PPI cases and the Financial Ombudsman Service – the cases are more complex

Earlier this week (24 February 2015), the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) announced that whilst payment protection insurance (PPI) cases being referred to them were “levelling off”, the cases they were dealing with were far more complex.

What does this actually mean?

The claiming compensation for mis-sold PPI has a chequered history; with many twists and turns, the saga of PPI, the banks, compensation and their customers has been a rollercoaster ride. After many years of embittered arguments, the banks realised that they had to compensate their customers.

But, in the early days, compensation was not always so forthcoming and customers, realising that they were being duped once more, began to exercise their full consumer power; what this effectively meant was that they asked FOS to look at the case and for them to make the final decision.

FOS upheld the majority of consumer complaints – in other words, agreeing with the consumer – in 7 out of 10 cases.

However, despite the large number of cases still being referred to FOS, over the years the banks have realised that this was denting their trustworthiness – and hence, denting their profits. Needing to start scraping back this trust from consumers, they began to pay the ‘right’ compensation.

What FOS are now saying is that some of these cases being referred to them are no longer about the banks simply digging their heels in. They are cases that really are very complex in nature; on one hand, you have the bank wanting and needing to protect the money it is lending to people whilst balancing the needs of the consumer to be able to look for another product, other than the PPI the bank were ‘offering’, to protect their interest too.

A long process

It is still a process that is taking up to 12 months or more and thus, referring your PPI compensation claim to the Financial Services Ombudsman is not a quick fix.

With Payment Protection Scotland, if your case is refuted or compensation refused by your bank or lender, we try our very best to push for a resolution on your behalf, especially when we understand that you were mis-sold the product.

But, in some cases, where we believe the case is strong enough and you want to pursue your claim, we will refer your case to the FOS. This organisation deal with cases in a chronological order; in other words, they deal with PPI compensation complaints as they arrive in the office.

Only in cases of severe financial hardship, will they look at cases out of this chronological order. Hopefully, your case will not need to be taken to the Financial Ombudsman Service; why not see if you have a claim by contacting PPI Scotland now?

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