Going about your mis-sold payment protection insurance

The amount of bad publicity that Payment Protection Insurance has been getting to this date is unimaginable. The news channels, the papers, and even Social Media has written so much about how people have been victimised by a lot of schemes financial institutions practiced just to sell these policies to their credit consumers.

In an ideal point of view, PPI does not seem to be a bad product for people to take alongside their credit applications. It actually helps consumers in keeping up with the repayment of their debts in times that they suddenly become unable to because they were made redundant at work, got sick, or had an accident. Some of these policyholders were able to reap these benefits as they were carefully informed of the information that they needed about PPI.

However, there has been a large majority of the credit consumers’ population that were subjected to the massive fraudulent selling of Payment Protection Insurance. Most of them were unaware that they were signed up to it, while others were kept in the dark about the pertinent details. There are also others who were forced to buy the policy, having made to believe it was compulsory, regardless if they were ineligible for cover. If you’ve heard enough, you could have learnt that people under the age of 18 and those over 65, with pre-existing medical condition, or those not employed full time were still sold the policy alongside their credit agreements.

What should you do then if you were one of the victims of this scam? Well, you’ve got two options to claim back and a few trouble-free steps to follow. First, you could hire an expert to advise you accordingly on how PPI claims are done. They can also do the dirty work on your behalf, battling against your bank on the validity of you case. Or, you can also make the claim yourself.

What you need to begin with is an ample amount of proof that you have paid for PPI for a period of time now. You’d see how much you’ve paid to the policy in your statements. You credit card will have a recurring charge for it, while you could also have been charged a lump sum amount on you loan or mortgage. Go over these documents to find out. Also, a policy certificate with its start date and expiration, together will all the details about it, should have been sent t you following the purchase. It will indicate how long you have had the product for. Collect the paperwork and attach them to the claim letter you are going to have to send to your bank.

When writing that PPI claim letter, you need to point out a few important details. One will have to be how you wish you claim back the money you paid to the insurance and the other’s how the policy was offered and mis-sold to you. Your clever recall of the events that took place when you applied for credit and when PPI was offered will be very helpful. There are also checklists available online to help you recall what you were told and what information was kept from you, together with the other circumstances leading to wrongly signing you up to PPI.

As soon as the bank receives and acknowledges your claim, they will review you account and the policy that came with it. The information on their database will be looked into for lapses in regulated sales process. The evidence you attached will also be referred to. Allow the bank to investigate for a few weeks, roughly 6 or 8, before you can make a follow up or demand a result. This general turnaround time applies though to cases that are less complicated and not lacking sufficient proof.

If you believe you’ve got a solid case and it’s pretty obvious you were tricked into purchasing PPI but the bank decided otherwise, lodge a complaint against them at the Financial Ombudsman Service. You can make the same complaint if they deliberately did not get in touch with you after you have filed your PPI claim. The FOS will work to resolve this dispute by making further enquiries with your bank and then decide later on.

Should things work out and all ended well for you, you’ll have to make an arrangement with the bank as to how the refund will be given to you. Normally, if you still owe them something in debt, they can slash it off the total compensation you’re required to get and then issue a cheque for what’s left. If you’re totally debt-free at the time you made the claim though, you know you’ll get the full amount you paid to PPI from when it was sold to you, including the interest it incurred.