£3bn Payout Expected In PPI Refunds

16/08/2010 by Bradders.

It’s been long overdue and everyone from consumer campaigners to the media have been banging the drum about the abuses that large financial institutions have inflicted on their customers for over a decade. The banks have used cynical ploys and sales tactics to increase their already massive profits at the expense of their loyal and long suffering customer base. This has now ground to an earth shuddering halt and no longer will they be able to run their business like the racketeers of 1920’s Chicago with their protection racket scam.

Mis sold ppi has been hot news for the past year as the scale of this racket has come to light. Thousands of people have woken up to the fact that they have been sold expensive, unnecessary and in many instances useless insurance, and are now demanding their money back. However, just like the mobsters of Old Chicago,asking for your money and getting it are two entirely different matters. However, help is at hand in the guise of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) who has ordered the banks to stop automatically rejecting complaints regarding mis sold ppi.

They have been ordered to write to customers who they feel may have been missold this insurance. In an ideal world this makes perfect sense but an image of Al Capone informing the local bar owner that his windows might be safe springs to mind. The regulator also stopped short of a previous recommendation ordering the firms to re-examine complaints that have already been dismissed.

This was due in a large part by the firms telling the FSA in no uncertain terms that they do not have the legal power to enforce it. This shows that whilst the FSA have certain powers they’re clearly not the FBI. 

Complainants running into hundreds of thousands have had their cases rejected which runs into millions of pounds in lost compensation. Their only course of action was to take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman, unfortunately many don’t so their claim never gets paid. This is a real travesty when one considers the FOS are finding in favour of the consumer in 90% of cases.

Despite this the banks have still got the temerity to challenge the regulator that it hasn’t ‘demonstrated there was a genuine problem’ with complaint handling! Big Al must be laughing in his grave at the brass neck of his modern day counterparts. 

They say that eventually everyone gets their comeuppance and Big Al was indicted for tax evasion and incarcerated for the millions of dollars in ill gotten gains. So far, all the banks have received is billions of pounds in a bail out from the very same people it duped. 

If you have been missold payment protection insurance there has never been a better time to start your claim now. 

Mis sold ppi

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