bonuses After PPI Mis-Sellings

Filed Under: Latest PPI News by Kalen — Leave a comment
December 16, 2011

A few days ago, it was revealed that Lloyds Banking Group can take back part of the one and a half million pound bonus offered to its CEO. As a state-backed bank, Lloyds has the flexibility to do this. However, it has also created a controversy with other banks and the bonuses they have offered to their executives.

Critics are placing a lot of pressure on other banks to consider revoking the bonuses issued to their executives as well. Following the scandals many banks have participated in regarding the payment protection insurance mis-sellings, many people feel sickened by the idea that banking executives should take bonuses.

Lloyds may be the crack in the dam that will cause other banks to cave in on the pressure. Considering the British government owns nearly half of Lloyds Banking Group, the bonus to CEO Eric Daniels is more concerning to them. The bank posted an end of the year loss after it was required to set aside 3.2 billion pounds to compensate customers who had been missold PPI packages. British taxpayers are particularly upset that they are being asked to pay a bonus to the CEO of a bank that has not only engaged in controversial PPI sellings, but has also failed to post a profit.

This may be the first time a major lender has considered withholding compensation to an executive. However, this is a serious case and customer tensions are high. Anthony Watson is coordinating the remuneration committee. Watson realizes the need to conduct a thorough investigation and consider all aspects of a decision.

Daniels’s bonus is intended to be paid out through shares of stock. According to FSA rules, these shares will not be available to him for another 15 months. Therefore, any part of the bonus that has not yet been paid out may be revoked at any time. After considering all implications and ensuring any decision is in lines with the policies of the FSA, the board of the remuneration commission will announce a decision.

Of course, a number of critics argue that it was inappropriate to pay Daniels a bonus at all. The previous Treasury spokesman, Lord Oakeshott, has said that bonuses paid to other executives should be reevaluated and possibly revoked as well. Oakeshott said that it is appalling that any chief executive “responsible for this gross consumer mis-selling scandal should have been paid a bonus.”

Lloyd’s chairman, Sir Win Bischoff, was the first to bring up the possibility of revoking the bonuses paid to Daniels and the other Lloyd executives. The remuneration board has not announced a date of a possible decision, but one is anticipated in the near future.

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Customers Mis-sold PPI Insurance Will Pay Taxes on Their Compensation

Filed Under: Latest PPI News by Kalen — Leave a comment
December 15, 2011

Millions of customers have won settlements against the banks and other financial institutions that have mis-sold them payment protection insurance (PPI) packages. However, these customers are in for a rude awakening come tax season. On December 4, it was revealed that these customers will have to pay significant taxes on their compensation.

Collectively, these customers will be forced to pay the treasury 350 million pounds. The average customer will receive 1,240 pounds for their settlement. This will incur a tax of 48 pounds, but many customers will be taxed much higher for their compensation. According to sources, some customers will be stuck paying thousands of pounds in compensation on their earnings.

Customers who were mis-sold PPI packages can claim up to six years worth of payments on the policies, along with 8 percent interest. Under the law, the interest earned on the repayment can be taxed. Some of these customers have paid up 16,000 pounds for payments and interest. The Treasury’s 20% tax rate will obligate them to pay over 1,500 pounds in taxes.

Customer advocates feel these policies are extremely unfair and insist the banks pay the taxes. Even though customers feel they have won a victory over the banks, these groups insist that is not the case. These banks have taken billions of dollars from customers through mis-sold payment protection insurance claims. During that time, they lent that money out to customers, sometimes at rates of nearly 30 percent. Therefore, the banks are still making substantial profits after repaying customers, even with the 8 percent interest.

According to one customer advocate, these taxes just add salt on the wound of customers who have already been victimized by these financial institutions.

Fortunately, there may be a few other solutions. According to a representative for HM Revenue and Customs, customers do not generally need to pay taxes on PPI repayments. However, interest is taxable. The spokesman said this concept makes sense. If customers never paid the banks for a payment protection insurance policy and invested their money in an interest bearing account instead, they would be taxed on that interest.

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Merry Christmas From All Of Us At PPIRefundsUK.co.uk

Filed Under: Latest PPI News by Steven — Leave a comment
December 14, 2011

It’s Christmas! And to celebrate we’ve put a tree up and spent the staff party budget on two inflatable festive personalities. In fact, we’re so pleased with the Christmas decorations; we took a picture to show you…

ppi claims compensation

Christmas in the PPIRefundsUK office!

