h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, that was amazingly worth it.

I had always previously been against making a claim for mis-sold PPI - that old chestnut - as back in the day I'd had a couple of things with PPI on but had quickly realised it was useless to me as I (back then) was on rolling temporary contracts and working in universities I had very generous sick-pay if necessary (turns out this is rare - and there was me thinking we had no perks).

So I was never going to even bother. But a random conversation with my daughter-in-law in January persuaded me. She was using a claims firm as 'even if I get a few hundred quid it's worth it, and if I didn't use them, I wouldn't do it at all.

The last bit in particular struck me...I would never do it myself and any PPI I had would definitely take some hunting down.

So I found the cheapest (but 'reliable' via internet reviews) I could find and filled out their forms with every financial institution I had ever had dealings with and - randomly put my wife's name down on it too as we have a joint account these days. That last bit seemed a bit pointless as our bank had written to her a few years ago suggesting she complain, she did, and got £2500 from it. We even had a tetchy argument about it when they started writing to her as it was too much bother to fill her forms in and stuff.

So anyway.... in the last week we've had...

Me £14,000ish
Her £13000ish
(net!)

In compensation.

So worth it then

The really weird bit - is that her compensation this time came from that very same bank. Seems they swizzed her the first time.

Glad I paid it now - best bank account of all time.

indeed!

The PPI thing is weird... I haven't tried to claim, because I didn't have any relevant financial products during the period in question, but my partner did have some. She made a claim herself and got something, then a few years later a firm did it on her behalf and got her some more! Even though she had a variety of products, the rebate was of the order of hundreds rather than thousands, though!

Yes, I'm lucky to have a job with generous non-pay factors even though the salary itself is lower than in some places - that suits me.

Congratulations!

Thanks, yeah I think there is some merit in using lawyers - lawyers have more gravitas when it comes to making legal complaints I guess.

I am stunned, by the quantity - I genuinely started totally refusing it and it was a long time ago I did so.
I think these are very historical payouts - and the bulk of it is owed interest - 8% gross a year they have to pay you - it must be punitive. I'm thinking these were 20 years go - hence the accumulation of interest. Certainly my MBNA credit card was the biggest payout and that was paid off back in about 2003ish.

Ah, yes 8% interest does mount up quite nicely over 20 years