Running the PPI Claim Gauntlet

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by: BTLewis
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Word Count: 547
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 Time: 7:07 AM
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There are many types of insurance. In the UK, we have car insurance, life insurance, health insurance - the list goes on and on (and on). But there is a particular type of insurance that has been making headlines in the UK for some time, a type of insurance that millions of people may have but don't actually need, which they have been paying for since they took out a loan, mortgage or credit card with their bank or financial service provider.

It's a type of insurance that was meant to protect you (as all good insurance cover does) when things go wrong, awry or downright disastrously - when misfortune rears its ominous head in your general direction. It's known as Payment Protection Insurance (or PPI), a policy implemented by banks and other financial service providers to protect their mortgage and loan customers should they suffer financially from losing their job or becoming seriously ill.

If a loan or mortgage customer is eligible to claim on their PPI policy when the time comes, all is good and well - however, banks and lenders had the idea that PPI was a brilliant way to swindle trusting customers out of hard earned cash, in what looks a premeditated effort to not just sell it to people who can use it, but also sell it to people who don't need it and who can be denied should they ever need to claim on it.

Even the High Court has found PPI to be lacking in redeemable features, and deemed it tremendously unfair in a majority of cases. The overwhelming evidence enabled them to order unscrupulous banks to start paying back the money they garnered from the highly unethical practice of mis-selling PPI.

The banks initially tried to say no, appealing against the ruling where they felt they were being harshly treated, but to no avail and as of May 2011, they set aside billions of pounds to supplement the million-plus customers who have been mis-sold PPI over the last ten years. That's right, millions of people have been affected and PPI claims have shot through the roof with many claimants coming forward to reclaim PPI insurance that was rather deviously (or erroneously) sold to them.

A customer can claim that PPI was mis-sold to them include when whoever sold them the loan:

• Failed to explain the loan fully and the need for the PPI
• Didn't offer a clear choice between a loan with PPI or a loan without PPI.
• Dismissed a person's medical history as irrelevant as to whether they were eligible to claim on the policy (a person's pre-existing medical conditions are definitely highly relevant as it turns out).
• Led the unsuspecting customer to believe that PPI was necessary to securing a loan or that it was a pre-condition when applying for a loan
• Used questionable sales tactics - "Your family will suffer if you don't take out this loan"

If you have been mis-sold payment protection insurance, making a PPI complaint is certainly worth pursuing either by themselves, through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) or a reputable claims management company (CMC).

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.