Return of the PPI saga
Just when you think you’ve heard it all about payment protection insurance (PPI) - and with less than a year left to make a claim - along comes another twist in the saga.
The mis-selling of payment protection insurance to millions of people who were either unaware that they had it, or didn’t even need it, has been a running sore for Britain’s banks.
But while the financial giants are now being forced to pay out refunds and compensation, the playing field for customers is not yet level and many more people could still be owed money.
Research we have carried out at Which? found that banks have escaped paying out to some customers by failing to check all of the policies a person making a PPI claim might have had at some point in the past.
Rather than being completely open and checking a claimant’s name through all their systems, every bank we contacted – Barclays, HSBC, First Direct, RBS, Lloyds, Santander and Nationwide – told us they limit their investigations to only the policies a customer might query.
In fact, they would only check for other policies if a general complaint was made, or an explicit request that every policy a customer had ever had was investigated.
So people are still potentially missing out on cash from policies where they were mis-sold PPI.
It’s another disappointing development in the treatment of consumers by the banks. While you might suggest that scrutinising every policy when a customer makes a complaint about just one would be like turkeys voting for Christmas, it is surely in the banks’ interests to be as open and honest with customers as possible as they try to rebuild their tarnished reputations.
All the banks said they thoroughly look into any specific claims made by customers – but the key word is specific. They will only look at multiple policies if customers ask them to do so.
So our advice is to make a general complaint to your current bank – and any you have banked with in the past – so that you don’t miss out on compensation. Even if you’ve already received compensation for PPI, you should put in a general complaint because there could be other eligible policies of which you’re unaware. And do it quickly as there’s a deadline fast approaching of August 2019.
Banks are doing the bare minimum – don’t let them get away with it.
Send me your consumer queries to askalex@which. co.uk