Credit Cards & Loans
PPI claim loophole revealed: why you could be owed thousands more
Guest Author:
Paloma KubiakMis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) customers could be owed millions more after a fundamental flaw was exposed in the way banks dealt with claims.
Banks are dodging potential refunds by failing to properly investigate claimants’ full policy history, according to Which?
The consumer group found that banks will only look into individual policies named, rather than looking into a customer’s full policy history.
So, a customer may have had multiple products with PPI, but banks will only investigate one case, not all policies which may be eligible for compensation.
Barclays, HSBC, RBS Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Santander and Nationwide all said they would limit their investigation to the policy referenced, unless the customer made a ‘general complaint’ or explicitly requested they check for all policies sold.
In one case seen by Which?, a 63-year-old woman had previously received PPI compensation in 2009 and 2014, but she wanted to make one final check before the claim deadline (August 2019) after learning that PPI was also mis-sold on mortgages.
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After complaining to her bank, she discovered she was eligible to receive refunds on 13 other policies, totalling over £12,000.
Which? said this “bare minimum approach” from banks means many claimants could be missing out on their full compensation amount, and with the deadline approaching, millions may go unclaimed.
It’s urging people to make a general complaint to their bank – even if a claim has previously been made – asking lenders to look at every product they held.
Gareth Shaw, Which? money expert, said: “Firms have admitted they are doing the bare minimum to compensate victims by failing to investigate and flag all the policies a claimant might have held, meaning millions could be left unclaimed.
“As the deadline to claim approaches, we’re encouraging anyone who thinks they might have additional policies to re-lodge a general claim, even if they’ve already had a successful payout on one policy. The banks certainly won’t check other policies for you unless you ask.”
Related: See YourMoney.com’s guide on claiming PPI.