PPI SPENDING CONSUMER KINGS, AND THE SCOTLAND UK CURRENCY UNION?

PPI SPENDING

Thousands of people receiving compensation for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) mis-selling have spent the cash on holidays and cars, according to a survey.

The research suggests that only 12% of those receiving the cash have saved any of it.

It appears that most people have spent it - on consumer goods or travel.

The total paid out so far, £13.3bn, has therefore been a huge economic boost.

Experts have said that is the equivalent of a 1% fillip to UK GDP, making it a more effective "spend" signal than any other government incentive.

Booming car sales in the UK have also been put down to PPI payments.

Banks were forced to compensate customers who bought the insurance policies, but often did not need them.

New Shoes

The survey suggests that the average payout was about £2,810 and that people spent the money quickly.

On average, they took less than three weeks to buy something.

The most popular purchase was a holiday, with 24% of respondents saying they had spent some or all of the cash on travel.

Buying a car was also a popular choice, with 22% saying their windfall was spent on a new or second-hand vehicle.

Others spent the money on household goods and furnishings.

A significant minority - 10% - reported that they spent the money on clothes, with 5% buying new shoes.

WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING.

· 24% Holidays

· 22% New car

· 19% Home appliances

· 17% Bills

· 13% Home furnishings

· 12% Savings

· 10% Clothes

· 8% Gadgets

· 5% Shoes

· 3% Groceries

· .0001% Camel

· Source:The BBC



To get what you are owed visit

www.consumerkings.co.uk

CURRENCY DISUNION.

The Scottish independence currency debate continues with George Osborne, Ed Balls and Danny Alexander stating categorically that the UK government will not enter into a currency union with an independent Scotland.

This has been poo pooeed by the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and his deputy Nicola Sturgeon who both state categorically that there will be a currency union and they have already printed pro independence T shirts with “THERE WILL BE A CURRENCY UNION” on them and accusing George Osborne, Ed Balls and Danny Alexander of calling the T shirts liars.

Miss Sturgeon said “T shirts always tell the truth”.

What?, even the ones that she and Alex Salmond wear when they are out and about and read “I’M WITH STUPID”.

The Scottish SNP Government are reluctant to reveal if they have a plan B, which they do, but they think that the plan B which is to have a Scottish currency called the Salmond with 100 Sturgeons to the Salmond might be seen as just a tad egotistical to the undecided voters.

The President of the European Union Manuel Barosso also stated categorically that Scotland will find it difficult if not impossible to join the European Union. This too was poo pooed by Mr Salmond and Miss Sturgeon who said “What does he know, he’s only the President of the European Union, and we know that Scotland can join the European Union easily because a man we met in the pub told us that, and he wasn’t that drunk”

The SNP Governments argument for the ease with which Scotland will become a part of the European Union is they’ve talked to the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest and they’ve told them that because Lulu was once an entrant this guarantees Scotland entry into the European Union. 

It’s all there in the European Union admission rules in black and white on page 458 of the agreement. Well it is now after Alex Salmond took a black ink marker and wrote it into the margins.

The nationalists fanatics who’ll vote yes despite the consequences of independence actually believe this. But the no voters think Alex and Nicola are talking poo poo, whereas the undecided are starting to realise the latter.

MIS-SOLD MORTGAGE UPDATE AND ERIC COWELL

MORTGAGE MIS-SELLING UPDATE

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS INCLUDE:

The Financial Ombudsman Service has recently ruled that home owners can obtain financial compensation from mortgage lenders/brokers if they have failed to provide the borrower with suitable advice. Home owners who begin such claims early may be able to avoid repossession.

WHY HAVE THESE CHANGES BEEN MADE?

In the boom years lenders were approving mortgages at record rates. Mortgage brokers were reaping the benefits through commission. In the rush to provide mortgages it appears that these institutions may have been professionally negligent and mis-sold mortgages.

Lenders and brokers are regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Their rulebook for mortgage advisors (Mortgage and Home Finance: Conduct of Business - MCOB) provide that advice must be “suitable for that customer”. Many people have been sold inappropriate or unaffordable mortgages and in the current climate are experiencing difficulties in making their repayments. Repossessions are on the rise, but can be postponed or even avoided if a mortgage mis-selling investigation is undertaken. The Financial Services & Markets Act 2000 provides that breaches of the MCOB rules are actionable at the suit of a private person who suffers loss as a result. The FOS ruling potentially opens the floodgates to a huge number of claims against lenders and brokers for failing to follow the FSA guidelines.

