Having difficulty reading this email? View it online

Dear listener

Well. That was soon over. Six weeks after my last newsletter and here we are again. Rested and rarin' to go. At least I am. I hope you are too. (And do listen to Michael Robinson's housing programmes Bricks and Bubbles that replaced Money Box for four weeks. Top stuff. All episodes here.

It might be the start of a new term but the latest story in my inbox is more lke deja vu. It's time to reprise an old favourite. Or as the banks would call it - will this hell never end?

Yep. It's PPI mis-selling redress - giving customers back the tens of billions of pounds they spent on largely useless insurance on loan repayments which they should never have been sold.

This week the banks have agreed to write to more than two and a half million customers who have applied for PPI redress but were either turned down or given too little. The FCA found that from 2012 the proportion of claims upheld fell sharply as banks started looking more closely at the merits of each claim. Or as some might say looked for ways to refuse them. Intervention by the FCA led to the rate rising later in 2013. But it is those lower uphold rates that have led to the FCA forcing the banks and other PPI providers to revisit two and a half million cases and write to all those involved.

If you get such a letter do not ignore it. If you have been turned down or have been paid less than you think you should have got, then respond to the letter and ask for your case to be reviewed. You can also refer recent refusals to the Financial Ombudsman Service which upholds most PPI cases in favour of the customer.

The consumer group Which? says that PPI is the biggest mis-selling scandal ever and has added up a total of £23.75 billion set aside by banks and other providers to meet the cost. Of this the FCA says £16 billion has actually been paid out, with the total rising by about £375 million a month. The top five banks have set aside nearly £2 billion extra to pay redress in their half yearly provisions. The banks' hell shows few signs of ending soon.


	In Money Box This Week

NISA OR NASTIA?

A record £5 billion was put into cash ISAs when the new limit of £15,000 began on 1 July. The banks responded by slashing the rates paid. More than 20 ISA providers have cut the rates by an average of 0.34 percentage points. Only half a dozen have raised rates. Why are they cutting rates just when people can put more in? Or is that a silly question? If you have more questions on ISAs, or about saving and investing, I'lll be back with three experts to answer them as part of our savings and investing phone-in on Money Box Live on Wednesday at 3pm. Call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk.

TRY AGAIN BUT KEEP IT QUIET

From Monday all banks will give us a second chance to avoid a penalty charge if a payment from our current account is bounced. As long as funds are put in the account by a least 2pm (later for many of them) a second try will enable the payment to be made without a penalty. But many banks will not tell us that we have a pending bounced payment. So we will not know that we have to do anything. So we may still have to pay an average of £12 for the privilege of missing a payment and getting a blot on our credit record.

MONEY LESSONS

From this term all 11-16 year olds will have lessons in managing money as part of the National Curriculum. We visit a school in Leicester to talk to pupils and teachers about what they are taught and how useful it is. Perhaps listening to Money Box should be regular coursework!

PRICE OF FREEDOM

The Chancellor has promised that from April anyone aged at least 55 will be able to take all their pension fund out and - after paying tax - spend it as they like. But there are worrying rumours that the pensions industry is busy planning to restrict this freedom - or at least make hefty charges if we want to enjoy it. Will the price of pension freedom be high?

Find out how we fit those four stories into our 24 Money Box minutes by listening at noon on Saturday. Or when it suits you within seven days via the marvellous Radio 4 iPlayer - as 20,000 of you do in a good week! If you miss that, the podcast is there effectively forever if you log on to www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moneybox where Money Box is well inside the top 100 of all programmes.

You can send us ideas or problems you want us to look into through the 'Contact Us' tab on our website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox. You can also listen to recent broadcasts of Money Box and Money Box Live (and older ones if you want to!) and get background on both programmes. Transcripts for programmes up to July 2014 are there too - click the 'Episodes' tag for recent programmes or 'Transcripts' for 2012 and earlier. Current episodes are no longer transcribed.

If your friends don't subscribe to the newsletter you can sign them up here (with permission from a very responsible adult).

Best Wishes,

Paul

I will be trailing one item on BBC 1 Breakfast around 0840 on Saturday morning. And back on Breakfast on Thursday with a new item - usually at 0640 and 0820 but times do change.