PPI Refund

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by: BTLewis
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Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 Time: 2:31 AM
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Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) is associated with many things at the moment - most of them bad. It has created a storm of controversy, leaving customers cheated in its wake and banks fighting (and losing) court battles to avoid having to repay hefty PPI refunds to customers who have been paying regular instalments to keep their mis-sold policy alive.

Why has it affected so many people?
PPI is a controversial type of policy cover that has been regularly sold alongside credit card applications and many types of financial loan arrangements, including mortgages. While it has its benefits for a number of customers who were actually eligible for the cover, it has gradually become apparent that it is utterly useless many people.

In these instances, people who may have actually been eligible for the cover may have been fed a line regarding how the PPI was essential or would help greatly with their application for a loan if they agreed to it.

Even when a customer specifically asked for the lender to not include PPI in their loan agreement, it's not unheard of for a bank employee to push for the PPI cover to the point where a customer feels they don't have any other choice. This is definitely not the case and the time is ripe to make a complaint and reclaim money that is rightfully theirs.

Other instances of where people were mis-sold PPI include:
• Where a person was sold PPI despite the broker knowing that they had other insurance in place to cover any problems with the loan.
• If the broker failed to ask a person about their health or any ongoing medical conditions before providing the cover. Most PPI insurance doesn't pay out if a person already had a pre-existing medical condition.
• Some of the older policies had an ‘opt out' option for whether or not a person wanted PPI (rather than an 'opt in' option), and this has been seen as unfair, and a relevant reason for why a person wishes to make a claim for mis-sold PPI compensation.

It is worth bearing in mind that it is not just people who were ineligible for PPI in the first place that have been ripped off and have the right to a PPI refund, but also those who were coerced into taking it, usually through the unscrupulous tactics employed by a bank's less-than-moral broker or one who was simply following the bank's own dubious strategy.

Widespread Mis-selling
Millions of people have been affected, and thanks to the amount of complaints and the investigations carried out by consumer watchdogs like Which? and consumer organizations like the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the banks and financial services responsible have already had to pay out £1 billion in PPI claims (as of Dec 2011), and are expected to pay out in excess of £9 billion over the next three years when the whole fiasco is expected to be over.

A claims management company can carry the burden of claiming for a person who needs help claiming or has tried to claim but has been turned away by a financial institution. For a percentage of a claimant's winnings, not only can they help you get your money back - they can ensure that you get the best amount of compensation available to you.

About the Author

Bryan Lewis has been following the PPI scandal for some time, writing for one of the UK's leading claims management companies.