Grab a slice of the PPI

Today, Which? is urging as many people as possible to make a PPI claim now – as there is little more than 18 months left before the claims deadline.

The Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal has now been rumbling on for the better part of a decade, with the total amount set aside by the big five banks – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Santander – hitting close to £38bn.

So far, £28.8bn has been paid out since January 2011.

Make a free PPI claim now

At Which?, we relaunched our PPI claim tool last year, helping consumers send their PPI claim direct to their bank – with no middleman or fees involved, regardless of whether you have any of the paperwork or not.

Major banks and building societies now signed up to the tool include Barclays, HSBC (M&S Bank, First Direct, John Lewis, HSBC), Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland), Nationwide, RBS (NatWest, Ulster Bank) and Santander.

In a survey of 995 people who claimed for mis-sold PPI using our free tool, two thirds of respondents told us that they wouldn’t have made a claim without it.

One in four had their claim upheld, with the median average payout reported to be £1,600.

PPI claim success story ‘Some weeks ago we used your form to claim back PPI from a credit card account – it took about 2 minutes to complete. Within a few days we received a message from the bank saying it was investigating the claim. ‘About 2 weeks later we received a text giving a total refund of more than £15,000. And all that for 2 minutes work. We would like to say a massive thank you to Which?.’

Could you claim again? The Plevin ruling

Consumers can also claim for ‘Plevin’, following a recent court case – even if they were not mis-sold PPI – this is the difference and interest from mis-sold PPI where the cost was made up of more than 50% commission and the consumer was not informed.

These claims can be made by anyone who has previously had PPI, making thousands more eligible for compensation.

But, in a separate survey, Which? has found a significant lack of knowledge of the Plevin entitlement, with 80% unaware of this potential route to compensation.

See our PPI guide to find out how to make a ‘Plevin’ claim.

Make a claim before the deadline

UK banks even set aside an additional £1.5bn to cover an anticipated increase in claims following the announcement of the, now looming, 29 August 2019 PPI claims deadline.

Which? money expert, Gareth Shaw, said: ‘With millions of pounds in compensation still set aside to deal with the PPI mis-selling scandal, we’re urging people to use our free PPI claim tool before it’s too late.

‘If you’ve had a complaint turned down by a bank and you disagree with the decision, you should take this up with the Financial Ombudsman Service.’

What’s motivating PPI claims?

Of those surveyed, half of respondents were motivated by media coverage and one in five by a friend or family member.

One in 10 were motivated to make a claim by the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) advertising campaign featuring Arnold ‘the Austrian Oak’ Schwarzenegger.