With the first set of figures released by the new regulator of the Financial Services industry it is clear the Banks are in a real mess and have committed fraud on a large scale and something needs to be done about it.

The Financial Conduct Authority who is the new regulator for the industry replacing the FSA at the beginning of April 2013 need to take tougher action to protect the UK consumers from this type of activity by the banks.

Let’s look at the figures and you will clearly see how big the problem really is.

Barclay’s Bank was the worst offender for the second half of 2012 with a staggering 414,302 complaints against it and it also upheld 44% of these complaints before any were sent to the Financial Ombudsman and of the ones that were sent to the Financial Ombudsman over 57% of those on average were also upheld in favour of the consumer.

This really shows how bad the bank has been in previous years with its customers and that it is not just isolated to missold ppi but other financial products also. We are approaching half a million people complaining in a 6 months period does that really sound like bad advice or fraud as the numbers are so large.

The government needs to step in and do something about this because if this had been any other company or individual committing fraud on this scale they would be jailed and the business would be closed down so why are the banks getting treated any differently.

The next big offender was Lloyds TSB with 349,386 complaints against it for the same period and they were closely followed by the Bank Of Scotland who had 338,912 complaints against them and if you add this to the Lloyds figures as they are part of the same group it total 688,298 customers that complained to them overall.

So if we look at just these 3 Banks we have over 1 million complaints in a six month period which is fraud on a huge scale but what will the authorities really do about it.

The FSA has been aware of this and imposed fines, the Government has been aware of it and done absolutely nothing other than replace the FSA with the FCA which is simply not good enough.

We all understand that we need a banking system but this is blatant fraud and something needs to be done about it or the authorities are going to lose all credibility.

This problem is not going to go away when you consider the LIBOR scandal, ppi scandal, Interest rate swap mis-selling scandal and the investment scandal that hit Lloyds last week so action needs to be taken now.

Don’t ever take no for an answer if you feel you have been missold by your bank as you have the right to complain and also to take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman if your complaint is not upheld by the bank in the first instance.

The post The huge scale the Banks have been committing fraud against you appeared first on My PPI Claims in the UK | Client wins £167,000 | Best PPI Claims.

If you are going to make a ppi claim to the Halifax then the first thing you will need is the correct address to send your complaint to which is.

Customer Relations
PO Box 548
Leeds
LS1 1WU

Next you will need to complete the Financial Ombudsman ppi questionnaire as the Halifax will require this when you submit your ppi complaint letter otherwise this will delay your claim. The ppi questionnaire can be found here

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

This is the most difficult part to complete so please take your time and answer the questions as accurately as possible.

You also have the option of contacting the Halifax by phone to discuss your case in more detail and the number you can call them on is 08457 253 519 with the phone lines being manned 9am – 6pm Monday to Friday.

Halifax stopped selling ppi in July 2010 so if you have an agreement after this date then you can almost guarantee it does not have PPI attached to it and you should not make a claim as this will just take up resources for people who have genuine claims.

How is my Halifax PPI compensation paid out

If the Halifax upholds your complaint there is certain guidelines they must follow which include the following

1)      Notify you of the decision and how the compensation amount was reached.

2)      Pay you the compensation within 28 days of receipt of your acceptance

3)      Will add statutory interest of 8% to your claim

4)      Will generally pay you direct even although you have possibly used the services of a claims management company.

Other common questions we get from people who have had an offer from the Halifax for being missold their ppi is

Can I trust the calculation and the offer that has been given to me.

The simple answer to this is yes as the Halifax works out all of their claims using the requirements laid down by the regulator and add the appropriate interest to the ppi claim.

If you have made the claim by yourself then you can be assured that the offer you have been sent is correct and you should accept it.

If your claim has been declined then you still have the right to submit your case to the Financial Ombudsman but before you do ask the Halifax for a copy of the ppi questionnaire you submitted to them as you will need this for the Financial Ombudsman.

The Halifax will send you a leaflet explaining how you can submit your case to the Ombudsman but hopefully your claim will have been upheld and you will not need to follow this procedure.

If you feel you have a Halifax ppi claim and do not have the confidence or the time to deal with it yourself then Money and Me Claims will be happy to help as we feel we are one of the best claims companies with what we consider reasonable charges for our service, so if you want assistance then give us a call today.

The post Halifax PPI claims can lead to £1,000s in compensation for missold PPI appeared first on My PPI Claims in the UK | Client wins £167,000 | Best PPI Claims.

