BOI - Compensation for Credit Card Protection Policy

Grant Stevens

My wife received a letter from BOI stating the following:

"This letter requires your prompt & careful consideration. You may be entitled to compensation for your Card Protection Policy"

"Dear xxx

We are writing to you at the request of the Central Bank of Ireland in connection with your Card Protection policy, an insurance product provided by Homecare Insurance Limited (HIL) that you selected when you applied for your Bank of Ireland Credit Card.

It has been identified that customers may have been provided with misleading information when they purchased this product. Accordingly, at the request of the Central Bank of Ireland, Bank of Ireland has agreed to participate voluntarily in a redress scheme.

We are writing to all customers who purchased Card Protection insurance before the 1st August 2011. Eligible customers will be given the opportunity to claim a refund of Card Protection premiums paid since the introduction of the Consumer Protection Code on the 1st August 2006."

"Please be aware that this product is no longer available to new customers and once we have instructed Homecare Insurance Limited to cancel your policy, you will be unable to purchase it again from them"


Has anyone else received this letter in recent weeks? What i find unusual is that banks don't usually volunteer to revoke/review policies and issue refunds unless there's something in it for them (reminding you of the letters they sent out to Tracker Mortgage holders a few years ago in a failed attempt to fool people in to changing their policies!). My wife has had this insurance since she got her card around 2007. She would definitely be entitled to a refund for all years concerned however, i'm just wondering what you guys think of this type of notice. Also, i took out a credit card (same day as my wife) back then but cancelled it in November 2014. I haven't received this letter as I'm obviously not a BOI CC holder anymore but would I also be entitled to compensation under these grounds for premiums purchased in the past?

I welcome any thoughts on this...

Stheno

The central bank is forcing the banks to do this due to misselling of these policies

mahoganygas

This was in the media recently. You're right, there is no benefit to the banks for issuing this compensation. The central bank is forcing them into the redress scheme.

I think there were two or more lenders involved. It might take some time for all of the letters to be sent out. If I was to guess they will probably roll out the letters in tranches. They don't want thousands of customers ringing up for compensation first thing the next morning.

If you're curious about your own credit card, why not give the bank a call. They should be able to tell you whether or not you were miss-sold a policy.

Best of luck with it.

Hairymilo

I just received the same letter from Ulster Bank card protection dept. Grant did your wife return the claim form?

Grant Stevens

Apologies for the mild absence! my wife returned the completed from...then I received a compensation letter/form only days later. Neither of us have heard anything since. I believe that compensation is being offered to those who feel they were given misleading information in relation to their policies. In returning a completed form one agrees to discontinue with the insurance policy and also waive their right to seek future compensation in lieu if the small fee they intend to refund. it has me thinking that people may actually be in for larger claims should they wish to pursue it at a higher level. I believe the issue lies with information contained within the policy (provided by a third party) rather than with the banks in question. Still, if there's an opportunity to receive cash-back from an irish bank I reckon most people would jump at the chance

Oasis1974

Just got a refund myself from the letter i sent back in the start of June i think. Just put in my account no literature.

slinky2000

Got my refund on Friday, yes!

Rooster1772

Grant Stevens wrote: »

Apologies for the mild absence! my wife returned the completed from...then I received a compensation letter/form only days later. Neither of us have heard anything since. I believe that compensation is being offered to those who feel they were given misleading information in relation to their policies. In returning a completed form one agrees to discontinue with the insurance policy and also waive their right to seek future compensation in lieu if the small fee they intend to refund. it has me thinking that people may actually be in for larger claims should they wish to pursue it at a higher level. I believe the issue lies with information contained within the policy (provided by a third party) rather than with the banks in question. Still, if there's an opportunity to receive cash-back from an irish bank I reckon most people would jump at the chance

Just being offered €14 a year refund since 2006 plus €7 interest ridiculous

P. Breathnach

Rooster1772 wrote: »

Just being offered €14 a year refund since 2006 plus €7 interest ridiculous

What's ridiculous about it?

hidinginthebush

I received one of these letters today from aib. From what I can see its essentially a free cheque for 160 plus interest. Is there any reason why I shouldn't claim this refund?

P. Breathnach

hidinginthebush wrote: »

I received one of these letters today from aib. From what I can see its essentially a free cheque for 160 plus interest. Is there any reason why I shouldn't claim this refund?

It might feel like money for nothing, and you might be very happy to get it. But the underlying fact is that it is your money, money that the bank should not have charged you in the first place.

I think you should claim it and treat it like a bonus: perhaps give yourself a treat.

Terpsichorean Master

I received one of these letters from AIB a few weeks back also; and in mine it states that I have to return it "by 01/10/15 so that we can process your refund".

