Testimonial
I am in receipt and thank you for the enclosed cheque..
Mrs A. Dorris

Category: ppi claims


The number of allegations of PPI fraud have increased substantially over the past few months. Between October and December of 2011, the number of PPI claims increased by more than 50%. Within those three months, the number of customers claiming they were mis-sold PPI reached a staggering 30,301.

As concerning as that number of claims is, it only represents a third of al the claims received over the course of 2011. Many experts are concerned that nearly 100,000 PPI claims have been issued over the past year.

Although the number of claims issued increased substantially, not as many are being successfully raised by consumers. Between July and September, almost all of the claims that were raised were made in favor of customers. In more recent months, only a little more than two-thirds of these claims were made in the customers behalf.

The growing number of concerns continues to raise some questions over the practice of using PPI claims by large financial institutions. About 6.5 million PPI packages are issued each year. However, almost 1 million people complained with banks and other financial institutions last year about the way those claims were sold or how they were structured.

The Financial Ombudsman is concerned about how much it costs to handle all of the PPI cases coming to its desks. Therefore, it has proposed issuing a fee for all firms receiving more than 25 cases each year. This fee would include both a supplemental and standard case fee, which would collectively amount to £850.

According to the chief financial ombudsman, the Ombudsman is facing steeper expenses over handling these PPI claims than ever before. They are going to have to find a way to manage them, as the PPI caseloads over the course of 2012 and 2013 are expected to make up 60% of the cases they Ombudsman has to oversee. It is estimated that they will need to deal with approximately 165,000 PPI cases over the course of the next two years.

However, she cautions that there is no way of predicting exactly how many claims they are likely to receive over the next couple of years. That figure could be significantly higher or lower, depending on trends with PPI and developments in the market.

 

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.

After fighting a long, hard battle, many customers were excited when banks finally were forced to start repaying customers who filed PPI claims. However, their excitement quickly dwindled when their payments didn’t come on time.

In accordance with their agreement with customers, banks were supposed to pay their customers within 28 days from the filing of a claim. However, these payments are not being made on time. The banks themselves are willing to acknowledge that they have failed to meet this deadline. At least four banks have acknowledged that they have failed to make payments within the 28 days specified in the agreement.

Customers from Lloyds TSB are particularly concerned. Despite the 28 day promises offered by Lloyds, their customers may be forced to wait months before they have the opportunity to get their money back.

The massive PPI fraud has caused millions of people purchasing PPI packages they either didn’t want or couldn’t use. Earlier in the year, banks ignored a number of PPI claims that came across their desks. As a result, they ended up creating a backlog of unpaid claims that needed to be resolved.

After a series of legal proceedings, the banks were ordered to work through the backlog by the end of August. Even though the banks set aside billions to deal with all claims that arose, they were not able to get their issues sorted out in that time.

Some of the banks satisfied the terms of the settlement. In fact, nearly 20 banks throughout the UK paid over 200 million pounds by the deadline. The names of these banks were kept anonymous. Many consumer protection groups criticized this practice as a clear attempt to protect the identities of the banks that failed to make their payments by the deadline.

Customer protection groups have filed a request for this information. However, regulators assert that turning over the names of the banks that failed to make their PPI payments on time would be unfairly prejudicial towards the banks and could damage their brand image.

The banks continue to insist they are doing everything they can to get the claims paid off. Although they acknowledge that they have missed their deadlines, they also said they are doing everything they can to pay them off within a reasonable turnaround time.

According to Amy Ellis from the Post, PPI complaints have dropped significantly. Over the past year, the financial claims have dropped by about 38%. This drop is almost enough to offset the increase in PPI claims that were filed at the beginning of the year.

This finding is another piece of evidence that shows banks are finally starting to take PPI claims more seriously. According to data from the Financial Ombudsman, the PPI uphold rate now stands at 92%. Banks have started to agree with these findings and acknowledged their were problems with the findings.

Earlier this year, Barclays said it would refund all customers who filed claims before April 20. Representatives from the bank said they want to make things right by all customers who were mis-sold PPI packages.

Banks have started to address many of the issues associated with PPI claims, but they still have a ways to go before they are fully resolved. Many customers are still upset with Barclays and a few other banks. At this time, the majority of customer complaints are centered around PPI claims.

Phillipa Handyside said the news is encouraging. However, companies in the PPI industry still have not done enough to resolve these issues and have a lot of work ahead of them. Handyside said that much of the drop in claims is attributed more to marketing tactics from the PPI firms than the efforts they are taking to resolve the problems themselves.

