CPP customers to get payout

CPP, an identity theft and fraud insurance company, has agreed to repay all customers who had their insurance renewed without being informed.

It's an embarrassing slip for the company, and this is even before a full investigation has been carried out by the FSA into broader issues surrounding sales calls and renewals.

The issue

The problem hit in May last year - shortly after the investigation was launched - when a third party administration firm forgot to send out renewal letters to customers coming to the end of their annual subscription.

The usual procedure was to deliver the letters, let people know that their policy would be automatically renewed if they didn't take any action, and then give them 14 days to cancel. Without the letters, the first that people knew about their renewal was when £83.99 was taken out of their accounts to pay for another year of cover.

Refunds

CPP is offering a full refund to anyone affected, which they can claim when their policies are automatically renewed this year. They will have to make the claim for the refund during their 14 day 'cooling off period'.

The offer still stands if they claimed on their policy in the 12 months previously. Mike Kneafsey, CPP managing director in the UK said: "I have written to all affected customers to apologise and offer a refund should they wish to cancel their policy."

FSA

The FSA continues to investigate sales and renewals practices at the firm and says it has "serious concerns about the way CPP has sold identity and card protection policies."

It had announced in February that "CPP will also change its renewals process to make it clearer that customers do not have to renew their cover, and to explain the benefits and limitations of the relevant product."

It seems there may have been some issues when the process was reviewed.