You smell smoke and you think your house is on fire, so should you call the builder that sold it to you or the fire brigade? 

Although the scale of the bonus is still eye watering, Lloyds Banking Group has withheld £800,000 of the £1.45 million bonus awarded to former chief executive Eric Daniels for his last year in charge. Other senior executives may also see their bonuses affected.

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A couple from Nottinghamshire won £45 million in the Euromillions lottery - what were you imagining doing with that money?! 

PPI bosses to repay bonuses?

According to the City editor at Sky News, Mark Kleinman, bank bosses met at the offices of the Financial Services Authority recently to be told they should claw back the bonuses paid to executives involved in the mis-selling of PPI.

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RBS chief executive turns down eye-watering bonus

We are delighted to hear that sanity has finally prevailed with Stephen Hester, the chief executive at Royal Bank of Scotland, turning down his mammoth bonus of £963,000 worth of RBS shares.

We’re well into 2012 and your memories of the festive season may well have faded into the January blues. To make matter worse, you’ve probably just received a batch of credit card and store card bills detailing your Christmas and New Year spend.

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The Financial Ombudsman Service is seeking to add a third more staff to its books in order to deal with the additional workload caused by complaints about PPI claims.

It looks like 2012 will be another year of delays for everyone involved in claiming back refunds on mis-sold PPI.

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It’s the New Year and may we wish you a happy one! However the post-Christmas blues can set in all too quickly. And it’s not just seasonal spending that’s catching up with us this year - these really are the days when money is too tight to mention.

There are times in life when we all benefit from giving a little thought to others around us. With the festive season just over and a new year dawning, this is a great time to do that proverbial good turn for those close to you.

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It’s been confirmed by the FSA that PPI compensation actually paid out in 2011 to victims of mis-selling will be over £1 billion.

In fact as the FSA’s data is nearly 2 months behind, it is likely that the final total for the year could well top £1.5 billion.

Q: Why don't sharks attack bankers?
A: Professional courtesy.

With the festive season right upon us, we thought you might appreciate the following heart-warming carol.

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Lloyds has been on our watch list for sometime as one of the worst PPI offenders.

Now we are concerned they are again trying to pull the wool over your eyes by sending out offers of compensation direct to you.

We’re pleased to see that a key player in the banking industry has been held to account for another mis-selling charge recently.

In addition to the major banking players being shamed over the PPI scandal, HSBC has now been singled out for its appalling investment advice to elderly customers needing long term care.

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This week the Financial Ombudsman Service has announced a steep increase in the amount of claims being made. The average is now 3000 per week – a huge rise compared to last September, when claims dropped drastically.

It’s been reported this week that lead accountancy firm Deloitte, who are handling thousands of PPI complaints on behalf of several banks, have taken out new property leases across London with the sole purpose of housing staff to handle claims.

90,000 square feet of space over three floors of the Royal Mint Court development near Tower Hill are being used by Deloitte staff to finally crack on with your claims.

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This week due to fears of a repeat in payment protection mis-selling, the FSA have prompted a radical crackdown.

The Financial Services Authority and the Office of Fair Trading are working together to ensure you aren't mis-sold insurance through your lender again. Many of you were misled over the costs involved in Payment Protection Insurance, or found you would never have been able to claim do to sickness, age or employment status.

We received quite an email over the weekend regarding the status of your PPI claim.

Banking giant, The Royal Bank of Scotland got in touch to tell us that they're going to be taking a little while longer to process your refund. Who'd have thought it!

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The negative connotations of PPI will be difficult to reverse. Thousands of people have been ill-treated by trusted banks and lenders, in one of the biggest economic scandals for a generation. However, it isn't all bad.

Thanks to the increasing appetite of consumer organisations to stand up to the banks, the list of bank 'scandals' that have come to light in recent years just gets longer and longer. 

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It is good to see that Money Saving Expert and Which? have now teamed up to launch some best practice guidance to help the public select reputable claims management companies to handle their Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims.

We are very grateful to the BBC's Watchdog for highlighting sharp practices some PPI Claims Management Companies use. It's a shame they only highlighted the bad bits, though! As professional journalists and consumer champions we would have expected a more balanced report.

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Just when we think that the banks can't sink any lower with the mis-sold PPI refunds outrage, HSBC has found a new low!

And so they should be! The word is definitely spreading and many people are now making a claim for mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) from their lenders.

