PPI claims – what happens next?

August was an extraordinary month for people in the UK who needed help with a complaint. Working with MoneySavingExpert, Resolver received just under one million complaints, with an astonishing 850,000 PPI claims. Over 530,000 PPI claims were made on the final two days before the PPI deadline.

Even though the banks made preparations to handle huge numbers of complaints, the unprecedented number of people making claims resulted in crashed websites across the land. Many banks have also had to set aside more money to cover payments for the final days of PPI, so it’s not surprising that it will take some time to sort out these cases.

If you’ve not heard back about your PPI case yet, don’t worry. Here’s a quick guide to what happens next.

Can I go to the financial ombudsman?

The Financial Ombudsman Service is a free service that sorts out complaints about financial products and services. The ombudsman is free and impartial – and you’re entitled to take your complaint to the service 8 weeks after you first made it if you’ve not heard anything.

However, due to the huge numbers of PPI cases, it’s inevitable that the businesses involved will be working through a massive backlog.

That’s why Resolver thinks it’s only fair that the businesses should be given more time to resolve the last PPI cases. We recommend holding fire for now before escalating your complaint to the ombudsman.

Contact the business and ask them if they have any timescales for sorting out your case. You can also send an email through your Resolver dashboard.

Check your dashboard

As soon as you make a complaint about anything using Resolver, you’ll automatically have an online dashboard where you can monitor your case’s progress.

Go to www.resolver.co.uk and click on the ‘Log in’ button on the top right-hand side of the screen.

All you need is your email and the password you set up and you’ll be able to see your cases on the dashboard.

Click on each case on your dashboard to find out how things are going, send emails to the business or add information to your case.

I’ve had a response from the business and I’m happy with the resolution

Just close your case. Don’t forget to let us know how it went – and if you got compensation! It only takes a few seconds to do this and it really helps us provide feedback to the businesses and the industry about how complaints are being handled.

Your data is completely anonymous and your case is confidential. We combine our user’s scores on how they feel about the complaint so other people using Resolver can see a single rating on how well the business handles cases. We can use this rating to help businesses see how their customers think they’re doing.

What if I’m not happy?

If you’ve had a response but you’re not happy, you can use Resolver to escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. They will look at your PPI case and decide if you’ve been treated fairly. It’s likely they’ll be inundated so bear with them! The more information you provide, the better chance of success your complaint will have so make sure you respond to the comments in the businesses letter and give them any more information that you might have remembered.

What if I’m not happy with the Financial Ombudsman’s response?

The ombudsman’s decision is binding on the firm but not on you. That means the firm has to follow their decision but you can still go to court if you want – but this will cost you money.

What if I want to make a complaint about something else?

Step right on in! Resolver can help you make a complaint about literally hundreds of products and services – and it’s just as easy to do so as it was with PPI. Feel free to use your dashboard to make new complaints. And let your friends and family know too if you can! We’re a free service so help us get the word out that Resolver can help with anything