How do PPI callers get my number?

QI AM forever getting calls – usually on my landline but increasingly texts and mobile calls – urging payment protection insurance (PPI) compensation claims. I have never paid for this insurance but even if I say that, they take no notice, insisting that I must let them act on my behalf.

What do they offer, and how do they get my details?

I have signed up to the telephone preference service which is supposed to stop these calls. I am also ex-directory. Ann M

APPI was sold by banks and other credit lenders until 2011 to provide payments when you are off work. But the small print made it difficult or impossible for many to claim anything, bad value first revealed by Which? in 1998.

Now call centres, acting for claims management companies and touting for PPI mis-selling business is high on most people’s list of hated pest communications.

With the August 29, 2019 final date for claiming looming, reminding those who have not claimed for mis-sold PPI is useful.

Which? research shows the median payout is £1,600 with a total over £30bn so far. The callers don’t know whether you had PPI or not. They work with automated diallers and some are told to push the possibility you have forgotten PPI more vigorously than others. Claims managers take up to 36% plus VAT of whatever they get for you. Most don’t charge if they get nothing.

Claiming for yourself is simple – Which? (and others) have online tools including template letters so you get all of any compensation.

If you were previously rejected, try again, using the “Plevin” court case. This said if you were not informed commission (sometimes called profit sharing) was higher than 50% (some were 80%), you were mis-sold.

The Telephone Preference Service is largely toothless. With data protection, the well-behaved companies obey while those on the fringes ignore it. Being ex-directory is no help if you’ve given details online – some retailers sell these on.