Dad gets ‘life changing’ PPI payout 20 years after HSBC mis-sold loan

A man who was mis-sold payments protection insurance while still living with his parents at 18 has just bought his first family home after receiving a £6,500 payout more than two decades later.

Pete, now 38, took the loan out while he was just a teenager to help pay off his debts and buy his first car.

“I was in my first job out of college and still living with my parents,” he told Mirror Money.

“I was driving my sister’s old car, but I wanted my own, and so took a £15,000 loan out to cover it along with some credit card debts I had racked up.

“The loan was with HSBC which I had my current account with at the time,” the now dad-of-two said.

However, like many people that were miss-sold PPI, Pete said the lender at no point explained what the insurance was – instead claiming that he’d have a better chance of being accepted if he took it.

“It was over the telephone and it wasn’t explained to me properly. I was just advised that because of my age, taking PPI out would put me in much a better position of having the loan accepted. It was around an additional £80 a month,” he said.

Pete continued to make loan payments for five years, with PPI added on top, but this year he realised he may have fallen into the trap.

A lightbulb moment

“My wife, Nina, and I had read articles in the press about PPI in the past, but it wasn’t until earlier this year when we were having a casual chat about it, that I realised I was probably a victim. At the time we both had loans running but neither of them had PPI attached.

“She told me that she’d previously been warned about PPI by her parents, and therefore never paid it, which prompted me to tell her about my HSBC loan.

“I told her that my first ever loan had PPI attached and that, at the time, I had been advised there was a higher chance of me being accepted if I agreed to it.

“It was a lightbulb moment when I realised I may have been mis-sold and we decided to look into it further.”

Pete dug out all of his HSBC paperwork, and proceeded to make a claim directly from the lender.

“My wife helped me with the claim. We used guidance notes and letter templates that we found online (you can download these and tweak them to your own circumstances). They’re great because they also offer follow up letters that cover all sorts of responses from the banks.

“Once HSBC received my first letter, I didn’t hear anything back and so sent a follow up letter. I then received confirmation stating that they were looking into my case. They then sent me a questionnaire to fill out and send back.

“At the time I was nervous that they might want to shut my accounts down as I had read a few horror stories online – but they were nothing other than supportive, and to date, I still bank with them.”

Pete now says his biggest advice for everyone is to “go direct and use online resources to help you”.

“I was shocked when I received an offer of £6,500 back from the bank. We put the money towards the stamp duty for buying our first home. The amount has been life changing for us.”

The average payout is £1,700

An estimated 64million PPI policies were sold in the UK – the majority in the 90s and 00s , according to figures from watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

These were on loans, mortgages, credit cards and even store cards which were mis-sold by high street stores, catalogue firms, banks, building societies and even supermarkets.

According to most recent statistics, £340.4million was paid in June 2019 to customers who complained about the way they were sold PPI, taking the amount paid since January 2011 to £36billion.

The average payout is currently £1,700, but there has been one case of a small business owner recouping £247,000. Right now, around £10billion remains unclaimed .

Now, it’s your last chance to make a claim before the scandal closes for good on 29 August 2019.

Emma Stranack, at the Financial Conduct Authority, said: “We all lead busy lives, and the FCA is prepared for a last-minute flurry of enquiries. We’ve extended our PPI helpline hours to 8pm on weeknights and 5pm on Saturdays to provide further support to consumers and will be available for calls on bank holiday Monday. Ultimately, we don’t want the UK public to miss their chance to decide.