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Bradford sees soaring PPI complaints

It has been revealed that Bradford has seen a 78 per cent increase in the number of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) over the past year. However, 2009 saw 1,078 complaints filed, within the past 12 months figures have increased to 1,875.

Missold PPI has rocked the country in the past year, with the majority of FOS complaints regarding this scandal. With banks having wrongly sold PPI alongside credit cards, car insurance and mortgages, the 590 complaints noted in 2010 rocketed to 1,048 in 2011, showing just how much the scandal has hit those living in and around Bradford.

Criticising the way in which banks have dealt with the scandal David Ward, MP for Bradford East, said “The widespread misselling of PPI amounted to a shameful abuse of customers’ trust. I’m glad that many constituents have now successfully had money refunded but it should never have come to this. The role of the new financial services regulator is being debated next week and these figures underline the need to make sure that any future system has real teeth.”

For those worried that they’ve been pulled into the PPI misselling scandal, it is vital to look at credit agreements taken out in the past decade and note whether PPI has also been sold alongside any loan. If such insurance is of no use to individuals, or has been wrongly sold by means of banks expressing that such insurance was mandatory, consumers can start the complaints process and claim back money that is rightfully theirs.