Does anyone know whether or not this date is set in stone or is it likely to just be an administrative boundary assigned so as to make it easier for themselves?
(i.e. to just be processing a certain amount of claims at any given time)

Also, does anyone know what are the options with regard to making a further claim?
Is it possible and is anyone doing it; or has anyone even heard it being discussed or have more information about it?


I heard a guy being interviewed on the radio recently who is suing one of the Irish banks here, can't remember which one off-hand, after being systematically overcharged on his mortgage; he's a solicitor and when the bank attempted to offer him a paltry settlement in relation to the €60,000+ that they'd defrauded him of over a number of years, 8/9 if memory serves - I think to the tune of 10% compensation plus a refund of the amount overcharged - and ensure that, much like this very instance, his right to claim would thus be nullified, he decided to take a legal action against them.

He did this, he said, because he understood the law and that after engaging with the bank initially and realising that their approach was again the very same with regard to the compensation, as it had been with the fraud in the first instance - i.e. to keep their customers ignorant so as to service the bank's interests at their expense, effectively screwing them as much as possible (I'm paraphrasing but that was more or less it) as their default position - that he was going to use his professional legal knowledge to ensure that, not only would they not get away with trying to do that to him and that they would pay a high price for attempting to do so, but that those who didn't know the law as well as him wouldn't remain vulnerable to their continuing predatory practices in this situation either, as a result of his action.


The reason I say this, is that this whole process regarding the Pinnacle Card Insurance is being handled in exactly the same manner by AIB et al, IMO. The banks are trying to pay everyone off cheaply and quickly, with only the most cursory of informatory engagement, and by doing so are removing/denuding people's right to claim further or to be compensated on anyone else's terms, other than the bank's - which is exactly how they want it. They've decided how much you should be compensated - and at what rate - for their malfeasance; but yet they don't even see fit to inform you of what that actually is or how that works in advance?

Just, here's the form, sign it and send it back and we'll give you a "refund"; you can trust us that it'll be fair - even though we're the one's responsible for misleading you and using the subsequent confusion and/or misinformation to take your money in the first place. Well no, sorry; I don't ....... think so!

Just to clarify, the letter states that they are "establishing a voluntary redress scheme", when even the most clueless customer knows that they are, in fact, being forced to do so by the Irish Central Bank. Their rhetoric is of the style that I'm being "given an opportunity to claim a refund of premiums paid" and that to receive such I just have to "request a refund", i.e. the onus is on me to request this, which, although I could be wrong (does anyone know for sure?), seems to me to be how that would/could then nullify any further legal claim that I might have; and that if I enter into this 'scheme', that they "will return all premiums paid [...] plus compensatory interest" - without so much as a mention of what the compensatory interest rate is or how it will be applied; indeed it isn't ever referred to or mentioned again in any other way. Even the fact that it's overall being designated a 'refund', rather than the compensation it's supposed to actually be, comes across much like a legal dodge IMO.

And, after seven odd years of the whole country being saddled with enormous debt due to these institutions and their ongoing reckless practices; and the utter absence of repercussions for past or deterrents for future behaviour(s) and how that has translated to a thousand and one increasing social, personal and economic costs and decreasing services/facilities/provisions etc. in all of our lives; and, on a personal bank-customer level, the ever-increasing extra account 'service' costs that suddenly appeared in my dealings with them and that just keep growing as they freely and without compunction pass on the cost to customers during their 'return to profitably' - all of which is happening at our expense anyway, yet again; so something needs to change! As such, I've had just about enough of having to tolerate this and am only too willing to take any available opportunity to soften their cough and make them pay for their ongoing arrogant attitude, pattern-of-behaviour 'incompetency' and systematic avariciousness, if at all I can.


So, if anyone knows anything about how someone might engage with a cost-effective means (considering that I paid this premium for nine years @ €16 p.a., plus whatever the 'compensatory interest' might be, so it's not a large sum they're offering - less than €200 I'd imagine) of developing a further legal claim against them, or if there's any appetite or opportunity for whatever equivalent of a class-action suit is available here, I'd love to know - all and any information to be most gratefully received indeed!


Thanks in advance!

_Kaiser_

I got one of these letters from AIB today as well - same format as above. I'm guessing the best thing is just to take the money then?

My own plan is then to move the account elsewhere as the fees are just ridiculous on top of everything else.

Terpsichorean Master

I don't know but considering the lack of info or seeming absence of viable alternative options, it appears that way.

I'm most likely going to close my account also; I got hit for another €10 of mystery charges today and I'm sick and tired of it!

And trying to find someone who can validly explain why it's costing so much - well, that's as likely as finding minutes from a NAMA meeting!

That so-called excuse for a bank, AIB, does less than it ever has wrt handling my account, and it's costing me more and more of my money every day; and for nothing.

I'd love nothing more than to be able to give them a dose of their own medicine; so, once again, if anyone knows anything about viable alternative options in this situation - I'd love to hear all about them!