Thousands of Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers could be due PPI refunds after bank failed to send letters
Lloyds failed to send out reminders about PPI payments to thousands of customers
THOUSANDS of Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland and Halifax customers could be due Payment Protection Insurance refunds.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued legal directions to Lloyds over "serious" breaches of the Payment Protection Insurance Market Investigation Order 2011.
It said Lloyds - which owns Halifax, Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland - had failed to send annual PPI reviews to around 14,000 customers between 2012 and 2018.
A further 2,884 TSB customers were also given incorrect information about PPI payments, although this has now been corrected by the bank.
Lloyds Banking Group is responsible for informing TSB customers about PPI payments as the bank previously owned the brand.
Lloyds has started sending apology letters to affected customers.
The letters will explain how much you have paid and your right to cancel the policy.
Victims of PPI mi-selling have until April 29 next year to lodge a refund claim.
The amount you will be owed varies depending on how long you've had a policy for and the amount you've paid.
Have I been mis-sold PPI?
According to the regulator, it is likely you were mis-sold PPI if you experienced any of the following:
- You were pressured into buying PPI or told you must have PPI
- You were promised a cheaper rate if you bought PPI
- You were told your loan or credit application was more likely to be accepted if you bought PPI
- PPI was added without telling you
- You were advised to buy PPI that did not suit your circumstances or needs
- You were self-employed, unemployed or retired but advised to buy PPI
- You had a pre-existing medical condition at the time of buying PPI, which may have affected your ability to make an insurance claim
- You were advised that a pre-existing medical condition was included in your PPI policy (or advised that it wasn’t included)
- It was not made clear that you would pay interest on the PPI if it was added to your loan
- It was not made clear that the PPI would end before the loan or credit was repaid
The CMA said that, following a series of breaches, it is now requiring legal assurances from Lloyds that it has measures in place to prevent similar breaches from happening again.
The watchdog said it is not the first time Lloyds has breached the PPI order, having reported six breaches in 2016 for failing to provide customers with correct data and annual reminders.
A Lloyds Banking Group spokesman said: "We are writing to a small number of credit card customers whom we identified as having not received their annual PPI statements.
"Whilst we have resolved the cause of the issue, we are extremely sorry for any inconvenience caused. We will be contacting all affected customers."
The CMA's action comes after an investigation into PPI by the Competition Commission which ended in 2011.
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One of the measures introduced was for customers to receive an annual review from their provider, setting out clearly how much they had paid in and their right to cancel the policy.
Adam Land, the CMA's senior director of remedies, business and financial analysis, said: "We are disappointed that Lloyds has again failed to provide these important reminders or provide accurate data to its customers.
"These are serious breaches."
Barclays recently apologised after giving wrong information to some people trying to check whether they have had PPI.
It is thought that tens of thousands of people were affected by that incident.
Barclays previously said a review had found "a very small percentage" of customers were given wrong information when contacting it via a claims management company to find out whether they had PPI.
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