Fined PPI Providers Add Weight to Your case for a Refund
Mortgage Claims
If you have ever tried to claim on a payment protection insurance policy when you became ill or unemployed you will know it is practically impossible to do. There are so many exclusions and omissions and hidden clauses that hardly anyone could possibly make a successful claim. And that is the way they were designed. It is not surprising then that providers have been heavily fined.
Several major banks and lenders, including Alliance & Leicester, Egg and Capital One have been fined for “not treating customers fairly”, and more are added every day. The regulator, the FSA, has said it wants to see better practice and has fined several companies for failing to treat their customers fairly. More fines, which could be for up to £1 million, are expected.
Who’s been fined for Mis sold PPI?
* Capital One: Fined £175,000 in February 2007 for failing to ensure that 50,000 customers buying credit cards and loans between January 2005 and April 2006 received important information about the policy.
* GE Capital Bank Ltd: (supplies cards for Asda, Comet, Debenhams and Topshop among others): Fined £610,000 in January 2007 for inappropriate sales of its store cards and credit cards.
* Redcats: Fined £270,000 in December 2006 for also not having adequate systems and controls in place to minimise the risk of unsuitable sales.
* Egg: Fined £721,000 in Dec 2008 for serious failings in its credit card PPI sales by telephone between Jan 05 and Dec 07. Egg has said it will be writing to customers, asking them to call a dedicated number if they are concerned they were mis-sold PPI, and will compensate where appropriate.
* Alliance and Leicester (A&L): Fined £7 million, the highest fine to date by far, in Oct 2008 for serious failings in its PPI telephone sales between Jan 05 and Dec 07. A&L has said it will be writing to all the customers concerned.
* 5 motor retailers: GK Group Limited, George White Motors Limited, Ringways Garages (Leeds) Limited, Ringways Garages (Doncaster) Limited and Park’s of Hamilton (Holdings) Limited were fined a total of more than £175,000 in Aug 2008 for exposing a total of 2,175 customers to the risk of being sold unsuitable PPI policies.* Liverpool Victoria: Fined £840,000 in July 2008 for serious failings in the sale of single premium PPI on telephone loans sold between 14 January 2005 and 8 August 2007. It has also agreed to compensate customers if their policy is not appropriate and to refund interest automatically.* Land of Leather Ltd: Fined £210,000 in May 2008 for allowing its sales force to sell PPI, between May 2006 and Feb 2007, without effective monitoring or training.* HFC Bank, also trading as “Household Bank” and “Beneficial Finance”: Fined £1,085,000 in January 2008 for putting customers at an unacceptable risk of being sold PPI when it was not suitable for them. Failings took place in branches between Jan 2005 and May 2007.
* Regency Mortgage Corporation: Fined £56,000 in December 2006 for not collecting sufficient information during a PPI sale to ensure its recommendations met customers’ demands and needs.
* Loans.co.uk: Fined £455,000 in October 2006 for not having appropriate systems and controls to minimise the risk of unsuitable sales.
If you are a customer of one of these companies it may have already been in touch with you, but if it hasn’t you should definitely send a asking for justification that your policy was sold with your best interests in mind. Other companies are likely to be fined too. The FSA is likely to announce further fines, this is important as it hugely strengthens your claim for a refund of your payment protection insurance policy.