Member Article

Banks should be made to track down PPI victims-says the British public

As the on-going saga into mis-sold PPI continues, a new study has found growing support for the government to force the banking sector to proactively track down all customers who have been affected. We spoke to Gary Verschuur, Founder of Forbes Douglas to find out more:

So why is there still so much money waiting to be claimed?

Gary: There is approximately 25 billion pounds which is likely to be the final cost of this to the banks by the time it’s all done and dusted Feven. Less than half of that has been paid out to date and really I think there’s are a number of reason for that. A lot of people simply haven’t started their claim yet they’ve obviously adopted a wait and see kind of approach. But equally, a lot of people who have started their claims have simply given up before they’ve taken the claim to the financial ombudsman. So they submit a claim to their bank, their bank examines it, their bank comes back with a decision and rejects the claim. Eight out of ten people at that point throw the towel in and don’t pursue the claim any further which is a real shame because the next step in the process would be to take it to the financial ombudsman. Financial ombudsman is currently upholding eight out of ten complaints in the customer’s favour, so people are missing a great opportunity here. This isn’t about making money, this is about recovering money that people have given to the banks when they shouldn’t have had to, the banks miss sold this product. So it’s not about greed on the part of customers it’s about justice and it’s about getting back what is rightfully theirs. And I think it’s a great shame that people aren’t following that up.

Who do you think is responsible for ensuring people receive miss sold PPI claims compensation?

Gary: It’s largely down to the banks and the regulator. The banks themselves have a choice here. These are companies with extraordinary value in their brands and their effectively throwing away a lot of that value by not proactively going out to the customers and saying to those customers “look we’re terribly sorry we did this, we were wrong, we’d like to put it right” and I think that would be far better for their brand image than what their currently doing which is two things, one that their not proactively going out, their sitting back and waiting for complaints, which is fine and that’s legally fine that’s the model that their regulator says is acceptable. Then when the customers do complain their not treating them fairly and this is a second time and another opportunity for the banks to put this right and they’re not doing it correctly. They’ve out sourced the claims handling process to other companies, but those other companies in cahoots with the banks are again not treating the customers fairly so it’s a great shame. So if the banks themselves are not going to put that right then its beholden on the regulator of the financial conduct authority to step in and say, hang on a minute guys, you’re not playing fair here by your customers. The chief financial ombudsman yesterday said that if the banks had adequate processes in place for dealing with complaints then the ombudsman would only be deciding a quarter of appeals in favour of the customer, rather than three quarters that they are doing. So something is not quite right, the financial conduct authority really needs to step in and look at this and say “why are they not doing this correctly, why are they not upholding more complaints”, because the ombudsman is then having to overturn those decisions and the ombudsman is basically swamped with claims at the moment two thousand new claims every single day are going into the ombudsman and those are the ones that are actually happening of course, there is a great many as we have already discussed that the customer hasn’t made the claim or has abandoned it without going to the ombudsman so those numbers should be far bigger.

What do you think is stopping people from claiming, in your opinion?

Gary: I think there are a number of issues. When we speak to our customers’ one of the biggest reasons that people have for not beginning a claim is that they can’t remember who the credit was with or they don’t have the paperwork. They have forgotten what loans they had over ten years ago in some cases. So that’s very easy to address in reality. There are credit references agencies out there Equifax and Experian who if you send them a cheque for £2 they will give you a complete copy of your credit report which includes any loans or credit cards that you’ve held over the last six years. Now that could mean that if you had a loan or a credit card that started ten years ago, so long as it was still running any time in the last six years it will appear on the credit report.

So that’s the first step, find out who your credit was with which is a bit of hurdle for some people. Personally I would struggle to remember all the credit cards I’ve ever held and then once you’ve identified the lenders you write to those lenders and you ask for copies of any paperwork that they hold related to your account or your relationship with them. They are obliged to respond within forty days to that request and once you have the information you will know whether or not you have PPI on that credit card or loan and you can then begin your claim. You can do that directly with the bank on your own you don’t need to use a claims management company that would be the completely free option. Or if you are not comfortable dealing with the banks then you can always use a company like ours and you can visit our website www.forbesdouglas.co.uk. You’ll find plenty of help and advice on there and you can call us and we will walk you through the process and we will do all of the leg work for you but it is up to the individual. Some people are happy doing it themselves others needs that helping hand.

What’s your top tip for anyone that’s reading this right now and wants to make a claim?

Gary: Well the most important thing is not to take a rejection from the bank as the end of the road there is still and awful lot more that you can do to ensure compensation. The ombudsman is an independent referee who will look at your case and will look at the banks arguments and will make an independent decision as to whether the product was miss sold to you or not. So just because a bank rejects your claim does not mean that that is the end of it, there is plenty more that you can do and the ombudsman is finding in favour of 80% plus of current claims that are coming to the ombudsman for a decision so the odds are definitely in your favour even if that banks reject your claim.

So it is worth a try?

Gary: It is absolutely worth a try. Persevere.

Where can people go for more information and if they want to make a claim?

Gary: They can go to the ombudsman’s website and download a form or they can come to our website www.forbesdouglas.co.uk. Or they can telephone us if they are more comfortable speaking on the telephone rather than using the website. Our telephone number is 01763 281 000 and we have a team of very experienced claim handlers there who will walk them through the process.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Broadcast Exchange .