Examples can include:

• Where housing association tenants who had a fixed rent for life were persuaded to purchase the property, but were not advised what would happen when the attractive discounted rate set up on the mortgage ended.
• Where the broker dealt with certain aspects of the advice / application superficially
• Where a client has been sold a mortgage with a fixed rate for a specified period of the term of the mortgage (i.e the first 5 years of a 25 year mortgage are at a fixed rate whilst the remaining years are at a variable rate). If the monthly repayments on the fixed rate are so high that the borrower is pushed to their financial limit and would have no chance of paying the variable rate in the future and so is, in effect, borrowing beyond their means. If the borrower has been told that when the fixed rate ends they should remortgage with another lender to get a new fixed rate and as property prices were increasing this would be achievable. If the clients were not advised of the inherent risk in this approach they may not have been given suitable advice. As they may not have considered that the value of the property could fall leading them to negative equity, that remortgaging may not be possible (especially in view of the credit crunch) and that the variable rate may be too high to repay.   
• In addition Right To Buy purchasers have apparently received particularly poor advice

Who should a borrower claim against in the event of mortgage mis-selling?

It rather depends who sells the product. If it is sold by the sales force of the product provider then obviously the claim lies against the lender.

If it is sold by a broker then it lies against him. If the complaint is not dealt with by the broker adequately the client can refer to the FOS which has the explicit power to order the firm to pay for distress and inconvenience as well as financial loss. If the broker is insured and the claim is notified to insurers then they should deal with it. If the broker goes bust but was insured and the insurers don't avoid cover e.g. for late notification then the claimant can recover against the insurers under the Third Party Rights Against Insurers Act 1930.

In the event that a broker goes out of business or a lender has gone into liquidation, as they are both FSA regulated, clients can use the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to pursue any claim. Compensation can be sought for financial loss only. 

WWW.CONSUMERKINGS.CO.UK

EASYJET

EasyJet demanded to see the death certificate of a passenger who died before they’d agree a refund on his ticket. Ozan Yunus tragically died of meningitis shortly before he was to fly to Spain and his friend asked for a refund to donate it to charity. EasyJet said “If we had a penny for every refund we are were asked to issue because a passenger had apparently died we’d have........a penny because this is the first time we’ve ever given a refund”.

So EasyJet really aren’t very trusting then, so untrusting that it’s surprising really that they didn’t demand to see the will to ensure that the deceased had left his EasyJet ticket to his friend. They then realised that wills can be forged and then demanded to there at the reading.

An EasyJet spokesman said “We were fed up being only the second most hated airline behind Ryanair, so by demanding to see a death certificate we’re now number one”.

Bad as this is, the price the pair paid for their two seats was £108, yet EasyJet resold the seat for £92. Basically they profited from the man’s death.

Even Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said “Wow, and I thought we were bad”.

EasyJet did eventually apologise, sort of, they said “We would like to apologise for any inconvenience experienced at such a difficult time” adding “That we made a lot more difficult”.

I wonder if when his friend make the call to their customer service department he was told that the call was being recorded for training purposes. Hope so, and EasyJet use the call to train their staff not to be such a***holes.

ERIC

Simon Cowell has become a Dad and he’s already been reported to Social Services for landing his kid with the name Eric. And he’s been told by Mumsnet that just because he’s got man boobs doesn’t mean he can breast feed the poor kid. Which he revealed he was trying to do with a picture he released to the media.

Cowell said “I never knew how much love and pride I would feel”. Presumably he means for someone who isn’t himself”.

On the Eric thing. Originally Cowell told his paramour Lauren Silverman that he wanted to call the kid after his Father and she told him “There is no way I’m calling my child Dad”.

PARIS

According to the Daily Mail Paris Hilton went commando at her 33^rd birthday party. Paris said at the party that she felt like a Princess but I’m pretty sure that part of royal protocol for Princesses is to wear pants. In the literally hundreds of Barbie Princess movies there’s not one called Princess Pantless. 

So what did parents get her for her birthday?. They got her a plastic surgery voucher in the hope that she’d use it to get an expression for her face. Any expression would do because any expression would be better than looking completely vacant all the time.