Citizens’ Advice: Your DIY PPI complaint can save you £100s

There has been much press coverage of the recent high court decision over the banks’ Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal.

On 20th April this year, a high court judge ruled that the banks, represented by the British Bankers Association (BBA), had lost their case over PPI complaints handling.

And finally on 9th May, the BBA announced that it would no longer appeal the high court ruling and so banks must compensate consumers if they were mis-sold PPI.

For many years, banks and other lenders sold insurance alongside loans and other forms of credit which was often inappropriate and without providing all the information required at the point of sale.

We saw many people at the sharp end of mis-selling as those in financial difficulties approached the bureau for help and we discovered that in many cases expensive PPI policies would not pay out and were not worth the paper they were written on.

Citizens Advice made a ‘supercomplaint’ on the mis-selling of PPI to the Office of Fair Trading back in 2005 and so we are very pleased with the court’s decision after years of campaigning on this issue with Which? and other consumer rights groups.

It’s estimated that high street banks will have to pay back up to £9 billion.

Anyone can reclaim these payments without the need for paying fees of hundreds of pounds to a claims management company – the average reclaim amount is £2,750.

Which? Magazine have provided an easy-to-use tool on their website to establish firstly if you have a complaint about mis-sold PPI and secondly, how to go about it.

You can find the tool here: which.co.uk/campaigns/personal-finance/the-ppi-campaign/claim-back/

Hackney Citizens Advice Bureau, 236 – 238 Mare Street, London E8 1HE. Telephone: 020 8525 6350.