We hope by highlighting the worst offenders they will improve their service to all the consumers who are submitting ppi claims either by themselves or through a claims management company.

The post The worst ppi claims companies in 2012 appeared first on My PPI Claims in the UK | Client wins £167,000 | Best PPI Claims.

When the ombudsman recently released it figures for the second half of 2012 it was a surprise to see MBNA if fourth place for the amount of ppi claims the Financial Ombudsman has received against them.

The figures show 12,288 complaints were received against MBNA for this period and most of these complaints will be for consumers having ppi added to their credit card.

If you are making a ppi claim against MBNA then you should consider reclaiming your charges back at the same time otherwise you could be losing out on a lot of money.

If you have had charges on your MBNA credit card or any other credit card that were more than £12 then you can ask for these to be refunded as the OFT says these were unfair and because of this you have the right to ask for these charges to be refunded along with the ppi you are claiming.

Some people will have very few charges if any but others will have a large amount of charges levied against the credit card and you should make sure you reclaim them or ask the claims management company to reclaim them on your behalf if you are using a claims management company.

How the reclaiming the charges work is for every charge you have on your credit card of more than £12 you are entitled to the difference back so the charge reflects £12. So for every charge that is £25 you will be refunded £13 which can add up to a substantial amount and you should be reclaiming this along with your ppi claim.

MBNA ppi figures also reveal that 60% of the complaints submitted to the Financial Ombudsman are upheld in favour of the client which would suggest MBNA are not treating the consumer fairly otherwise these figures would be a lot less.

As well as the 12,288 complaints relating to ppi the Financial Ombudsman also received a further 3,754 complaints against MBNA for banking and credit which does not make good reading for the company overall.

Overall MBNA have 50% of all complaints upheld against them for all categories of complaints under the Financial Ombudsman so why do they have such a high figure for their ppi complaints.

We will continue to share these figures with you moving forward and it will be interesting to see if MBNA ppi figures improve when the next set of figures are released.

Do not let these figures put you off making a ppi claim against MBNA as it clearly shows you have a 67% chance of winning your case if it goes to the Financial Ombudsman based on these figures.

The post MBNA PPI Claims Reach 12,288 In The Last Six Months appeared first on My PPI Claims in the UK | Client wins £167,000 | Best PPI Claims.

When you consider that 77% of ppi complaints against Barclays bank is upheld in favour of the consumer with the financial ombudsman they should consider dealing with their clients fairly first and pay them out before they consider paying big bonuses to their staff and directors.

When you consider the industry average for complaints being upheld in favour of the client is 60% at the Financial Ombudsman it is clear that Barclays Bank are not treating their customers fairly when it comes to their ppi complaints and should address this issue before they consider paying any bonuses to staff but you can be assured of one thing this will not happen as all the banks treat the consumer as second class citizens.

When you consider Barclays Bank have over 44,000 complaints at the Ombudsman it is shocking that they are even considering paying bonuses to staff until such times as they start to treat their customers fairly and the FSA should step in and stop these bonuses being paid until the consumer is dealt with first.

When you look at Barclays Banks other complaint figures it reveals why no bonuses should be paid in our opinion until all are resolved.

They have the worst complaints record for the last 6 months of 2012 of any Bank for banking and credit with 5,548 complaints registered against them.

They are also the worst for investment complaints with a total of 337 complaints of this nature registered against them and are the 4^th worst bank for complaints registered against them for mortgages and home finance.

Does this really sound like a bank that should be paying bonuses to its staff?

When you take all these figures into account t is clear that Barclays are not treating their customers fairly and when you consider they are one of the banks involved in the interest rate swap mis srlling scandal that has recently been revealed and have already set aside over £500 million for these clients it is hard to see how they can justify bonuses.

The consumer should always come first but it is hard to see this when you consider that 77% of consumers will have to wait months for their ppi compensation once the Ombudsman upholds their complaints but bonuses will be paid out on the day they have agreed.

We say stop paying the bonuses until the clients are treated fairly first whether it be for ppi claims or any other claim as the client should always come first.

The post Barclays Bank PPI Claims figures sees over 38,000 complaints in 6 mths appeared first on My PPI Claims in the UK | Client wins £167,000 | Best PPI Claims.

When you put these figures for new cases against the amount of claims settled for the same period it shows that 86% of ppi cases against Lloyds TSB Bank are upheld in favour of the client so it is very hard to see what impact the FSA fine of £4.3 million has had on their claims handling procedures other than they are dealing with complaints within the timescale and just not upholding them.

