Were You Mis-Sold PPI?

PPI or payment protection insurance was routinely mis-sold in bulk by high-street lenders and banks across the UK for several years, after being fined millions of pounds by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) the lenders have now set up billion pound provisions to cover the vastly increasing amount of PPI complaints they receive. Lloyds alone have set-aside over £3bn to cover for PPI compensation, it’s time to check your paperwork and see if you are eligible to get your slice of the PPI pie.

Mis-sold PPI started life as a policy to cover a loan or credit against the holder becoming sick, suffer an accident or unemployment through no fault of their own. The policy would cover the payments of the credit card, loan or mortgage in the event of the holder being unable to.

Was I mis-sold PPI?

PPI was mis-sold to millions of customers of the biggest lenders in the UK, largely due to the huge profit involved in every policy, 89% of the associated cost of PPI was profit for the bank.

It is relatively simple to find out if you were mis-sold PPI if you have the paperwork for the credit card or loan or can dig out the paperwork for all the paid off finance you had. On the documentation somewhere, within the card statements or monthly pay back costs you will see Payment Protection Insurance or PPI is included in your policy; alternatively you can ring your bank to find out.

So, you have been paying for mis-sold PPI, but how do you know if you were mis-sold:

• You did not know that you were paying for PPI; the lender added it without permission or your awareness.
• You told the lender you did not want PPI but it was added anyway.
• You were told that having PPI would help your application or it was implied that it was compulsory.
• You were pushed into having it on the loan or credit card you were applying for.
• You were not informed of the policy exclusions including stress related illness and back issues.
• You were not told that PPI was optional and that it could be taken up elsewhere.
• You applied for a long term loan and added PPI but were not informed that PPI was only going to cover you for a much shorter period of time and you would not be covered for the remainder of the loan.
• You were unemployed, self-employed or retired at the point the policy began.
• You were not told that if you paid for PPI to be added to the application upfront that you would be paying interest on it for the length of the policy.

If you can relate to any of the above then the chances are that you could successfully claim back PPI compensation from your lender, the average claim is £3000 but it is not unheard of for this to be more than £50,000. The average person has two policies that they can pursue PPI claims on, so if £6000 sounds good to you, then it’s time to investigate.

For more information on making mis-sold PPI claims, FAQ’s, information or advice you can contact the Financial Ombudsmen Service, consult a PPI claims company or lodge your claim yourself. If you are looking to go it alone then read the guides from the Money Saving Expert.