For the last decade and more, banks had been mis-selling payment protection insurance (PPI) when customers came to them looking for credit cards and loans. PPI was supposed to protect customers in case they stopped being able to pay their debts back for any reason, such as illness forcing them to take time off work.
However, plenty of employers will cover sick leave so that debts don’t accrue, in which case PPI was useless. Some people couldn’t make use of it because they were self-employed, whilst others were signed up for PPI without even being told that they were paying for it. The banks kept handing it to out to as many people as possible, even if they never actually needed it or could make use of it. When this scandal finally erupted, people began demanding a ppi reclaim to compensate them for the money they had forked over to the banks needlessly.
The banks fought this, trying to claim first that it had been too long for people to reclaim the money and that they had agreed to the contracts in the first place. When this failed, they began using delaying tactics and tried to stop consumers from getting help making the claims. This also failed, but they are still being accused of using delaying tactics in order to avoid paying out the money. They are also lobbying for a deadline to be set so that people will not be allowed to make new PPI claims past a certain date.
The amount that you can get with a ppi reclaim could be huge, as you will be compensated not only for the money which you paid originally, but interest on top of all that. This means that you could potentially have a decade’s worth of interest built up on top of thousands of pounds of payments, meaning that pursuing a PPI claim if you think you might be entitled to one is a great idea.
Because of the time scales involved, it might be difficult for you to track down all the information you need, but the potential payouts for it are worth it. It’s also a good idea to make sure that the banks don’t get away with this, as if it turns out to be profitable for them they could try similar schemes in the future. The banks will still hold records of anything you have taken out with them, so will know if your claim is valid or not.