More on the PPI Mis-Selling Saga. Will the Claims Management Companies Shut Up Now Please?

So the big UK banks have decided to drop their legal challenge against PPI mis-selling claims.

Alleluia!  At last! A cause for great rejoicing in the Mooney household.

No, it’s not that I have a personal vendetta against the banks.  Not at all.

What has been getting on my nerves for the past few months is the endless stream of unsolicited calls from multifarious so-called ‘claims management’ companies.

Most of these seem to have targeted me personally, and have reached my private home land line number here in Much-Twittering. Apparently they have a limitless supply of call-centre staff on hand available to make endless telephone calls at times hugely inconvenient to me. This usually happens between 6 and 7 in the evening, when I have just got home from work after an uncomfortable hour-long commute, and am running around like a headless chicken trying to cook dinner/tidy up after the builders/find the cat/get changed/bring my hair back under control.

 I don’t know what database my number is held on, or how it got there, because I have never actually been a victim of PPI mis-selling, thank you very much. It is particularly annoying and galling when the caller greets me like a long-lost friend, and launches into a long opening spiel solicitously enquiring after my health and how I am feeling this evening.  One day I may surprise them, and tell them EXACTLY how I am feeling.

That might shut them up for a minute.

But, being British, I generally find myself politely listening to their sales-pitch, and answering their impertinent questions as civilly as humanly possible prior to saying ‘Not interested, thanks'.  Now, if BH (Better Half, my husband) gets to the phone before me that is a different story.  Any hapless call-centre operative unlucky enough to get through to HIM can look forward to experiencing a short, sharp earful of colourful and expressive invective.  Followed by the receiver being slammed down.  Makes you almost feel sorry for them…

The point is that now the UK banks have decided to cut their losses and pay compensation to the 2.75 million or so borrowers who were mis-sold PPI - self-employed, people with pre-existing medical conditions etc - there will be little need for claims management firms to broker a compensation deal for them.

The banks will no longer offer any legal challenge to these claimants, and say they will ensure that a mechanism is put in place to process them quickly and efficiently.

So the services of a claims handler, who would charge for their services and make a big hole in any compensation money gained, should no longer be necessary.

I do hope it makes them give up and stop ringing me.