While the deadline for claiming compensation for standard mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) passed in August 2019, we’re still claiming back thousands for our clients due to a rule the banks don’t want you to know about.
PPI plus rulings are making sure that the bankers won’t walk away with billions of money they have tricked out of the public.
PPI plus
The PPI mis-selling scandal was based on millions of customers being told that they needed PPI when they didn’t. Many were unsuitable for the policy or were not told about the policy at all. However, PPI plus is based on the level of commission taken on the policy.
To incentivise brokers and bank sales teams to get clients to purchase a PPI policy, policy providers offered high levels of commission on the policies they sold. While their duty of care was meant to be with their customer, and offering the best option for them, the high financial payout meant that they benefited from selling the policy with the highest commission, not the one that best suited their client.
Plevin
The first landmark case to highlight this issue was Plevin, when retired lecturer, Susan Plevin, took Paragon Personal Finance to court. While checking her PPI policy, she discovered that 71.8 percent of the policy was a commission taken by Paragon, the broker and PPI provider.
She argued that the duty of care shifted from Ms Plevin to the broker due to the high commission on offer, which resulted in an unfair contractual relationship.
The judge ruled in Plevin’s favour, stating that anything over 50 percent commission shifts the duty of care, and rewarded the claimant compensation amounting to the total commission beyond the 50 percent‘ limit.’
This was used as a rule for the industry when people made Plevin cases to ensure consistent rulings.
Doran
Christopher and Joanne Doran set a new precedent as they also took Paragon Personal Finance to Court in another landmark case.
The Dorans claimed that if they had known that 76 percent of their PPI policy was taken as commission, they would not have bought the policy. The judge ruled in their favour and they were awarded the full amount of the policy in compensation, totalling £7,985.46.
Akhtar
Our case, Akhtar vs Welcome Financial Services Ltd., recently set a new precedent for those making PPI plus claims. As the commission came to 85 percent – almost as much as the entire policy – the judge ruled in favour of the claimant, Ms Akhtar. She was awarded £3,594.71, the amount of the entire policy, interest and amounts paid to the broker.
Read more: Akhtar and the Future of PPI Claims
How can I claim?
Many PPI plus claims are made after people checked over their PPI policies and realised they had unknowingly paid huge amounts of commission. We’re urging people to check their paperwork as they could be sitting on thousands of pounds.
The average amount of commission on PPI policies was 67 percent, so we believe thousands of people should be taking money back from the banks. Get in touch and we’ll tell you if you have a claim.