Looks good, right? And believe it or not, that Robin isn’t even real! It’s actually a beautiful card sent into us by one of our customers, Mona. Mona made a claim through our PPI refund service and our expert claim adviser Alex helped her get a refund right before Christmas!

Inside the card was a lovely note to Alex, reading: “Thank you for your help and kindness to me in helping me with the PPI refunds claim.” Alex was kind enough to let us pop a few pictures up of the card and we send a whole-hearted thank you and Merry Christmas to Mona and her family!

mis sold ppi claims

We just love helping wonderful people get their money back

 

If you’re thinking about starting a PPI claim, we’ll be accepting new cases up until this Friday 16th December so either call us today on 0800 840 72 92 or fill out the form on the home page. And whether you celebrate Christmas or not, may you have a wonderful festive season and a happy new year from everyone at PPIRefundsUK.co.uk.

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So, what does one Trillion dollars (£650 bn) look like?

Filed Under: Latest PPI News by Steven — Leave a comment
December 8, 2011

Do you remember what you were doing on Wednesday 8th October 2008 at 11am? Probably not, but you may recall what was going on at Whitehall. At 11.04am on the 8th October 2008 the UK Government picked up a pen and wrote out £650 billion in cheques to keep the country afloat.

trillion dollar bank bail out

There'd be a lot less to talk about if a trillion looked like this

£650 billion. That’s one trillion dollars, or in numbers: $1,000,000,000,000. It’s a ridiculous amount of money and hard to imagine what it would look like, but thankfully someone’s been awesome and done a series of graphics.

Take a look at the link below, it’s a brilliant illustration of what $1 trillion dollars looks like compared to smaller amounts and shows clearly just how much of a hit our country’s economy took to keep reckless, careless, morally vacuous banking establishments afloat… what a bank bail out looks like

Once you’ve had a butchers at that, come back here and we’ll show you what the current outstanding US national debt looks like. It’s more impressive (scary) than the UK amount, plus we haven’t quite finished that visual yet! Eye-popping US debt visual.

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Mis sold PPI, Mis sold Investment Bonds, Unfair Charges – Is Banking Self Regulation Working?

Filed Under: Latest PPI News by Steven — Leave a comment
December 5, 2011

Yes! The system works. No really, banks regulating themselves really works and we’ve more proof of it this week as yet another fine was issued, this time to one of our trusted high street financial institutions. HSBC has been fined £10.5m by the Financial Services Authority for mis-selling investment bonds to elderly people in care.

It fills you with pride doesn’t it, the UK banking system allowing companies to mis sell financial products to elderly people in care, even worse; the products that were mis sold were supposed to fund care costs. A total of 2,485 customers of NHFA, a HSBC subsidiary, were advised to invest, with 87% being sold an unsuitable product.

mis sold ppi claims

The subsidiary has been closed down as "HSBC no longer feels is consistent with its main banking business"

The investments were sold between 2005 and 2010, to people with an average age of 83 who were already in care, or entering long-term care, each customer invested an average of £115,000 intended to fund future care costs.

“Contrary to everything we stand for”

Speaking about the mis selling, Brian Robertson, chief executive of HSBC Bank, said: “I fully accept that NHFA failed to give suitable financial advice to some of their customers”

He added: “This should not have happened and I am profoundly sorry that it did. We have high values here at HSBC and this runs contrary to everything that we stand for. That is why when we suspected something was not right at NHFA, we took action.”

Lets hope other banks are as honest

The most worrying aspect of this case, aside from a financial adviser taking over £100,000 each off around 2000 elderly people, all of whom need the money to pay for their care, is that if HSBC hadn’t fessed up to the mis selling it may never have been punished. HSBC said it identified problems at NHFA, closed the subsidiary to new business in July, and alerted the FSA. Let’s hope other Banks are as honest after they are so completely dishonest, otherwise they’re all dishonest and that is simply unthinkable.

HSBC will pay £29.3m compensation to the families of victims and will be contacting those affected.

Other Recent Fines (November)

- £6.3m: Private bank Coutts fined for describing AIG bonds as low-risk

- £5.95m: UK arm of Credit Suisse fined for advice failures when selling complex financial products

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