PPI Claims To Date Are Only The Tip Of The Iceberg
Despite the banks and others who missold payment protection insurance (PPI) being forced to pay out over £2 billion to date, it appears from the latest reports and estimates that this could be just the tip of the iceberg as the misselling scandal escalates, with an expected final payout of over £9 billion in compensation. Billions are still waiting to be claimed.
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Last year alone over 200,000 complaints were made to the Financial Ombudsman about individual policies, despite instructions from the FSA for all those involved to deal fairly with their customers.
Both these figures indicate that although most of the major financial institutions and banks that missold PPI are taking some steps to compensate those that they missold the products to, many people are either not being notified that they are due for compensation, or it appears that an even greater amount may not be aware that they even had PPI and that they have been paying for it in charges since they first took out the debt.
It also appears from the number of continual complaints to the Financial Ombudsman that the compensation offered by those guilty financial institutions has been in many cases derisory or insufficient.
This has been particularly the case where individuals have sought to deal with the PPI claims themselves, rather than seek the help of those professional claims teams and lawyers who have years of experience in maximising claims settlements through negotiation and the courts.
The FSA is concerned by the titanic scale of the misselling and has extended the period for which claims can be dealt with in order for the firms and the courts to deal with the high demand.
PPI was missold throughout the last decade by nearly all the major institutions including all the high street banks and most of the mortgage, loan and credit card companies. It was often sold on the back of credit agreements, where it was neither explained properly to the client or the client do not want or need it.
Many people who were aware they had purchased PPI, bought the cover because they feared their credit application would be refused if they did not agree.
In the most extreme of cases it was often sold to people who could never claim, such as those with existing medical conditions, pregnancy or the self-employed.
If you think you may have been missold PPI, Insurance Blog urges you to check the wordings of all your credit agreements and to act quickly to contact a PPI claims specialist to assist you in your fight for compensation.
The iceberg of claims may be melting slightly, however there are rules of limitation under UK law and the right to be compensated for being missold PPI may not be around for too much longer.
