Citizens Advice urges ban on PPI cold-calling One Citizens Advice Bureau saw a client who paid more than £4,000 in charges, while some firms were charging up-front fees of £600 without being clear if the consumer would get a payout. One in five Citizens Advice clients was led to believe they could make a claim for PPI without having or being mis-sold a policy, with one in four finding themself in debt or financial difficulty after paying fees to a claims company, according to the report. Citizens Advice said its consumer service handled more than 4,800 queries about claims management companies offering PPI compensation services in the last seven months. Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: "People should give cold-callers the cold shoulder and go direct to their bank if they want to make a claim for PPI. We're advising them to ignore any unsolicited calls, texts, letters or emails from claims management companies. These firms are intimidating people in their home and wasting a lot of people's time, and in some cases money when they make a claim and nothing comes of it. They're not up front with their customers about fees, are charging excessive costs and aren't getting people the payout they deserve. Banks can stop their customers falling victim to these companies by doing more to tell them about mis-sold PPI and the compensation they're entitled to. But it is vital that the regulator introduces tougher measures to protect people from predatory claims firms. People were endlessly pestered about making a claim for an accident. Now it is PPI, and there will undoubtedly be another consumer crisis they try to exploit.