What is Happening with PPI?

The sage of how and why payment protection insurance (PPI) was sold to thousands of people across the country seems to have been rumbling on for a long time.

There are many agencies and organisations involved in trying to make sure that this type of wholescale mis-selling does not happen again. Protecting the consumer from such unscrupulous deeds is something that falls to many organisation, including the Financial Ombudsman.

Publishing regular updates, the Ombudsman estimates that there are a £50 billion worth of PPI policies sold to customers over the last ten to fifteen years, estimating that the vast majority of these were mis-sold.

Thousands of people have already complained about PPI, receiving their money back in the form of compensation. For this reason, and with banks adding billions more to their PPI compensation pots, the PPI mid-selling saga has been named as the biggest scandal to have ever hit the British banking industry.

The role of the Ombudsman in your claim

Many people think that they go straight to the Ombudsman with their complaint but this is not the case.

In the first instance, if you believe you have been mis-sold PPI, you should contact the bank or lender that sold it to you. They may agree and pay you back your premiums and so on, in the form of compensation.

However, there are times when this process does not happen smoothly. Your lender may refute your claim, or they may have paid you the incorrect amount of compensation.

Only after it appears that the bank or lender will no longer take an active role in your complaint can you take it to the Financial Ombudsman.

A fair overview

The Financial Ombudsman will look at both sides of the store; they will compare what you say happened (or didn’t happen!), with what the bank or lender say.

If they feel that you have been unfairly treated with regard to compensation, they will tell the bank to award you your money back – but they will also calculate how much.

There are serious consequences for banks and lenders who are deliberately holding back in making compensation payments. There are deadlines within which they must react.

If you think you have a claim for compensation, this is what you need to do:

• Contact you bank, tell them you have PPI and that you think you were mis-sold it
• Tell the bank why you think it was mis-sold

Or, why not contact Payment Protection Scotland? We could start work on your claim today!

> Back to blog