Voice of London

Companies like Debenhams, Barclays, and Dorothy Perkins have paid more than £30 billion since January of 2011 to customers complaining about policies. In fact, Lloyds Banking Group has put another £460 million aside in cost of mis-selling claims.

Deadline to make PPI complaint is August 29, 2019.

How did PPI become contentious?

Payment Protection Insurance was designed to help people cover repayments during unforeseen circumstances, for example having an accident or being unwell. It was added to things like credit cards, loans, store cards and other kinds of credit.

It turned out to be controversial as it was highly mis-sold. For instance, people did not realise it was an optional policy, and some of them didn’t even know they had one. For others, it was straight up not suitable. The Independent reported that consumer groups estimate the total mis-sold policies to be around £50 billion. John McFarlane, one of the group chairman of Barclays commented, “The percentage of fraudulent claims is enormous. We have turned portions of Britain into fraudsters.”

PPI is the biggest mis-selling scandal in history. Here’s the complete list of companies involved in the scandal.

Debenhams store card PPI has left thousands of individuals out of pocket and owed money. Customers weren’t told the full terms and conditions of the insurance and more importantly they weren’t asked enough questions to find out if they were apt for the policy. Plenty of them were also misinformed about insurance being compulsory when it wasn’t. Dorothy Perkins also added PPI into their store cards without buyers permission.

How can you complain?

People can make claims free of charge. There’s plenty of help available online from websites like moneysavingexpert.com, and the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) official website.

The Arnold Scharzenegger’s advert has been screened on TV since August 2017 to urge citizens to “make a decision” and claim what they own now.

Words: Peony Hirwani | Subbing: Tsvetelina Petrova