The deadline to make a PPI claim falls on Thursday 29 August 2019 and the latest refund statistics reveal £363m was paid out in June 2018. In total since January 2011, £31.9bn has been paid out.

But some banks are making the claims process tougher than it need be, according to research from campaign site Which?.

It found that RBS, Nationwide and Lloyds Banking Group were the most difficult banks and building societies to deal with when making a PPI claim, demanding pages of additional information. Further, claimants also reported that the firms insisted on unrealistic deadlines for the information.

Banks in the RBS Group were revealed as the hardest to make a claim, with 24% of claimants surveyed saying they found the process difficult.

Nearly one in five said it was challenging making a PPI claim with Nationwide, while 18% named Lloyds Banking Group.

Earlier this year Which? reported that Lloyds was potentially deterring claimants as they received 12-page questionnaires to fill in. Further, it said that the bank provided an unrealistic 14-day deadline to receive the forms.

Those who had made a claim said they found the process easy through HSBC, with 64% saying it was straightforward. More than half of respondents (56%) said they had an easy experience with Barclays.

Overall, of 600+ claimants surveyed, nearly a third said they had been successful in their PPI claim, receiving an average of £1,500 as compensation.

Gareth Shaw, Which? money expert, said: “Time is ticking, there is just one year left to make a PPI claim. It is frustrating some banks appear to be making it harder than it needs to be and claims management companies have also taken advantage of this situation.

“We are urging anyone who may have been mis-sold PPI to make a claim. There are free tools to use online or you can apply directly to your bank – you have nothing to lose.”

What do the banks say?

YourMoney.com contacted those banks named as making the PPI claims process difficult for customers. Here’s what they told us:

Lloyds: “We are committed to helping customers with PPI complaints. Where more information is required, we will send a fact-finding form to help customers progress their complaint as quickly as possible.

“We advise customers to return forms within 14 days to help ensure swift resolution of their claim within the maximum eight weeks permitted. Where forms are not received within 14 days we make a minimum of three attempts to contact customers in order to try to progress their complaint.  If a customer returns a form after 14 days we will of course still look at this. We encourage any customers who wish to discuss PPI to contact us directly and we are here to help should customers need support with their complaint.”

Nationwide: “Nationwide carries out a full investigation into each PPI complaint. This ensures the right decision is reached, as evidenced by our low overturn rates, which are among the best in our peer group. To do this we want to ensure we get all the information we need from the customer at the start of the process, so we ask them to complete the industry standard questionnaire which provides us with all the relevant information to reach the right outcome.

“However, if a customer finds the questionnaire difficult, we will usually speak with them on the phone to get the information we need to process their claim. We believe this is the right thing to do for both the customer and the wider Nationwide membership whose money we look after and is one of the reasons our PPI provisions are significantly lower than our high street peer group.”

RBS: “We are committed to making it as easy as possible for customers to check and complain for PPI ahead of the deadline. We have made a number of improvements to our PPI complaints process, including enhancing how customers can get in touch with us, and the support that is available. We would urge customers requiring help with their PPI complaint to contact us directly.”