PPI claims

A short post here to encourage folk to claim back the PPI payments taken by the thieving banks over the last decade or so. In late August, after endless nagging from an excellent friend, I finally took steps to make a claim on the PPI that my naive (stupid) self had been coerced into taking on a Black Horse Finance loan back in the mists of time. All I knew was that I’d paid it off several years previously – I didn’t have any paperwork or even know when I’d taken the loan.

Although naive (stupid), I knew not to entrust my claim to the shysters that text, email and shout at us during ad breaks on the telly/radio. Instead I trotted off to Money Savings Expert, read their guidelines and downloaded their claim form template. Little more than an hour later I printed off the completed form and sent it by recorded delivery to Black Horse’s claims dept.

After a week or two they wrote to me stating that they were investigating the claim; companies have eight weeks to do so before you can take it to the financial ombudsman. A couple of weeks ago they wrote again with an offer to settle which I accepted, and yesterday I banked a four figure cheque worth more than two months’ of my salary. It was that easy.

The main thing is to emphasise that you were sold PPI under duress. In my case I remembered the loan forms coming with the PPI included and when I questioned it the loan officer failing to explain what it was but merely stating that “You really should take it” – I believe it was/is pushed using the implicit threat that without taking it you may not qualify for the product. It may also have helped that I could state in the form that the benefits from my job at the time would cover me well enough without resorting to PPI. But the main point is that PPI was and is an option and as such should be explained clearly and objectively without any hint that refusal to take would influence any outcome. This is where the banks are vulnerable as they know, but won’t outright admit, that PPI was missold by their operatives and after after the High Court ruling on FSA guidelines last year want to avoid thousands of claims going to court. It may have also helped me that my claim was with Black Horse, which is part of Lloyds TSB, as of the nigh on £11bn that banks have set aside to settle claims, Lloyds TSB alone account for half of that figure and clearly have a reputation. The second biggest ‘culprit’ is the RSB, the one we bailed out.

Remember, avoid the companies that offer to make your claim for you – if I’d used one of them I would have given up a third of my ‘win’ to them. Claiming yourself is as straightforward as I have written, just go to to:

Money Savings Expert – PPI claims

Good luck!