Banks Must Settle PPI Mortgage Claims Faster Says WHICH?
Banks have been criticised for their slowness in settling claims for Payment Protection Insurance
Which? the consumer champion, is calling on banks to speed up their settlement of claims for mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).
Its call follows the release today of figures from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) showing that last year banks paid out £1.9 billion to victims of mis-selling – only a quarter of the £7.6 billion they had set aside to meet PPI claims.
Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, said: “It’s good to see the PPI payout is finally starting to speed up but last year’s compensation of £1.9 billion is less than a quarter of what lenders expected to refund. Too many people are still finding the claims process too lengthy. The banks must streamline the process to make it easier for people to claim.”
If not, he said, more and more frustrated PPI claimants might resort to calling on the services of claims management companies, which charge people a big fee for doing something which most people could easily do for themselves.
Mr Lloyd added: “Our advice to anyone who thinks they may have been mis-sold PPI is to contact their lender directly themselves or use a free website like which.co.uk.”
One positive point to emerge from today’s FSA statistics is that the monthly amount banks have paid out in PPI redress has shot up since May. This is when the British Bankers’ Association decided not to appeal against a High Court judgment challenging the FSA’s tougher line on complaints handling.
Until May the monthly compensation figure had remained well below £50 million, but by July it was over £100 million and had shot up to nearly £450 million by December.
Which? has calculated that if all PPI mis-selling victims used a claims management company to assist in making their claim, the companies could pocket more than £2 billion of the £7.6 billion set aside for compensation. So why not claim back PPI yourself?