Blog

Difficult Complaints Procedures for Many Banks

It has been revealed that many financial institutions have made the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) complaint procedure relatively difficult by not allowing customers online access. Which? Research showed that half of all banks only allowed complaints by telephone or post, greatly restricting the ways in which consumers could attempt to get their money back.

The missold PPI scandal has caused hundreds of thousands of people in the UK to complain to banks and make compensation applications. However, only 14 of the 28 providers of PPI allow people to make email complaints, severely hindering attempts made to make claims.

With more than £1bn already paid back to customers, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) also revealed that a large number of consumers were either unhappy with their compensation refund, or were having their initial application rejected. This was shown as the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) continued to note almost 3,000 PPI case every week, 80 per cent of which were sent via claims management companies (CMC). With CMC not notifying customers of the FOS, and advising people that their claim chances were higher by using such services, Which? revealed that 66 per cent of CMCs were failing.

For those having taken out a credit agreement in the past decade, and who possibly were missold PPI, making a claim is still advised. In addition, with Which? senior advocate, Lucy Widenka, saying “Banks should remove any barriers to consumers making a complaint. The rules state that complaints should be allowed ‘by any reasonable means’, so why is it that some providers offer this by e-mail and others don’t?” consumers may have access to even simpler claim enquiries over the coming months.

Comments are closed.