Leading law firm Higgs & Sons today issued advice to customers affected by the latest financial mis-selling scandal – as letters detailing a £1.3 billion compensation scheme are sent to seven million victims.
Solicitors at Higgs & Sons say every person mis-sold card protection policies issued by Card Protection Plan Limited (CPP) since 2005 will receive a letter about the compensation scheme in the next few weeks.
Ian Bond, projects partner at Higgs’ private client team, said the move came after the financial regulator ruled the policies were worthless and fined CPP a record £10.5million.
“Anyone who bought a card and/or identity protection policy from CPP directly or through their bank or card issuer at any point after January 14 2005 is affected by this latest scandal,” he said.
Mr Bond said some of the letters could be addressed to people who had subsequently died which might cause some distress to family members.
“These policies were worthless and the new Financial Conduct Authority has fined the company in question and ordered them to contact all policyholders to notify them of the possibility of compensation.
“Those letters are now starting to go out and, in some cases, could be addressed to people who have subsequently died or have lost capacity to deal with matters themselves. In cases where Higgs have acted we would urge them to get in touch with us.”
Mr Bond said 13 banks and credit card firms had financed the compensation scheme.
They were:
• Bank of Scotland Plc (part of Lloyds Banking Group)
• Barclays Bank Plc
• Canada Square Operations Limited (formerly Egg Banking Plc)
• Capital One (Europe) Plc
• Clydesdale Bank Plc (part of National Australia Group Europe)
• Home Retail Group Insurance Services Limited
• HSBC Bank Plc
• MBNA Limited
• Morgan Stanley Bank International Limited
• Nationwide Building Society
• Santander UK Plc
• The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc
• Tesco Personal Finance Plc
He said the level of compensation was likely to be considerably smaller than for the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims, but warned that claims management companies may still try to profit from the scheme.
He warned “The CPP logo should appear on all official communications about the compensation and would advise anybody against responding to correspondence from claims management companies.”
Higgs & Sons works from two offices in the Black Country – Waterfront Business Park in Brierley Hill and Kingswinford. The firm employs more than 200 people, which includes over 100 specialist lawyers.
For specialist advice on all aspects of private client work, contact Ian on 0845 111 5050 or email Ian.Bond@higgsandsons.co.uk