PPI compensation: how to claim, deadline and the new Plevin rules

There's just over a year to go before the deadline to reclaim mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) as well as the introduction of a new ‘Plevin’ category for compensation claims, which means millions more could be owed a payout.

What is PPI?

Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) provides cover against missed repayments on credit cards, mortgages and loans in the case of accident, sickness or unemployment. It can be valuable cover – if you need it, that is.

The trouble is banks were covertly bundling PPI in with other credit products and flogging it at massively inflated prices to customers who didn’t really need it.

Banks have also been found to be earning huge commissions in the 2014 ‘Plevin’ case, giving policy holders a new reason to complain from August 2017 onwards

The Financial Conduct Authority estimates 64 million policies have been sold in the UK between 1990 and 2010.

At the height of the boom years, it’s estimated that the banks were pocketing billions every year from the mis-selling of PPI.

Over £27 billion has been paid back to people who complained about the sale of PPI since January 2011 and on average people get a £1,200 payout according to the FCA.

PPI provides cover against missed repayments on credit cards, mortgages and loans in the case of accident, sickness or unemployment. It can be valuable cover – if you need it, that is.

The trouble is banks were covertly bundling PPI in with other credit products and flogging it at massively inflated prices to customers who didn’t really need it.

At the height of the boom years, it’s estimated that the banks were pocketing billions every year from the mis-selling of PPI.

When is the deadline to claim PPI compensation?

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set a PPI compensation deadline for 29 August 2019.

You shouldn’t delay in making a claim as the system is likely to get clogged up as more and more people submit their claims.

But if you’ve already claimed PPI compensation or are just sick of hearing about it, the end is in sight!

The Plevin ruling

Since 29 August 2017, banks have had to consider a new ruling known as ‘Plevin’ in PPI compensation cases, which could mean millions more could get a payout.

This follows a Supreme Court judgment in late 2014, in the case of Susan Plevin v Paragon Personal Finance Ltd, which found that Plevin had been treated unfairly because she wasn’t told about the large amount of commission (71.8%) taken from her PPI payment.

Normally to get any money back you need to prove you were mis-sold PPI. So, you might claim a firm had given you an inappropriate policy or lied to you about needing the cover.

Now the FCA has ruled that there should be a new mis-selling category dubbed ‘Plevin’, which means banks must consider compensation where a commission was taken.

This means if you’ve already had a PPI case rejected or don’t think you were mis-sold the policy you can still claim back cash.

Banks will have to contact 1.2 million people who’ve had previous reclaims rejected to inform them of the new development.

You may be eligible to claim for Plevin if over 50% of your PPI's cost was paid as commission to the lender, but this wasn't explained to you.

You can claim back the difference and interest if your PPI has been active since April 2008 and you haven’t already made a successful PPI claim.

However, it’s worth pointing out that if you think you were mis-sold PPI it’s better to claim compensation for that rather than Plevin as your payout is likely to be bigger and encompass this.

How to claim PPI compensation

If you think you’ve been mis-sold PPI or want to complain about PPI commission under the new Plevin rules, here’s how you go about it.

First of all, you need to complain to your PPI provider directly by 29 August 2019.

If they try to drag their feet or do not give you a decision you like within eight weeks, you can then take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

You’ll be asked to fill out a questionnaire detailing your case, covering things like when you took out the policy, whether you realised you were taking it out at the time, how you paid for the policy and whether you’ve ever attempted to make a claim.

The FOS will then determine whether you have a case, and look at whether you deserve some form of redress.

For more details, check out the FOS’s PPI centre and have a read of The most successful PPI complaints.

Avoid claims management firms

The FOS says that over eight in 10 PPI complaints it receives come from claims management firms.

These firms charge to represent you, in some cases as much as 25% of any compensation you may receive.

But they don’t do anything you couldn’t do yourself, nor does using such a firm make it any more likely that you will be successful!

For more on why you should give claims management firms a miss, check out Got a complaint? Avoid this rip-off!

This article has been updated to reflect recent developments