When you look a bit closer to the rest of the figures released by the Ombudsman about complaints against Lloyds TSB Bank it makes interesting reading.

They are 9th for general insurance complaints not including ppi with 304 complaints registered against them 2^nd for banking and credit complaints with a further 2740 complaints registered against them 9^th for mortgage and home finance with 108 complaints against them 7^th for life and pension complaints with 174 complaints and top the list for overall complaints received against them with a staggering 45727 complaints overall.

If you consider these numbers which does not include cases Lloyds TSB Bank have settled before they reach the Ombudsman I am sure you will agree they are the last bank that should be complaining about claims management companies.

If you consider the cost of the ppi claims alone to Lloyds for them being submitted to the Financial Ombudsman it is a staggering £35,865,750 and with 86% being upheld in favour of the client it is hard to see why Lloyds TSB Bank do not re evaluate their claims handling procedures as it is clearly costing them more money to deal with the ppi claims in the current way.

Not only is it costing them financially but the trust and confidence consumers are losing with them as a result of the claims handling will no doubt have an impact on consumers moving forward either remaining as a client or buying any new product off them as they will just not have the confidence to do so and surely the bank must see this and take it into account.

If Lloyds TSB Bank wants to restore confidence in the consumer then they need to address this problem now as it will only start to get worse with the Libor and interest rate swap scandal that has recently been revealed.

Finally if you have a ppi claim against Lloyds TSB Bank then get your claim in today as they are also one of the banks that is pushing for a deadline to ppi claims with the FSA.

The post Lloyds TSB Bank ppi claims reach over 42,000 in 6 months appeared first on My PPI Claims in the UK | Client wins £167,000 | Best PPI Claims.

These figures are based on the last 6 months of 2012 and have been released by the Financial Ombudsman and it clearly shows that Black Horse Ltd is not treating their customers fairly when they are dealing with their ppi claims.

For the same period the Financial Ombudsman recorded 5,888 new cases against Black Horse for ppi so there is no signs that the complaints are slowing down and with this volume of complaints being recorded and their record for complaints being upheld in favour of the clients it is time the FSA took action and stepped in to make sure Black Horse are treating their customers fairly.

When you consider that just last week Lloyds Bank got fined £4.3 million by the FSA for their failings you would expect the group to have their ppi claims handling in order but sadly this does not appear to be the case.

When you look at the figures above and consider the cost associated with the claims it does not make economical scence for Black Horse to continue in such a manner as every case that reaches the Financial Ombudsman it costs the company £850 and this does not include their own costs for staff dealing with the complaints initially.

What I would say is do not let this put you off if you feel you have a claim against Black Horse for ppi but be very careful in how you submit your claim.

Here are a few simple steps to follow when submitting your ppi claim.

1)      Always send it recorded delivery

2)      Enclose a copy of the agreement where possible

3)      Explain very clearly why you believe it has been missold

4)      Ask for confirmation to be sent that they have your complaint

5)      Diary the 8 weeks they have to deal with your complaint

If you have done all of this then maybe you will not see your complaint going to the Financial Ombudsman but there is no guarantee but if it does you do have all the evidence you require against Black Horse and will hopefully be one of the 97% that gets their complaint upheld in their favour.

Finally I think the FSA should make a statement of these figures as it is clearly unacceptable and just another reason no deadline should be allowed for ppi claims.

The post Black Horse PPI Complaints reach 97% appeared first on My PPI Claims in the UK | Client wins £167,000 | Best PPI Claims.

HSBC Bank PPI total will continue to grow in the coming months along with other banks as more and more people are making claims either by themselves or by using the services of a claims management company and the amount of claims at the Financial Ombudsman continues to grow by substantial numbers every week.

The real problem with all the banks increasing their provisions to meet the ppi claims is they must have a fairly accurate figure of what this scandal is going to cost them overall but will not set this figure aside as it will look bad on their accounts and the public would see how big this scandal really has been.

If you consider that HSBC has set aside £1.5 billion for financial claims in the year it will show how many other financial products have been missold to their customers and this is not isolated as every bank is having to do the same in light of the PPI, Interest Rate Swap Scandal that has recently emerged and other financial claims they are experiencing for missold bonds, investments and missold pensions.

What is alarming is the FSA has supposedly regulated the industry for more than 10 years but yet we see all of these misselling scandals appearing and the FSA continue to think all of these banks are fit and proper to give financial advice.

They need to stop handing out fines and ban them from giving advice as they would if it had been an individual or small company that was responsible for misselling.