Also, many claims are being settled out of court. As the PPI firms want to generate positive publicity, they are taking whatever steps they can to make it look as if they are handling the problems. Handyside said that they will do whatever they can to settle claims and implement a marketing program that will emphasize the progress. These firms know that the chance of defending a PPI claim against the Financial Ombudsman is very low. Therefore, they are going to do whatever they can to reduce the number of claims that make their way to the FOS’s desks.

Also, many groups such as Watchdog are looking into the problems with the ways PPI companies are selling their packages. These problems have created a lot of bad publicity for the PPI industry. Even more problematic is the fact that many PPI companies are enduring bad publicity because of the errors of other companies.

Although the report from the Financial Ombudsman looks encouraging, the number of PPI missellings is still something that needs to be addressed. However, the fact that these companies are at least trying to find way to deal with these problems in one way or another is an indication that things are going to improve.

It’s Halloween, so we’re jumping on the band-wagon and doing a ghoulish post full of gorey details. We’re going to lift the (coffin) lid on the top 5 ways to save money and get the best deal when making PPI claims, ignore it at your peril, muhahahahahaha! Here’s the juicy stuff:

1. Don’t pay a fee up front – there’s no need. If you’re thinking about making a mis sold PPI claim, don’t ever pay a fee up front. Real solicitors never need to do it as they’ll get their fee when they win, there are plenty of no win no fee PPI claim companies out there – like us!

2. You can claim yourself – Most claims companies won’t want to tell you this but we’ll never hide it from you. You can take on your bank alone and make an official complaint to the Financial Ombudsman, it’s free to do it but you’ll need to put aside some time, effort and plenty of patience; you’re dealing with banks after all!

mis sold ppi claims

Watch out for money vampires (not all of them wear capes)

3. Make sure the PPI claims company pays for paperwork – If you don’t have your original loan or credit card agreement, you’ll need to get hold of it. Your lender is legally allowed to charge up to £10 to send the agreement out to you (and most will), but we’ll pay this fee for you if we handle your claim. Every solicitor should take care of this cost, if they don’t – walk away.

4. Keep call costs free – In the UK you have the right to seek justice at no cost, if you’re considering using a PPI claims company, make sure they have a freephone number and a mobile-friendly number. Ensure they have an address, email, company number and MOJ authorisation number while you’re at it – if you can’t see any of this on their site, they should be happy to give it you over the phone. If not – you know what to do.

5. Reclaim unfair charges as well – You may have heard of unfair charges being levied against financial consumers, your chosen PPI claims company should handle a refund of these as well. It makes sense for them to do it if they’re looking through your statements and asking your lender for money back. We do!

And there we have it, 5 shockingly good ways to get a better PPI claims service and save money on costs while you’re at it. Remember – it’s a scary world out there, look out for money vampires!

Barclays, Lloyds and Santander are all receiving a lot of criticism in Britain right now. More customers are complaining about Barclays in particular than any other bank in the country. The complaints are mostly attributed to cases of customers being improperly sold payment protection insurance (PPI).

A spokesperson from Lloyd said that their claims would have dropped over the last half of 2010 if complaints regarding PPI claims weren’t raised. Instead, the bank experienced a 6,000 increase in PPI claims.

On the other hand, Barclays feels that they are in a good position to reduce their complaints. To date, they have already reduced their clams by about a third. However, Antony Jenkins the head of Barclays retail and banking unit said they still have a lot of work to do. They are going to take time to address all complaints regarding PPI claims and other problems customers are experiencing.

Back in June, Barclays stated that it will give all customers who filed claims that they had been mis-sold PPI before new regulations were passed on April 20 would be compensated. Barclays said this was a desire to make things right with all customers who bought PPI plans they never intended to purchase. Barclay even added that it would compensate these customers with interest. They still would make due on their promise to repay any customers who made claims after April 20, but they would have to wait up to four months.

Jenkins said that Barclay’s customers are the most important aspect of the bank’s business. They are going to do everything possible to make them happy and deliver quality services to them. The act of goodwill was expected to help Barclay’s regain some of their trust. Unfortunately, the bogus PPI claims are still a problem and customers continue to get nervous.

The number of complaints towards all banks in the UK have dropped over 20% during the first half of 2011. However, the amount of complaints regarding PPI has actually increased by almost the exact same amount. This demonstrates that banks are doing more to address many of their problems, but payment protection insurance continues to be an issue for them.

The biggest concern that banking customers have with PPI is the number of loopholes that banks can use to get out of their obligations. Customers want to have peace of mind knowing that any of their debt obligations will be paid off if they face personal difficulties. Unfortunately, the fine print on the PPI contract is often too confusing for them to figure out. Since customers don’t understand how PPI really works, many purchase insurance that won’t satisfy their needs.

