Diana Metz`s Finance Blog

If your own bank decides to start cheating you, then you may as well give up on mankind. Because of mis sold PPI many people no longer trust banks and perhaps think they would be better off putting their money under the mattress.

This is because a large section of people were unable to put in even for PPI claims when they found they were ineligible under the terms of the policy they had been issued. This naturally made them irate and realization dawned they had been swindled by their very own bank.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA), the watchdog of the banking sector, finally stirred and scrambled to restore order. They proceeded to fine banks, including several heavyweights heavily, although that didn’t help those cheated to get their money back.

Instead, they are now looking to claims agencies and solicitors to help them out and once they put in their claims, they will have to wait for three months before they see the first signs of a refund. For many, that is way too late as because of unscrupulous bankers, they missed out on payments on mortgages, credit cards or loans and are now trying to find ways to pay the money back. Amounts owed also increased as interest rates rose because of the missed payments and additional fees and charges were tacked on.

Banks meanwhile challenged the authority of the FSA to impose fines knowing full well it had the right to do so. But perhaps the customers will have the last laugh as the banks will have to pay out billions of pounds to make sure all claims are settled.