MSE News: Claims body attacks MSE and Which? over free PPI reclaiming

So for-profit claims companies are criticising for-profit MSE competing with them in a free way with respect to these claims and Which similarly? No surprise that they'd find free hard to compete with. And with banks also to write to consumers this year inviting claims, which will also be free for consumers, it seems that some claims companies may be very keen to try to maximise profit potential before the market evaporates.

A requirement for claims companies to tell people that a claim can be made free of charge and a ban on charges unless they can prove that such a notification was provided to each customer seems like a good idea.

"The FSA is backing the Which? and MoneySavingExpert.com campaign against claims firms"

Stopping the bloody claims companies sending me text messages and phoning me up every other day on my TPS registered telephone line telling me that I have been mis-sold would be a good start.

The lies they tell to get people to sign up is disgraceful.

This spiteful snipe at MSE & Which by the claims body seems, to me, merely to reinforce exactly why MSE & Which were right to speak up and promote the perfectly simple PPI self-reclaiming process.

What sort of a representative body takes a swipe at respected (and free, in MSE's case) consumer-advice resources?!? Which has been going since 1957 and is a very worthwhile source for impartial advice, information and reviews, and the number of people who have been helped by this site - and the forum - not just in money-saving but in other important matters (children's issues, relationships, encouragement and support, garden and household topics, friendship, craft or party ideas, workplace matters...etc...etc...etc...) is (probably literally) innumerable.

The number of people that some of these claims companies have "helped" without significant profit to themselves can probably be counted on the finger of one finger.

I too get calls and texts from such companies, some of whom seem genuinely quite stumped (and, in one case, even noticeably hostile) when I don't start openly weeping for joy when they tell me how much of what I am "owed" they can get back "for me"... :think:

The company which was "recommended" to me (by an insolvency advisor, no less) charged between 30% and 40% for their "services". When I queried this, the advisor said that I'd be surprised at just how many people simply "cannot be bothered" to fill out the forms for themselves... I know he is probably right - I just don't know whether to laugh or cry... :doh:

Wickedwitch67 wrote: »

I had a call today from a company telling me that because I wasn't asked to re-sign a credit agreement after the 2007 CCA amendment that they could get my entire credit card balance written off - for a fee of course. Yeah right! If that were true I'd be putting in a claim myself - like I did with PPI.

I can't believe the brass neck of these companies. Complaining because someone points out how easy it is to complain yourself and not hand over a large chunk of cash for them doing very little. They have been lucky up to now that so many people didn't realise how easy it was. Why on earth would they expect Which and MSE to support their activities?

I suspect it won't be long before the forum is awash with folk who signed up to use one of these companies without a full awareness of how much a 30% fee-cut actually works out as, saying

(not a REAL quote, I made it up) ":mad: help i singed to a clame ferm for ppi and i was awardid £10,000 but the :mad::mad::mad:ing clame ferm has stolen £3000 of it. i didunt kno that 30% wuld be so much wen i singed there form. how can i get my stolen £3k from these :mad::mad::mad:ing thieveing scumm:mad:?"

Though, as dunstonh says above, it is very easy to be snared by the dubious promises of some of these firms, so I am sure there will be many who signed up to use such firms in good faith, as well as those to whom I allude here, who willingly hand over their bank details or sign over financial authority to third parties without much thought to the potential consequences...

chuckl1es wrote: »

Where can we read the article ?

If you click on the link in the first post of this thread it will take you to it. If you're after the article to which this thread refers, it can be found here: http://claimscouncil.org/ - but you have to register with the site to view it. Otherwise, it can be read here: http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/politics/cmc-trade-body-slams-calls-for-tighter-regulation/1051534.article