People who were mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) have just hours left to claim compensation – or they’ll never be able to get their money back.
For years we’ve received hundreds of anonymous calls with automated PPI claim messages – now, the time is almost up. Here is our last-minute guide to claiming PPI.
What is PPI?
PPI is a product that enables you to insure repayment of loans, mortgages, overdrafts, credit cards and store cards to protect against accident, sickness, involuntary unemployment or loss of life. If you had any of these from the 1990s up until 2006, there’s a chance you could have been mis-sold PPI.
Many people were unknowingly sold PPI during this timeframe, with payments being added to their bills. “Mis-sold” also refers to where PPI was sold as “essential” or sold to self-employed people who would never be able to claim.
It’s estimated that the scandal will cost the banking industry £44billion in compensation.
When is the deadline?
The deadline to submit a claim is 11.59pm on 29 August – after that, you won’t be able to get compensation. As much as £36billion has been paid out since January 2011, according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The average payout is £3,000, suggests Money Saving Expert. So it’s worth a shot.
How to claim
The good news is that financial providers are obliged to make complaining about PPI simple and they’ll help you through the process.
The FCA website includes a comprehensive list of providers that have sold PPI. These providers have online tools to make PPI claims simple. Money Saving Expert also has a free PPI-claiming tool to get the process started.
It’s free to do yourself. You will need your date of birth, as well as current and previous home addresses (the places you lived when you were mis-sold PPI) to get started. Having paperwork handy can make it easier to track down your policy – but if it has disappeared, you can still contact the financial firm you used and ask it to check whether you had PPI.
With time running out, bear in mind phone lines may be busy and websites might go down as the clock ticks closer to the deadline. If you complain by post, you need to leave time for it to be received by the deadline. You may want to use a tracked postage service to show that it was.
This is the final chance for consumers to think about whether they had PPI.Emma Stranack, FCA’s PPI deadline campaign lead
Who can make a claim?
It’s possible to make a claim on behalf of a deceased relative, as any money owed becomes part of a deceased person’s estate and will therefore go to their beneficiaries (i.e. children or spouse). Find out more about claiming on behalf of a deceased relative here. One person reclaimed over £30,000 after finding several old loan statements showing PPI in their late husband’s paperwork, so there’s potential to land yourself a hefty sum.
Hurry up!
New research released by the FCA to mark the final hours of its PPI deadline campaign shows one third (34%) of people will leave their decision about whether to claim for PPI to the last 24 hours. One quarter (24%) won’t decide until the final few hours.
Emma Stranack, FCA’s PPI deadline campaign lead, said: “This is the final chance for consumers to think about whether they had PPI and submit a complaint directly to any providers right away.”
If you have any questions about a complaint, support is available online at fca.org.uk/ppi or by calling the FCA helpline on 0800 101 8800.
