British consumers are being advised that they may have believed that a genuine application for claiming money back was just junk mail.
The letters concern the misselling of protection schemes.
Card Protection Plan (CPP) is a global company whose products included one for debit or credit card protection which let customers call one number to stop all lost or stolen cards. The other was an ID fraud protection which promised to cover people for the risk and liability of identity theft.
These were deemed to have been missold and CPP was fined £10.5 million by the Financial Conduct Authority. After this, the company agreed to a central redress scheme to repay customers.
CPP was one name for the plan, but others were used, such as CardGuard, Card Protection Plus, Card Safe or Egg Emergency Cover.
More than 7 million people in the UK have been sent CPP redress letters for policies dating back to 2005.
Yet only 1.7 million people have responded, raising fears that people mistook the instructions to fill in the form to get money back as a con.
The refunds have been averaging £200.
The deadline for returning the forms is 30 August 2014.
Anyone who has received a letter is almost certainly a victim of misselling. The company communicates only by letter, and not by email.
If anyone thinks they have binned such a letter in error, contact the scheme team to ask for another letter.
“Any Scheme Creditor who has any questions concerning this notice or who requires assistance in completing the claim form, should contact our freephone number 08000 834 393 (outside of the UK dial + 1144 520 800), quoting your policy number or unique customer reference number. The telephone helpline is available between 8am and 9pm Monday to Friday, and 8am to 6pm on Saturdays.”
See www.cppredressscheme.co.uk
