TV advert exaggerated payout claims
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Your support makes all the difference.A misleading television commercial that claimed mortgage borrowers could get compensation worth tens of thousands of pounds for mis-sold home loans has been banned.
The ad, which has been running since April this year to promote claims-management company Money Boomerang, exaggerated the amount of cash that may result from a mis-sold mortgage payout, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled this week.
While a voice-over on the ad suggested: "You may have a claim worth tens of thousands of pounds", the company was not able to provide any firm evidence backing up that claim.The firm provided four examples in which its own expert had suggested that claims could be made for amounts between £3,377 and £29,828. But the ASA pointed out that the cases had not yet been taken up and therefore no decision about the level of damages to be awarded had been made.
The ASA said this week that the amounts mentioned in the advert "were misleading and had not been substantiated" and rapped the firm for making claims "for which they did not hold substantiation".
It's not the first time the claims company – which grew out the payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal – has been contentious. Last year ,Money Boomerang's managing director, Craig Lowther, said the total value of claims for mis-sold mortgages by advisers and brokers "will be close to that for PPI". But the Financial Ombusdman Service said it was unlikely payments would be as large as claimed.
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