Financial Complaints

Wednesday 14th January 2009

STAGE 1 - FINANCIAL COMPLAINTS

What programme?  - Picking the right horse....

Financial complaints has exploded in the UK with millions of consumers claiming back unfair bank charges, unfair mortgage fees, credit card fees, mis-sold loan insurance...the list goes on. 

We have already  publicized one programme  run by www.claimsfinancial.co.uk and hundreds of brokers have signed up already  but we think it might be helpful to explain the various other options and considerations so that you can make an informed decision as to what is best for you and find out why we highlighted this particular company out of the dozens out there.

Brokers tell us that the most important ingredients in any financial complaints programme (and in this order) are:

1.    Trust and Reputation– you need to know your client will remain your client and be well looked after and come back to you for repeat business.
2.    Money – it is business so quite rightly you want to make as much money as possible (subject to your clients be looked after)
3.    Ease – you need it to be simple, easy and as little effort as possible.  You want to deal with as few companies as possible and know that they will deal with every client, every claim  and get the job done.

Cherry Pickers  vs  The Consumer Champions

The programmes seem to fit fairly neatly into 2 categories and you may be surprised to learn that the ethical companies also offer better commercials.

Some companies offer high up front payments for certain cases - The Cherry Pickers

The promise of £100-150 per case is attractive but a little digging will reveal that this is only paid for certain cases of a certain value, which are normally sold on to law firms etc  What about the 80% of your clients who have strong claims, of say £2000?  Are you really going to not help your clients because lawyers can’t get rich off their back?

Also, do make sure that the company isn’t charging your clients high up front fees (many do) – it always ends in tears and remember it was you who referred them.

“But £150 is a lot of money especially in this grim market – I don’t mind cherry picking”

OK, but if you are going to reject so many viable claims and search for the ones that meet certain criteria then why only accept £100-150?

For example, some may offer up to £150 for a mis-sold loan insurance claim of more than £5000.  If you are going to reject 80% of PPI claims for your £150 payment why would you accept only £150?  For example, a £15,000 PPI claim would earn you £560 commission minimum with Claims Financial. This is 4 times more money for you for the same work.  If you are going to go to the effort of sifting through your database for these high value cases then we think it is logical to get paid properly.

The Consumer Champions see  www.claimsfinancial.co.uk

This type of programme is shaped around the consumer and is also  a compelling business model .  Yes, they do need to charge for their services but their objective is to help every consumer with every claim whether small or big.  They will deal with the big £30k PPI claims but will also deal with the £500 credit card claims.  You will know that every client you refer gets looked after.

This makes complete sense.

1.    You  know your client is being looked after – unless the company wins, the service is FREE
2.    You can sign up each client you have to 2-3 cases (credit cards, mortgage exit/arrears fees, mis-sold loan insurance) and keep them all under one umbrella (no management headache).
3.    You get commission on every case the company does and in bigger claims the amount you get will be double or even quadruple what the cherry pickers pay.  (Best of both worlds)
4.    You get to use all these cases as a ‘way in’ to your clients letter box/inbox  for your primary business – and build your brand/reputation.

THE WINNER IS: The Consumer Champions