PPI, incomes, new homes and spending

The Financial Conduct Authority has finally announced a deadline for people seeking compensation over mis-sold payment protection insurance. The City regulator has said that people will have to make their claims before 29 August 2019. In one of the industry’s biggest scandals, banks have set aside more than £40 billion to meet the payouts. Although millions of people have already received compensation, it is thought that many more have yet to lodge claims. The BBC reports that the FCA will conduct a two-year public awareness campaign, starting in August this year. Incomes The Telegraph reports that ‘Britons should brace for two years of stagnant real pay as inflation surges while cautious employers hold back wage hikes’. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the ‘long shadow’ of the financial crisis means that from the start of the crisis to 2021, households will suffer the worst income squeeze for 60 years. New homes Following recent revelations that Bovis Homes paid £7 million in compensation to customers with poorly built homes, a new report by the housing charity Shelter has found that more than half of the buyers of new homes have experienced major problems with their properties. The Guardian reports on Shelter’s YouGov survey which discovered that 51 per cent of homeowners of recent new builds in England said they had experienced major problems including issues with construction, unfinished fittings and faults with utilities. Spending

Data released by Barclaycard today as part of its latest Contactless Spending Index shows supermarket shoppers are increasingly turning to ‘touch and go’ as their payment method of choice when making purchases up to the value of £30.

With all major supermarkets now accepting contactless following the roll-out by Sainsbury’s late last year, groceries bought through ‘touch and go’ technology have risen 136 per cent by value and 114 per cent by volume in the last 12 months – as shoppers make higher value purchases with their contactless cards and devices and also use them more frequently.

The news comes as industry body the UK Cards Association reveals that overall contactless payments accounted for £25 billion of spending in 2016, up from £7.75 billion in 2015. This is supported by Barclaycard data which shows that spending across all categories rose 166 per cent during the same period. 

Claims companies

Six million consumers have turned to a claims management company instead of lodging a complaint directly with their bank because many believed the complaints process would be too complicated – yet nearly two thirds of these complaints been unsuccessful. That’s according to new research from uSwitch.com, the price comparison and switching service.

Apprehension about complaining to their bank has led one in ten Brits to turn to a claims management company for help, while a third say they will consider doing so in the future. Of those that would look to do so, half believe it will improve their chances of making a successful claim and nearly four in ten say it would be easier than dealing with their bank direct.