Over the first half of 2011, £215m was paid to people who unintentionally purchased payment protection insurance. Many customers are clearly fed up with the stipulations banks can use to get out of their PPI claims.

 

People are being warned by Police and Trading standards to be aware of false PPI claims companies that are contacting the public. The warnings come after sadly one pensioner was scammed out of £8000 after being told he was owed a PPI refund.

The same thing also happened to Alan Shutter who was called by a company calling themselves UKASH. The 54 year old was told he was owed thousands of pounds as he had been mis-sold a PPI policy, he was told all he needed to do was to transfer £150 to the company as an upfront payment and they would claim back the money for him. However when the company asked for a further £140 for tax Mr. Shutter called trading standards and discovered he had been duped. He has been unable to get the £150 back and has also been unable to contact the company that took the payment.

PC Tom Ellerby said: “It is really important that people realise very little is ever given for free, and anybody asking for money to beat a loophole in advance of a handsome payout is likely to be trying to deceive you.

Here are a couple of points to help you ensure your PPI claim is with a genuine company.

Any company informing you that you are due thousands of pounds back in PPI before taking any account details from you, is simply lying. It is impossible to know how much money (if any) you are due to be refunded without the company either seeing your copies of credit agreements or contacting the banks on your behalf after you have filled in a form with your details. Therefore avoid all companies that call claiming they already have your details and can see you have paid for PPI it is a lie.

It is illegal for a PPI Claims Company to take payment for your claim upfront and genuine companies will always work under a no win no fee policy. If a company claims to require an upfront payment do not fall for it. Payments to PPI claims companies should only be made after you have received your refund from the lender and genuine PPI companies such as ourselves will only take payment after you have been reimbursed the full amount from the lender.

When you take out loans like mortgages, car loans or other types of loans, it is common for the lender to offer you payment protection insurance or ppi.  Ppi is supposed to help you make your monthly loan repayments once you are not able to meet them due to serious illness, accident or loss of employment.  The problem is that such policies can be very expensive and unfair to the customer making it a mis-sold ppi policy to millions of people.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) ruled that most lenders wrongfully sold these ppi policies to their customers.  They have begun fining banks and lenders for selling policies that are expensive and offer little protection to the customers.  This is good news as policyholders who were wrongfully sold can make their ppi refunds and they may be entitled to excess payments to their lenders.

You may be eligible to make ppi reclaim for many reasons.  The most obvious is if you felt you were pressured into taking out ppi when you applied for a loan.  In many cases, you could not get your loan approved if you did not take ppi from the lender.  Other reasons may include:  you were not aware of the real cost of the policy or you thought it was included in the loan.

Trying to claim for ppi refunds is not easy.  Banks and lenders tend to deny any ppi claims made against them especially if they know one does not know their rights.  So, it is advisable to seek the help of a specialist claims management company in making ppi claims to be able to obtain the right compensation for having been mis-sold a ppi policy.

Look away if you want some cheery financial update about the state of the economy, because this excerpt from the Independent makes for very annoying reading…

“Banks are are cashing in by raising their interest rates, research for The Independent has revealed. Despite the Bank of England last week keeping the base interest rate at a record low of 0.5 per cent for 27 months in a row, the rates which lenders charge customers have risen, in some cases by almost 50 per cent.”

So the banks are still using the lowest base rate on record to make the highest profits on record, with minimum lending rates 500% higher than there were in 2007. To put that more clearly, in July 2007, the rate at which the banks borrowed money from the Bank of England was 5.75%, now they’re paying just 0.5% and charging us all the highest personal loan, credit card and mortgage rates for the last 12 years.

Aside from greed, some industry analysts believe that PPI claims may be to blame for the rise in loan rates…

Speaking about this issue, banking analyst at Defaqto, David Black, says: “One of the reasons that unsecured loan rates have increased is that loan providers are no longer earning commission from payment protection insurance sales. Providers generally are tightening their credit policies and are increasingly limiting unsecured loans to their existing customers.”

For those who want to get their mis sold PPI premiums back, things just got a whole lot easier with the announcement by Barclays that they are to handle their customer’s claims on a ‘no quibble’ basis.

barclays ppi claims
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Essentially the new refunds policy means that if you have a PPI policy with Barclays and you made a PPI claim through us or any other claims handling specialist before 20th April, then you’ll be given back all your payments plus 8% on top.

This is yet another major result for financial consumers who have recently seen the major banking houses of the UK all set-aside billions to pay back mis sold PPI premiums. If you’re a Barclays customer, all you have to do is call 0800 840 72 92 or fill out the short form here.

PPI Refunds

PPI Claims



We know that you have a choice when it comes to making PPI claims, so why should you choose us?


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