PPI Mis-selling

How do you know that you have become a victim of PPI misselling

The scale of PPI misselling is slowly coming to light. So how do you know if your PPI sale was fair?

Most often, Payment Protection Insurance is sold to people who can never put up a claim on it. The terms are so stringent and the exclusions so tightly drawn that most of the instances where the buyer hopes to be aided by a claim are not covered.

The clauses that the provider tend to keep from the customer are that most policies will not entertain a claim if you, the claimant, is

• Self-employed
• Retired
• Also, the policy will not cover you if you stop work because of a health problem that existed before you took the payment protection insurance, even if you were not asked to report it.
• Stress or back problems

So if, at the time you bought the insurance, the firm failed to ask you if you were unemployed, self-employed or retired, or whether you were suffering from any medical condition, you probably have a mis sold PPI.

Cases of forcing PPI policies on the customer are also frequent. The firm often wrongly state that buying the cover is compulsory, or refuse to give a quote without it. Some firms also take the liberty to add the insurance without even informing, or taking the permission of the customer, simply adding it on to the quote.

So what to do if you are the victim of such fraudulent practices and have mis sold PPI? Can you reclaim PPI you have already paid?

• If you ere not employed at the time you took the insurance and the seller knew it, you can get a PPI refund.
• You should have been warned that you can never make a valid insurance claim if you were suffering from any ailment that could keep you from working in the future. If this clause was not explained to you, you can claim PPI compensation.
• If a ‘single premium policy’ was sold to you – where the total cost of the PPI over the duration of the mortgage or credit is added to the sum loaned – you should be eligible for a PPI refund by canceling the insurance. On 23rd February 2009 the FSA requested the CEOs of all British companies selling PPI policies to not sell single premium PPI policies from 29th May 2009.
• You can reclaim PPI premiums if you had an alternative policy that could insure your repayments, e.g. an illness or redundancy package from your employer or income protection policy, but were not asked about these.

Has the lender done any of the following?

• Quoted the price of the loan with that of the PPI attached.
• Misinformed you that you were obligated to take the PPI alongside the loan.
• The terms of canceling the cover and significant exclusions like back ailments were not explained to you.
• Or if the policy cover runs out before your loan term and the seller did not explain this limitation.
• If at the time of taking the insurance your age was beyond the upper age limit for the policy, meaning you wouldn’t qualify for a valid claim, you can get a PPI refund.

Click here to complete your PPI Claim Form