Reclaiming PPI – A Brief Guide

Payment protection insurance (PPI) and the way it has been sold to UK consumers over the years is a hot topic at the moment. It has become apparent that many PPI policies may have been mis-sold because the people selling it didn’t care as to whether the client actually wanted it or needed it. It was sold aggressively to anyone applying for a loan or credit card because it made the banks lots of money, and therefore commission hungry telesales people were more interested in hitting sales targets than ensuring customers were looked after. Reclaiming PPI (if it was mis-sold) is quite within a person’s rights and anyone looking to claim back PPI can get a few tips here.

Firstly, consumers need to identify if they have been a victim of PPI mis-selling. If they feel like they were pressurised into taking out PPI, for example they were told that if they didn’t take the insurance with the loan it wouldn’t be accepted, then this is fairly conclusive evidence of mis-selling. It may also have been mis-sold if consumers were self-employed, unemployed or retired at the time of taking out the loan or card, because many of these policies exclude these groups from claiming from the beginning.

Basically, if a consumer wasn’t given all the necessary information in order to make an informed decision to be able to take out PPI with confidence, then an argument could be made that it was mis-sold.

Once established that the product was mis-sold, consumers need to take a number of steps in order to claim back ppi. Firstly, they should write to the seller explaining why they think the policy was mis-sold and ask for a refund. In March 2010, the banks and the FOS agreed to draw up a questionnaire that covers all details of the sale of the policy, which consumers should complete and send with their complaint. The lender may well refuse to pay out at this early stage.

Consumers should not be put off by an initial rejection and can continue reclaiming PPI by taking the complaint to the Ombudsman. At first, the threat of the FOS may be enough to ensure a refund but if no money is forthcoming then the complaint should be submitted without delay. 80% of complaints being submitted to the Ombudsman are being awarded in favour of the consumer so there’s a good chance this method will be successful.

Things may get more complicated if all these routes have failed so it may be time to turn to a specialist if all else has failed.

Companies like UK Money Solutions can assist with reclaiming PPI from start to finish, no matter how complicated the claim might be. One call to UKMS on 08000 748 059 and suddenly the process to claim back PPI can seem a lot less daunting.