To hold a Licence under the FSA for regulated activity an individual has to show that they are solvent otherwise their licence would either be refused or revoked unless they had a good reason so why are the banks any different as most of them were not solvent and had to be bailed out by the UK government.

HSBC bank is no different from any other bank and now has the money laundering issue hanging over their head but yet again they are allowed to continue to give advice to the UK consumer.

Let’s treat everyone equal whether it be for ppi claims or interest rate swap claims as the UK consumer deserves better from the FSA and the new regulator moving forward.

The post HSBC Bank PPI Total reaches £1.6 billion appeared first on My PPI Claims in the UK | Client wins £167,000 | Best PPI Claims.

In the last year alone Lloyds have set aside £4 billion to deal with all their financial claims and costs associated with them which has resulted in the bank revealing a loss of £570 million for 2012 which is an improvement on the year before.

The fact is the £4 billion set aside in 2012 to deal with all financial claims will no doubt be increased in 2013 as a result of the LIBOR rate fixing scandal, interest rate swap scandal and no doubt as a result of the FSA mystery shop in to all the banks for investment advice they gave to clients.

Lloyds TSB Bank and the Lloyds group have the worst record of any bank when it comes to ppi claims hitting the Financial Ombudsman and if you consider the Ombudsman was upholding over 80% of claims in favour of the client you have to question the whole claims process at Lloyds.

For every case the Financial Ombudsman receives it costs Lloyds £850 and if you add the staffing costs at Lloyds to deal with the complaint it will be costing Lloyds well over £1,000 per ppi claim and if you consider the average claim pays £2,750 approximately it does not make economical scence for Lloyds to continue to not uphold the ppi complaints themselves as over 80% are being upheld by the financial ombudsman.

So in reality the 20% that Lloyds win at the Financial Ombudsman is not saving them money overall yet they continue with the same strategy for dealing with consumer complaints.

Lloyds have constantly criticised claims management companies for their actions without any real justification as the figures the Ombudsman publicises do not lie.

If you add the fine Lloyds received last week from the FSA of £4.3 million for their failing in the ppi complaints handling procedures it is easy to see that their model of not upholding complaints and dealing with them fairly is a false economy for the bank and the shareholders must seriously be questioning the powers at the bank’s ability to run a regulated business in a proper manner.

It is also reported that Lloyds are at the forefront of the campaign to get a deadline set for ppi claims and as we have previously stated this should not happen as Lloyds new in 2006 they were misselling ppi but continued to do so and as a result consumers should be allowed an indefinite period to make their ppi claims.

Whatever the result of this we are sure it will not be Lloyds last word on the matter and if you feel you may have been missold ppi or any other financial product by Lloyds then get in touch today and we will assist you with your claim.

The post Lloyds TSB Bank PPI Claims reaches £6.8 billion appeared first on My PPI Claims in the UK | Client wins £167,000 | Best PPI Claims.

It is thought that the money will be split in to two with one for people who were mis sold ppi and the other for businesses including the self employed for interest rate swap misselling.

The figures that are thought to be split with £400 million going to ppi claims and £700 million goint to people affected with the interest rate swap scandal.

As we have previously reported we expect the total bill for ppi claims to exceed £25 billion and The Royal Bank of Scotland are the second bank in ten days to announce a further increase in their provision to meet the rising bill and all banks are likely to follow suit in the coming weeks.

With Barclays Bank having already set aside £850 million for interest rate swap misselling and now the Royal bank of Scotland announcing £700 million it is clear that this is another huge scandal to hit the UK financial sector and we would expect the interest rate swap mis selling pot to rise to over £5 billion in the not too distant future.

We will have to wait and see what the other banks do for both ppi and the interest rate swap policies but I am sure more will follow Barclays and the RBS in the coming weeks.

The big problem we all have is that most of the banks have not been able to cope with the ppi claims they have received and we can be sure that the level of other claims is just going to escalate in the future which could see more and more of us having to wait longer for our claims to settle.

With the Interest rate swap under review it will be interesting to see how many of these claims are going to reach the Financial Ombudsman as many people have to wait months on a decision on the ppi cases due to the backlog the Ombudsman currently has.

One thing is for sure the claims for being missold are only going to escalate in the future with the FSA announcing the results of their mystery shop in to investment advice from the banks and Santander being put under a full review for their investment advice in the past.

We will continue to update you with the news in the financial sector regarding missold information and if you think you may have a claim then get in touch with us today.

The post RBS set aside a further £1.1 billion for missold clients appeared first on My PPI Claims in the UK | Client wins £167,000 | Best PPI Claims.