Medicare Supplement – Insurance Quotes

If you have taken out a mortgage, loan or credit, it is likely that your lender sold you payment protection insurance. PPI is designed to help customers repay debt should they find themselves in difficult circumstances such as becoming unemployed or getting injured, however, the lenders found a loophole and have been selling PPI to customers who were not eligible for the cover or who did not fit the particulars of the PPI they were sold. If you have paid for PPI, whether you tried to use it or not, you may be entitled to claim this money back. What you may not be aware of is why you could be eligible to claim and why the banks could face a huge wave of payouts

The common misconception is that everyone is eligible for PPI but this is not the case. If you are older than 65, the age of retirement, you would never be entitled to claim PPI as you are likely not in full time employment. If you are self employed you are technically considered a financial risk and no PPI policy would offer to cover you ability to make repayments. If you have a historical medical condition you will be unlikely to be able to get PPI cover as you are more likely to be forced off work. Despite this, banks are more than happy to sell PPI to everyone knowing full well it will never cover them if needed.

Banks and lenders have allowed this situation to continue with full knowledge of the consiquences, this is something that has brought great negative attention from financial watchdogs. The government is forcing many of the UKs high street lenders to offer refunds to their customers although some have adopted a ‘don’t ask – don’t get’ policy meaning the consumer has to go on the hunt for their money either alone or with legal assistance.

The first step to claim back your PPI is to send your bank a letter requesting a full refund. The bank will reply with a long winded ‘no’ to which you will need to duplicate your first letter and in addition declare your intent to pursue legal action and support from the financial ombudsman. They will most likely respond with a variety of answers ultimately dismissing your claim, albeit wrongfully, due to your lack of authority. The key is persistence and it will significantly help your chances if you do get the ombudsman involved. Ultimately if all else fails, enlist professional help.

The easiest way to claim back your PPI is to use a legal agency as they know what they are doing and will be able to take care of everything for you. This will be much more effective than pursuing the matter yourself and will most likely end in success. Many solicitors are no win no fee so there is no disadvantage to using them.

There are many companies that offer or specialise in PPI claims and they are fully capable of taking control of everything you need for your loan protection claim

It has recently emerged that banks and insurance companies could be liable to pay over 4bn to customers who were fooled into paying for Payment Protection Insurance on a loan, mortgage or credit. A previous estimate of up to 1.2bn only covered customers who will attempt to reclaim the payments they have made but this new figure takes into consideration the extra amount of customers who the banks will be forced to give refunds to.

A huge number of overpriced policies were sold to customers who had no hope of claiming if they needed to. Policies were sold to pensioners, the self-employed and those with long term medical conditions who, by definition, were ineligible for cover.

An estimate by the Financial Service Authority shows insurance brokers may have to pay up to 450m and the rest being paid by a range of PPI providers such as banks. The typical amount refundable to people who purchased individual policies is 2000 which has caused many consumers to enquire.

A number of high street banks have already been fined as the FSA attempts to make examples of them as well as forcing them to offer refunds to all of the eligible customers. High street insurance broker ‘The Swinton Group’ have been fined 770,000 for serious failings and were made to offer a full refund to over 350,000 customers while Alliance & Leicester have been fined 7m.

Financial giants are strongly opposing the plans to regulate and control the future sale of policies. The FSA aims to stop companies putting pressure on customers to buy ineffective policies. Adam Phillips of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, says “for too long banks have regarded PPI as an easy product to sell and make money without considering whether it is really right for the customer

If you think you are entitled to a PPI claim, then visit Dons LLP for the best PPI claims lawyers.