PPI Claims Firms – Who will they target next?

PPI Claims Firms

According to reports PPI claims soared in the first half of 2017, hitting a three year high. At first glance this seems almost impossible. After all of this time how can a record number of people suddenly realise they have payment protection insurance and decide now is the time to do something about it. It doesn’t add up. Until, that is, you factor in claims management firms.

Aware that the government would be implementing a deadline (something which it did later in the year) these firms obviously decided that need to go at this full force. It won’t be long before their bread and butter business is taken away from them so before finding another industry to leech off they clearly need to bleed this one dry.

Now the worry of course surrounds where they will move to next and, according to recent reports, one contender seems to be the mortgage industry.

The most concerning thing about miss-selling claims is that the Ombudsman’s accepted approach is normally that brokers should prove their innocence with less onus on the consumer to prove the brokers guilt.

In a regulated industry that seems fair enough but if brokers want to guard against future claims of miss-selling they should take a fresh look at their sales process. A happy customer can easily become unhappy when coerced with the promise of big cash payouts; The PPI fiasco is evidence of this. If the future FCA regulation of claims companies doesn’t stop CMC’s going on fishing trips to “create” complaints brokers need to be prepared now – unless they have invented time travel.

Next year it will be free and easier for consumers to request a copy of the data you hold on them. Keep this in mind when it comes to evidencing your sales process. If you can’t prove it – it never happened. Scripts, disclosure letters, call recordings, fact finds and suitability letters are just a few of the tools to use every time. Evidencing what you did is important but evidencing why you did it is vital too so make sure you have research on file which fully justifies your advice. For many brokers the reason why you offered a remortgage versus a second charge should spring to mind

I remember the words of my math’s teacher – “show your workings Walker” I couldn’t see the point if I was getting to the right answer. Now it makes perfect sense.

www.promisemoney.co.uk

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