Consumer groups band together to give free independent PPI help
MoneySavingExpert.com and Which? have joined forces to produce a leaflet to help make Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) complaints easier.
MoneySavingExpert.com and Which? have worked with the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) to secure agreement from five major banks and a credit card company to send the independent leaflet to their claimants along with the PPI reclaim offer letter. The leaflets set out detail on how people can check whether the PPI offer they’ve received is fair and what their rights are if they don’t feel it is.
Over the next three months, almost 170,000 people will receive the leaflet. It aims to help them better understand the PPI reclaim appeals process so they can challenge any unfair redress offers themselves. PPI reclaiming can be easy to do but people often hand over up to 30% of their compensation to claims management companies.
The leaflet is part of our ongoing pledge to work with banks to help make PPI complaints easier and prove to people that they don’t need to use claims management companies. It contains impartial information, with questions that people should consider to help them decide whether or not to accept their compensation offer, including:
· Details of how much interest people will have earned.
· How they will be paid, including timescales.
· The role of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
· Warning people about claims management companies and to avoid using them.
Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said:
“People simply have had no way of knowing if the PPI compensation offer they’ve received is fair. And even if they feel short-changed, they haven’t got the facts about what to do next. This is why so many simply give up altogether or give about 30% of their reclaim to a claims company to take on their case, when they could easily do it for free themselves.
“We’d hope anyone that feels the bank is wrong keeps going and takes their case to the free independent Ombudsman.”
Richard Lloyd, Which? executive director said:
“We’ve worked with the banks to make sure consumers are armed with all the facts about their PPI offer, so they know whether it is fair or if they should go to the Financial Ombudsman.
“It’s also important that consumers know that they should avoid using unscrupulous claims firms that charge hefty fees for simple complaints that they could easily do themselves for free.”
Anthony Browne, Chief Executive of the BBA said:
“The banks want to make sure that those who are still owed compensation get the right amount as swiftly as possible. That’s why as an industry we’ve been working closely with consumer organisations to equip claimants with the right information to pursue a legitimate claim themselves.
“Consumers need to be armed with the facts and the banks remain committed to helping anyone who was mis-sold PPI in the past.”
Which? and MoneySavingExpert.com both have free online resources to help people reclaim mis-sold PPI: www.moneysavingexpert.
Notes to editors
PPI was designed to cover people’s credit repayments if they were unable to work, either through illness, accident or redundancy. However, many PPI policies were mis-sold with many consumers not even knowing the insurance had been added to their loan, mortgage or credit card. More than £22 billion has now been set aside by financial firms for PPI compensation.
About the joint PPI reclaim leaflet: MoneySavingExpert.com and Which? have worked with the BBA to secure agreement from Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC, Capital One, NatWest and the Co-op to issue their leaflet. A copy of the leaflet can be found at www.mse.me/ppileaflet.
About MoneySavingExpert.com: MoneySavingExpert.com is dedicated to cutting your bills and fighting your corner. The free-to-use consumer finance help resource aims to show people how to save money on anything and everything, and campaigns for financial justice. Set up in 2003 for just £100, its free to use, ethical stance quickly made it the UK’s biggest independent money website according to internet ranking site Alexa.com and the number one ‘Business and Finance – Business Information’ site according to Hitwise. It has more than 9,000,000 people opted-in to receive the weekly Martin’s Money Tips email, and more than 12,000,000 unique monthly site users who visit over 23,000,000 times a month. In September 2012, it joined MoneySupermarket.com Group PLC.
About Which?: Which? exists to make individuals as powerful as the organisations they deal with in their daily lives. We began life in a garage 56 years ago as a volunteer organisation committed to providing expert and impartial advice. We are now the largest consumer body in the UK with almost 800,000 members: we understand consumers and what makes them tick. We operate as an independent, apolitical, group social enterprise working for all consumers and funded solely by our commercial ventures.
Press Release: Banking, Banks, Consumer, credit, customers, Financial services, Money, Personal Finance, PPI, Which?