Only 50% of financial providers give consumers the opportunity to lodge complaints about Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims online, according to new research.
Just 14 of the 28 providers looked at were able to process PPI complaints made through email, with the remainder only accepting complaints made by post or telephone.
Over £1 billion paid out
Latest figures from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) show that banks have paid out £1 billion in PPI refunds so far last year, with £268 million received by consumers in October alone.
In June, the FSA granted Barclays, Lloyds TSB and RBS extra time to deal with complaints – 16 weeks rather than the usual eight weeks – until the end of the year but of those three banks, only Lloyds accepts complaints electronically.
FSA warning
Regulators have warned providers that they will be paying close attention to future PPI products, while banks have set aside billions to refund PPI customers, with claims expected to keep flowing into this year.
Alliance & Leicester, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and Santander are among the providers that do accept online PPI complaints but Barclays, Co-op Bank, Natwest and RBS are some of the ones that don’t.
Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of financial claims specialist BrunelFranklin.com says that the public are slowly becoming wiser to the tactics of mis-selling, but that a lot of the damage is already done: “It is important to realise that we may all unwittingly have taken out PPI during the years when lenders were offering a seemingly endless line of credit in the form of loans and credit cards in particular. It costs nothing to check your paperwork for insurances that you may not even know you are paying for. PPI per se is not a bad product, however the onus is on the vendor to ensure the product is the best for your needs at the time of sale. If the best product for your needs was not offered, or if you were unaware of the true cost, for example, you may have grounds for a refund.”
Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51.