Reclaim CPP Card ProtectionMillions mis-sold, vote yes for redress

CPP will write to policyholders from 29 August with more information about the redress scheme and to inform them they may be entitled to compensation for a policy . Banks, credit card firms and CPP will also advertise in newspapers to make sure people hear about it. You do not need to do anything at this stage.

A second letter should be sent to you within 12 weeks of the first letter with more information about the proposed scheme and inviting you to vote on whether you want the scheme to go ahead. This is a legal requirement. Of the customers who vote, a majority will have to vote in favour of the scheme for this to happen. If a majority votes in favour, the High Court will be asked to approve the scheme.

The deadline for returning voting forms for the scheme is 5pm on 31 December 2013. A scheme meeting will then take place on 7 January 2014.

Our recommendation is that you vote in favour of the scheme – this is a huge mis-selling scandal and the millions that were mis-sold to deserve redress.

However, even if you vote against the scheme and it's still approved by the majority, you’ll be able to submit a claim.

The court hearing to sanction the scheme will take place on 14 January 2014. If the scheme is approved - which should be around 1 February 2014 - CPP will write to policyholders again. This time, it'll be to ask whether you want to be considered for redress. This will include a claim form that has to be completed, signed and returned to CPP before 31 July 2014.

Separate letters will be sent out for card protection and identity protection. The claim form will explain the failings the FCA found. In the box below you just need to allude to the failings you think you were subjected to and your claim will be paid.

The FCA won't be judging this on a case-by-case basis, meaning you don't need to provide stacks of paperwork to prove your policy was mis-sold. If you complain, you'll get your money back. It's that simple.

Any compensation paid will be done so on a rolling basis after the claim form has been received - so the sooner you return your claim form after you receive it, the quicker you should get your money back.

Because of the voting process, redress itself is not expected to be paid out until spring 2014. You'll get the money you paid in premiums, minus any money paid out by the policy. You'll also get interest, calculated at 8% per year.

All compensation payments will be paid by cheque, and if you're due compensation from both products you're likely to receive two cheques.

If you don't get a letter from your bank or from CPP, but believe that you were mis-sold one or both of the products, you can write to your bank's complaints department, or CPP to start a complaint. You can also call CPP on 0808 156 0199.

It would be helpful to have details of whether you believe you were mis-sold directly from the company or through your bank and details of the product name you think was mis-sold to you.

If you get no joy, don't forget you can take your complaint directly to the Financial Ombudsman.

Yes, the scheme is for policies bought or renewed from 2005.

CPP employed an automatic renewal approach - it renewed policies unless a customer contacted it to cancel after receiving a renewal pack.

It would send a renewal pack approximately three to six weeks before the policy automatically renewed. It didn't clearly set out what the customer should do in order to cancel. Instead, it was drafted on the basis that the policy would simply renew (for example, "Great news! Your identity protection insurance is renewing").

You might not have even received a renewal pack, as CPP failed to keep an up-to-date customer address list. By the time you realised payments were being taken it, would probably have been too late to do anything about it.

The policy automatically renewed within 14 days from the date of the notification letter. Once the cancellation window closed, you had to pay for the whole year as no refunds were allowed.

Last year, CPP agreed to remove this unfair term in its contracts, and has since stopped taking those renewal payments unfairly.

CPP has already written to around 46,000 customers affected by this and paid them a total of about £3m back.

If you've moved address in the time that you've had either of the CPP products, then you'll need to get in contact with it so it has the correct details for you.

You can call CPP free on 08000 83 43 93, or you can write to:

Scheme Processing Services Limited
PO Box 250
WYMONDHAM
NR18 8DG

Some people in the office have had trouble when trying to get in touch on the above telephone number. If this happens to you try calling using the number CPP provides for people calling from outside the UK, this seems to work - +44 1144 520 800.

Broadly speaking most people that were sold the card protection product are in line for compensation. However, there are some people that will be excluded from the scheme, including:

- Anyone who died on or before 27 June 2013 who had either of the products.

- Anyone that didn’t purchase either of the products from either CPP or one of the banks as a stand-alone product – for example if you got it as part of a packaged current account. If you think that you were mis-sold your packaged account read the Reclaim Packaged Accounts guide for how to reclaim.

- Anyone who as of 20 May 2013, would if they were a scheme creditor and had a valid claim, be due compensation of less than £5.

- Anyone who purchased the identity protection product direct - for instance if you went online and got it. But if you were mis-sold it over the phone, you're likely to get compensation.

