PPI Claiming

[stoofa]

So after receiving loads of cold calls and texts, I thought there must be something in it and decided to look into making some claims.
When I was younger I certainly didn't question PPI being added without me really being given an option.
I used a claims company that do a free check for you and then you can either allow them to do the claim (for 30% +VAT) or you can pursue it yourself (won't mention the company).
So I allowed them to do the free checks and tell me where PPI was likely and then went off and did the claiming myself. Yes they called a couple of times to see if "for convenience" they could do it for me, I declined.
Anyway, bad start.
Barclaycard found a single PPI payment, with interest I received a cheque for £3.74
Egg (via Barclaycard) was a little better, received a cheque for £530.

Yesterday I got the far bigger one in. I've banked with NatWest since I was old enough to have an account. I'd had a couple of bank loans from them where they told me "I could only have the load if I took PPI". However I also knew they were from a long time ago. I was under the impression there was a limit to how far they needed to go back. Anyway, received two offers for two loads I'd taken:

£589
£3490

To give an idea on dates, these date back to 1993/1994

Anyway, nothing more than a "cool story bra" thread, but it means my wife's plans for the living room floor are now covered and I'll also be able to upgrade the TV
Oh, and if anybody is sitting on the fence about putting those claims in, do it. Absolutely nothing to lose.

 

[stoofa]

With my claims I simply told the company all of the firms I wanted to check and then gave them my address history. A few weeks later they sent me the next forms which if I signed would engage them to do the work of putting the claim in. However all of those forms had company names and account numbers or claim references.
So there was nothing to stop me then writing to the individual company and asking to make a PPI claim. Subsequent forms all ask questions about why you think you were mis-sold PPI.
Reasons such as didn't think it was an option, being specifically told it was not an option, not being given a choice, you already having funds in place to make any payments should you find yourself out of work, them not accessing your suitability etc.
Don't suppose there is anything to stop you lying, I possibly embellished what I said, but kept it more or less to the truth - I remember the phone calls from NatWest telling me I could have my loans so long as I took out payment protection.

 

[stoofa]

Exactly how much you're you paying a month(?) and for how long to warrant such a large sum from mis-sold PPI?

Most of the refund is interest. Of the two larger ones I've listed in my opening post, interest is higher than the refund amount in both cases.

 

[stoofa]

I have purposely not given the company name in any of my posts. I'm not affiliated with them or anything like that, but I didn't want it to look like I was particularly recommending them. I'm happy to reply via trust if you want to know who I used - I'd still recommend checking their website first before proceeding.

 

[stoofa]

Took out a loan with Midland in 1996 to pay for a postgrad course. It definitely had PPI.
Would it be possible to claim through HSBC, as Midland don't exist anymore? Not expecting anything, as I've not got any paperwork at all, but as mentioned on the thread, no harm in trying.

Yup, in most cases the names that have vanished have been eaten up by someone else and so the PPI responsibility has changed hands.
My wife is currently going through some claims herself and she has one in against Tiny Computers - still not sure exactly where that one is ending up.

My very first one was Egg (now owned by Barclaycard) and I've got a claim in with Mint at the moment too, again not too sure who is actually dealing with that one.

 

[stoofa]

I wish they'd just stop the compensation scheme now. It feels like an eternity since it started and it's just breeding more of the "let us take 30%" types as people can't be bothered to fill in some forms.

But it is always the customer's choice. I know someone who did pay all of the fees because he wasn't going to bother.
So, wasn't going to bother - £0 in pocket.
Speaks to a PPI company who pocket a silly amount of money. However let's take a £500 payment.
Sure the recovery company will take £180, however that is still £320 in his pocket - for signing two forms.

Let's also be honest that a vast percentage of that PPI was mis-sold. The stuff I claimed was either me being told I had to take the PPI to be accepted for the loan, or it was added on without my knowledge.

 

[stoofa]

Interesting, I bought a Tiny PC years ago and remember being 'forced' to take the PPI but assumed as they no longer exist it'd be a waste of time trying to chase. How has you wife got on, and how did she go about it - if you don't mind me asking.

We're letting the same claims company do all the work for us and once they return the second set of paperwork indicating who we can make a claim against with regards Tiny, we'll do that bit ourselves. Still waiting for that information at the moment, but I'll update once we know who is now responsible for Tiny's PPI.

 

[stoofa]

I had another £308 in from MBNA yesterday. I'm now only waiting on Peugeot - no idea if I paid anything with them, if I did then I knew nothing about it.

 

[stoofa]

People that have successfully claimed, did you not know that you were paying PPI at the time? Is this only applicable to people who take loans without reading what they will actually pay back?

If you didn't know you were paying PPI then there is your "immediate win" - they were not allowed to simply put it onto an account and not tell you.
If you did know it was there it is all about how it was sold to you. My tow largest reclaims were from NatWest from about 22 years ago. These were my very first bank loans and they told me "You can only have the loans if you also take PPI" - as this was MY bank telling me this I just assumed nobody else would even lend me the money so I accepted these "terms". However they were illegal terms and here I am 22 years later with a nice payment because of this.

 

[stoofa]

So let me get this straight in my own brainbox, if I go to the claims guys website, fill in the little enquiry thing, they'll call me back, ask details such as addresses and which banks etc I've had dealings with. Then they'll send me forms to fill in which give my consent for them to investigate.

Once they've done that they send out filled in forms for me to look at detailing anything which had PPI on it and at that stage I can then simply use the info on those forms on the resolver site thingy and not have to pay a penny to the claims guys?

Absolutely.
They rely on a percentage (probably quite high) of their customers saying "ah sod it, you do all the work for me". To those people they charge 30% plus VAT (which if you really cannot be bothered to do the work is about the going rate) but the choice is entirely yours.

 

[stoofa]

depends if you know what you've had and when. If not, I think you are limited to 6 years on the standard credit checks.
PPI companies are useless. They send you a form asking for ALL details (banks, type of loan, date period). If you know all that, just phone the lenders PPI number which takes literally 30 seconds. Give them your name, address, date of birth and a reason for mis-selling (just say you didn't know you had it). They do all the work from then on.


Thing is, it's not as easy as it sounds. They have lots of excuses to decline claims which usually means having to send letters to the financial ombudsman

As I said in my posts, I used a claims company for all my searching. I provided them with my address history and a list of likely candidates where I might have PPI - it is not difficult to think back over the past decade and decide where you may have had a loan, a credit card etc.
This is all the information I provided. No types of loan, no date periods, no account numbers. They came back to me with a list of all the companies that had a PPI record, along with the loan type and the dates allowing me to make all the claims myself.
These claims companies are far from useless as they completed all the leg work for me.

If I wanted to be totally lazy then they would complete the whole process for me. Sure they will take a percentage, but they aren't a charity.