Are you owed money? 350,000 PPI victims fight for another £1bn payout

Could another PPI payout bonanza be on the cards?

A law firm claims six million people who were wrongly sold PPI could still owe £2,500 each after their banks pocketed secret commission payments.

Harcus Parker has filed an £18bn lawsuit against eight banking and credit card companies – including Lloyds Bank, Barclays, HSBC and Santander.

Around 350,000 people have already applied to join the “no win, no fee” class action lawsuit.

However, according to the law firm, more than five million more could be eligible.

Claim: Law firm Harcus Parker claims six million people who were wrongly sold PPI could still be owed £2,500 each after banks pocketed commission payments

The legal dispute marks a new episode in the final payment insurance (PPI) scandal.

PPI was a type of insurance often added to existing contracts such as store cards, credit cards, student loans, mortgages, car finance and other types of loans.

The insurance was intended to protect people when they couldn’t keep up with their payments, but it was widely mis-sold. In many cases, a long list of insurance exclusions resulted in customers being unable to make a successful claim.

Many owners were pressured to take out the insurance or didn’t know they had it even though it wasn’t suitable for them.

Between 2011 and 2019, a total of £38.3 billion was paid out to customers who were falsely sold PPI.

Are you eligible?

The original deadline for making a PPI claim was August 2019, as set by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the City’s regulator. However, Harcus Parker’s new lawsuit is not bound by the deadline because it is not a misselling lawsuit.

Instead, it is alleged that banks and credit card companies took high commissions of up to 95 percent when selling the insurance and did not disclose this.

In 2017, the FCA said banks that had failed to disclose commission payments of more than 50 percent of the insured value to their customers may have breached consumer credit law.

Harcus Parker warns that banks and credit card companies have blocked valid claims by failing to respond to tens of thousands of requests from customers for details about their amounts.

The law firm estimates that banks and credit card companies secretly charged an average of around 80 percent commission on sales.

This means, for example, that if you paid £100 for PPI, £20 of that would go towards the policy itself, while £80 would go as a commission payment to your bank or credit card provider.

Harcus Parker says you can probably make a claim if you have had PPI but have never made a claim before; a claim has been made but it has been rejected; or if only the portion of the commission you paid over 50 percent of your premium was refunded to you.

Refunds: Between 2011 and 2019, customers who were mis-sold PPI were paid out a total of £38.3 billion

How to make a claim

The group filed a new lawsuit in Birmingham County Court last Friday to consolidate thousands of PPI commission claims into one lawsuit.

They hope this will force banks and credit card companies to pay back the full cost of the insurance. The district court application was filed on behalf of 2,518 plaintiffs.

Damon Parker, partner at Harcus Parker, says: “For years, banks and credit card companies have found ways to avoid telling their customers the whole truth about the commissions they themselves have paid.”

“This failure to disclose the scandal is a stain on the industry and must be redressed through settlement or legal action.”

“I would urge anyone who believes they have a claim to complete the very simple form on our claims website to check whether they are eligible.”

This form can be found at ppiglo.com. All you need to do is provide your lender’s name, your name, age and email address, and Harcus Parker will receive information about your policy, including when you purchased it and how much you paid.

You can also contact your lender directly to find out how much commission you paid.

“Everyone has the right to request any data their lender holds about them through a ‘data subject access request’.”

However, Mr Parker says that in his experience lenders have refused to say how much commission they charge. “Since the FCA deadline passed in August 2019, we have seen lenders not entering into correspondence until legal proceedings have been initiated,” he adds.

Harcus Parker charges 35 percent plus VAT for successful claims.

This would drop to 20 percent plus VAT if the banks involved agree to a settlement.

Mr Parker says: “The amount we have to charge is higher than we would like.” Because we need a lot of litigation funding to match the purchasing power of the banks.

“We are calling on banks and credit card companies to refund people now, without the need for litigation.” “They know how much money they owe their customers and who they owe it to.”

Can you do it alone?

Dean Dunham, consumer advocate at Money Mail, said: “Taking a bank or credit card company to court will always be a David and Goliath experience and in this respect there is strength in numbers.”

“In my opinion, everyone who has a claim should join this group rather than go it alone.”

j.beard@dailymail.co.uk