Have you been mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance in the past? Then *you* could be entitled to squillions of pounds in compensation!
In the same way that I have been able to tune out the "are you a homeowner?" adverts and pleas for me to send in other people's gold or mobile phones in exchange for cash, I've taught myself to give this current reincarnation of the ambulance chaser a damn good ignoring. That is until a friend of mine reported that he had received a nice lump due to PPI compensation.
This got me thinking. Have I actually had PPI on any of the many loans that I've had over the last 10 years? Which then got me answering "Yes. Yes I have." Right from the damn start when I was a fresh faced 25 year old kid with a good job and very little prospect of unemployment, not to mention long term sick benefits that are pretty much standard in any large company, I've been paying PPI.
Did my bank ask if these products were necessary before adding at least 15% on to my loan repayments? No, they didn't. Did I buy them because they were recommended by my bank and therefore by my financial advisors? Yes I did.
I'll have that back then please.
First things first, I rang my mate who'd made a successful claim.
"Alright, Son? It's Carter."
"Hello mate. To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"I saw that you had a bit of good news with that PPI thing."
"I did!" he beamed.
"Excellent. I've got an investment opportunity that you might want to hear about."
"Um…"