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We are cynical about the banks’ current PR push, grabbing headlines such as ‘PPI scandal leads Lloyds to £3.3bn first-half pre-tax loss.’

It appears that the Student Loans Company has taken £millions in overpayments, and students should be taking action to ensure they get their money back quickly.

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This week has seen further announcements in the press of the massive reductions to the armed forces that are being planned for from 2015 to pay for military equipment; cuts of more than 11,000 soldiers have been reported, taking the Army to the smallest it has been since Victorian times.

The banks have admitted to mis-selling Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) to thousands of customers and have now agreed to pay them compensation. Not happy with cheating the public out of their hard-earned cash once, the banks have now decided to increase the interest rates on Personal Loans for no apparent reason; 'they give with one hand and take it back with the other.'

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We all know that we are living in a world where political correctness has gone mad in many areas of society – have you ever thought to ask yourself why school children never fail an exam these days and more 'A' grades than ever are awarded?

Whilst money experts are giving a lot of advice on how to claim compensation for mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance, there are flaws in their arguments which would indicate that individual claimants need to pool together and fight the banks as a campaign, rather than just do as they are told.

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Banks are currently running a ferocious campaign against Claims Management Companies in the area of repaying mis-sold PPI. This is because they know that CMCs are responsible for the majority of claims and because they know they can sometimes pay less compensation if they do not have to deal with CMCs.

Some people are always passing on recommendations; others choose to remain tight-lipped about good or bad experiences.

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Unless you have been away on holiday, you can’t have missed the huge national news that our campaign for banks to treat their customers fairly has helped to reach a massive milestone of success.

Overall, complaints about ‘advising, selling and arranging’ insurance increased by 47% to 538,427 between July 1 and December 31 2010, according to new FSA data published this week. This is mainly caused by the increase in complaints about payment protection insurance, the regulator said.

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We’ve been sold a Royal Wedding, and our expectations as a Nation are high. It’s fair to say that the world’s eyes are upon us; we seem to be good at attracting the limelight, and time will tell if we live up to it this weekend. We certainly have a reputation for royal pageants, stretching back centuries.

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This is the news we’ve all been waiting for and it’s good to see that justice has been done. The mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) over many years by the banks is a national scandal…

RBS announced that it paid a total of £375m to 323 people designated as "code" or key staff, according to the BBC who said:

“RBS, 83%-owned by the taxpayer after a government bail-out in 2008, made a £1.67bn loss in 2010, after losses of £3.6bn in 2009 and £35bn in 2008.”

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The Royal Bank of Scotland, 83%-owned by the taxpayer after the bailout in 2008 made a loss of £1.67bn in 2010, and yet rewarded over 300 key members of staff with bonuses totalling £375m. It seems utterly astounding in the current climate that so many people can be rewarded so lavishly for making a loss.

The media has quickly seized on the story that former RBS Chief Fred Goodwin has taken out a super-injunction to stop the press referring to him as a banker. The news broke when backbench Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming raised the issue in The Commons, and it quickly sparked outrage across news networks and social media.

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Mervyn King incited the wrath of the banks this month when he suggested that banks routinely rip off their customers, and they were quick to respond by suggesting that he is “out of touch” and “oblivious to reality.”

When I was younger, I used to think that if I closed my eyes, no one else could see me in the dark. And we all remember sticking our fingers in our ears and saying “La la la, can’t hear you” if someone was telling us something we didn’t want to know. I only bring these things up because for most of us they’re memories from childhood, but for some of the banks, it appears to be the way they’re communicating...

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Now that the increase VAT rate has hit consumer’s pockets and fuel costs seem to be increasing every day, how can we make sure we’re making the most of our money?

As the news emerges that Lloyds Banking Group boss Eric Daniels is in line for a bonus of £2 million this year and Barclays boss Bob Diamond considers whether or not he should accept one, isn’t it about time someone asked how banks can even be considering such pay outs when there are still thousands of customers who are out of pocket?

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I’m sure everyone remembers what happened to reclaiming bank charges, the banks went to the European Supreme Court to get a ruling by the FSA overturned, meaning millions of people with extortionate charges were unable to reclaim their money. Black Horse has recently won a case where a client had claimed that insurance had been mis-sold, is this beginning of the end for claims against mis-sold PPI?

Had a Loan, credit card or mortgage? - There is a good chance you were sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). If so you may be owed £1000s in compensation

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