If the compensation scheme isn't approved by voters it quite simply won't go ahead. If this is the case CPP says that you would still be able to complain to CPP or the relevant bank/card issuer in the usual way.

If you currently have, or are about to make a claim on a policy you will not be affected by the scheme, you can continue to make your claim as normal.

You're entitled to statutory 8% interest on any claim, as it's assumed you'd have earned money on that amount had it not been taken from you.

This is calculated at a flat 8% per year - it's not compounded, so you don't get interest on the interest. Say you reclaim £100 for two years' worth of fees. If the interest compounded, year one's fee reclaim would get you £108, and year two's would get you £108.64. Flat interest just gives you a straight £8 each year.

Here are the key ways it was mis-sold:

1. I was told I needed it for the fraud protection
   CPP and banks told customers one of the major benefits was fraud protection, which provided cover for fraud of up to £100,000. Yet banks have to cover fraud anyway, unless they can prove the customer was grossly negligent.

2. I tried to cancel but was forced to keep it
   If CPP told you that you had to keep the policy when you asked to cancel it, it's likely you've got a case for a reclaim.

   But there's a fine line between being forced to keep paying up and CPP sales staff strongly encouraging you to keep it. It's far less likely the latter could be interpreted as mis-selling, unless high-pressure tactics were used.

3. The risk of ID fraud was overstated, scaring me into getting the product
   CPP staff overstated the risk of ID fraud, pressuring customers into thinking ID protection was a product they needed.

4. CPP hiked the price and didn't tell me
   The price of CPP's protection products rose rapidly during the 2000s. Check paperwork to see if this price rise was advertised to you at renewal time(s).

5. My policy auto-renewed and I didn't have time to cancel
   Once the policy was taken out, CPP would send a notice of renewal 14 days before the anniversary of the policy. Often this just told you your policy was renewing, and you didn't have time to cancel, thus being charged the full year's premium.

As long as you claim within three years of knowing you could claim, there is no problem, even if the mis-selling happened a decade ago.

This issue only hit mainstream news headlines in late 2012, so you should be fine.

Yes. You'll get the money you paid in premiums, minus any money paid out by the policy. You'll also get interest, calculated at 8% per year.

The key here is whether you could have used the policy. If you were eligible but simply never had a need to use it, that's not mis-selling - unless you never realised you actually had the plan.

If the account holder has passed away, any monies owed become part of their estate, so the person who inherits is entitled to reclaim (let the executor know too). If there's no will, this follows the rules of intestacy (see the HMRC website). Yet it's worth noting there may be problems proving what happened at the time of the sale if only the policyholder was present.

If someone you know requires help with their finances, and they're capable to instruct you to act on your behalf, it's worth trying.

If the person has a mental health condition, or other issues that mean they didn't fully understand the product being sold, they are more than likely to have a case.

No, you have a right to complain and take it to the Ombudsman. Your bank can't put the fact you've complained on your credit file, for example.

Past Ombudsman rulings show your bank can't hold this against how it treats you, though of course, if it agrees you were mis-sold, it can end your plan (if you haven't cancelled already).

The one negative, though, is the bank will know this information when you apply for another product from it (not any other bank), and it could decide to incorporate that into its decision, but past experience shows this is unlikely.

Given the massive scale of the mis-selling uncovered by the FCA, we think you've got a good case, even if the mis-selling happened before 2005.

But don't take any chances. Explain exactly how it was mis-sold, and make sure you provide evidence where necessary.

Sometimes this will take a long time. Possibly around a year, but maybe even longer as the Ombudsman deals with huge numbers of complaints - especially with the current avalanche of PPI mis-selling issues. But don't worry - you can leave the matter to the Ombudsman to resolve and it will contact you with any offers from your lender.

The Ombudsman's decision is usually made by an assigned adjudicator. If you disagree with the result, you can ask for a formal decision to be made by one of the official ombudsmen at the service. This usually takes several months as it involves a detailed investigation into your case, but don't be afraid to push your complaint further if you think the initial decision isn't right.

After that, while the finance company must accept the Ombudsman's decision, you still have the right to take the company to court if you don't agree with the result.

It's also worth noting that if you feel the Ombudsman hasn't handled your case correctly, eg, there have been unnecessary delays, you can ask for a senior manager to review it. If that doesn't resolve things, you've a right to go to the Independent Assessor (though this is only about quality of service, not the actual decision made).

For other complaints the Ombudsman can help with, see the Your Financial Rights guide.