For anyone who isn’t aware of exactly what PPI is, here is a little snippet.
Payment protection insurance was supposed to help policy holders in a time of need, but because of high profits and a bonus culture High street banks across the country sold the product incorrectly, mis-lead customers and in many cases actually hid it within the policy interest and repayments after the customer had declined it. Many people believe PPI to be a scam or that its not eligible for them simply because of some of the ‘spammy’ ways in which some companies have gone about trying to sell it, believe me its not, up to 80% of the adult population in the UK have PPI and could make a claim for a refund, averaging £3000.
So, how do I know if I have PPI?
Don’t believe the hype laid out by some companies, PPI isn’t a difficult product to understand or claim back yourself, in fact we actively promote the fact to our customers that you can do this all yourself. The problem is, most people including myself who try to claim back a refund expecting their bank to be honest with them are mis-lead once again.
Now, this isn’t new information, the FOS published this themselves so it’s all facts. Up to 98% (Lloyds) of some banks’ customers who are initially rejected and told “you don’t have PPI” are later refunded for being mis-sold the product after investigation from a third party (Claims Management Company or FOS).
So how do you know if you have PPI? You probably don’t and you can’t really believe what the banks tell you either (even the good ones reject 40% of cases that are legitimate). Our advice gives you a few options:
Firstly, check your credit card statements, loan policy documents and mortgage breakdowns for signs of an added insurance, this may not be called PPI but is likely to be labelled as some sort of ‘insurance’ or ‘protection’. If you can find evidence of some form of insurance on your statements, there is every chance that it’s PPI.
The next step is to either do you research online, we have some great advice on our blog too, and learn all the in’s and outs of the policy, the main thing to research is what to do if you are rejected, which in most peoples cases will happen.
OR, you can come to a claims management company like us who will do all the research and complaining on your behalf, we just need you to sign a document or two and spend a couple of minutes on the phone to one of our agents to kick things off.
Remember, the customer is always right!
There is evidence to suggest that some banks simply DO NOT KNOW whether you have PPI or not, how much you paid or whether it was indeed mis-sold or not, which makes it all the more ‘devious’ that some lenders are rejecting hundreds of thousands of claims per year that should be refunded.
Do not be put off by your bank telling you that you do not have a claim, it will almost certainly happen. Get in touch with us or go straight to the Financial Ombudsmen Service if this happens.
Also, if you have tried to claim yourself or through a PPI claims service in the past and have been rejected you should get in touch, we are experts in dealing with rejected PPI claims, we have seen it all before. You would not believe the ways in which your trusted banks try and wriggle out of compensating their life-long customers who they have ripped off.
