RECLAIM your PPI payments

[Amethyst]

What is PPI?

Payment Protection Insurance
Payment protection insurance, or PPI, is the insurance that is sold alongside loans, credit cards, store cards and debt products like car finance agreements, that is supposed to cover the repayments if you can't make them.


If you can't make the payments because of an accident or illness that means you can't work, or if you are made redundant, PPI is supposed to step in and cover the payments for a period.



Why should I claim it back?



PPI is high cost for not much return. It brings the banks huge profits and because of this profitability is very often MIS SOLD to customers.



This is when PPI is sold to people who will never be able to claim on it. The conditions of PPI are very tight, so when many people find themselves needing to claim on their insurances they find they are unable to.



PPI will not cover you if you stop working due to a pre-existing medical condition, if you are self employed, if you stop working due to stress or back problems, if you are over 65, if you voluntarily leave your job.

You should also claim it back if you were told / led to believe it was a condition of the loan to take out PPI.


If you notice you are paying for a PPI policy you didnt know you had it may have been added without your consent. You should then claim back your premiums.


How should I claim it back ?

Your claim is dependent on when you took the insurance.



PPI only came under the jurisdiction of the FSA in January 2005.



Any sales made before then are not covered by the FSA rules and cannot be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service, the body that hears mis-selling cases.


It may still be worth complaining to your lender if you feel you have been mis-sold, and potentially pursue them through the courts, but it may prove more difficult to get your money back.


If you took PPI after January 2005, your claim stands a better chance.


How to Claim


To make your claim you first need to complain to the firm that sold you the insurance. It may be that this firm was acting as the representative of another company. In which case you should write to them.



You should include all the reasons why you believe you have been mis-sold the insurance.


If you are not offered a fair refund from your first letter, write again – citing your grievances again – with a demand that the matter be resolved within 14 days.


If this is not successful, take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You will need to repeat your reasons for complaining on a complaint form.

Example letter 1

Example letter 2

Complaint To FOS


WORK IN PROGRESS

[Nattie]

Re: RECLAIM your PPI payments

Just to add most PPI policies will state that if you are self employed then you will not be covered unless you are made redundant as a result of bankruptcy, this I would suggest could mean that anyone who is self employed and has PPI could claim the lot back.

Moot point but no links to letters

[Xena]

Re: RECLAIM your PPI payments

Can we have links to the letters please Ame - thanks

[TANZARELLI]

Re: RECLAIM your PPI payments

Any sales made before then are not covered by the FSA rules and cannot be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service, the body that hears mis-selling cases.

There is an exception to this rule Amethyst, for example some companies such as Welcome Finance were regulated by The General Insurance Standards Council (GISC) prior to 2005. The OFT is has a certain amount of what is known as 'retrospective durisdiction' over companies which were previously prior to Jan 2005 regulated bi GISC and then went on to be regulated by the FSA.

Issue 43 Ombudsman News states; “retrospective jurisdiction – As well as having jurisdiction over complaints about events occurring on or after 14 January 2005, the Financial Ombudsman Service also has limited ‘retrospective’ jurisdiction. This covers complaints about events that occurred before 14 January 2005. The retrospective jurisdiction comes about because of provisions set out in a statutory instrument informally known as The Mortgage & General Insurance Transitional Order. The order allows us to look at complaints about intermediary activities that occurred before the 14 January 2005 if: A) the firm was a member of the General Insurance Standards Council at the time of the event complained about, B) the complaint would previously have been covered by the General Insurance Standards Council C) the complainant is an individual who is acting otherwise than solely for the purposes of his business; and D) the firm became regulated by the Financial Services Authority on or after the 14 January 2005”.

[enaid]

Re: RECLAIM your PPI payments

These are the companies that have been fined for mis selling so far.
PPI-related fines

Regency Mortgage Corporation £56,000
Loans.co.uk £455,000
Redcats £270,000 (Redacats is home shopping so check your catalogues, I have Empire they are Redcats)
GE Capital Bank £610,000
Capital One Bank £175,000
Capital Mortgage Connections £17,500
Home and County Mortgages £52,500
Hadenglen Home Finance £182,000
HFC Bank fined £1.085 million for PPI breach

by Gill Montia
Story link: HFC Bank fined £1.085 million for PPI breach
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined HFC Bank £1.085 million for exposing 160,000 customers to potential mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI).
The fine is the largest so far made by the regulator in connection with PPI.
HFC is part of the HSBC group and trades under the Household Bank and Beneficial Financial brands, through its 136 branches.
Between January 2005 and May 2007, the bank sold 163,000 PPI policies but did not keep adequate records.
Staff failed to gather sufficient information from consumers buying PPI, thereby creating a situation where the cover sold may not be suitable and claims could be rejected.
The FSA’s director of enforcement, Margaret Cole, stated: “We announced in September that we would be imposing higher fines for serious failings in the retail market including against firms who fall short in relation to PPI. The fine against HFC – the biggest PPI fine to date and first since our September announcement – is evidence of our determination in this area. HFC’s failings put its customers at risk of buying unsuitable protection insurance and the financial impact on them of unsuitable advice was likely to be significant.”








If you can answer ‘no’ to one or more of these questions, then you may have been mis-sold PPI.

• Optional Did the adviser make it clear that the insurance was optional? (if this was the case)
• Exclusions Did the adviser tell you about any significant exclusions under the policy – for example, the exclusion that says you won’t be covered for any pre-existing medical condition?
• Paying for insurance up front If you took out a loan or finance agreement, did the adviser make it clear that you would have to pay for the insurance up front in one single payment?
• Borrowing to pay for insurance If you had to pay for the insurance as a single payment, did the adviser make it clear that the insurance cost would be added to the loan and you would be paying interest on it?
• Insurance that runs out If the term of the insurance was shorter than the term of your loan or finance agreement, did the adviser make you aware of this?

Codes of practice To be followed if your PPI was sold to you Pre 14th Jan 2005

However, advisers selling PPI still had rules to follow. Most firms or advisers selling PPI would be covered by a code of practice imposed by one of three trade bodies: the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the General Insurance Standards Council (GISC) or the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA).
All three codes of practice required advisers to provide information at the time the insurance was taken out, to help you decide if the policy was suitable for you.
No extra requirements for advice

The main difference between sales before and after regulation is that all sales before regulation were 'non-advised', as the 'advised' regime didn’t come in until regulation was introduced.
So, even if your policy was sold to you before 14 January 2005, if the adviser didn’t cover the points under 'all sales' on the PPI – the rules page, then you may have been mis-sold and should make a complain