Wrongly sold a PPI Policy

PPI claims tend to be more commonplace than many people think. This might be because incidence of mis-sold policies is pretty high. Inspections from the the past few years show that millions of PPI policies have already been wrongly sold to unsuspecting people over recent years. Because of the rather accelerated amount of mis-sold PPI policies during the past number of years it is feasible that maybe you've also been sold a PPI policy that you simply don’t really need or is not necessarily valid for your case.

If such may be the case you may be allowed to make some PPI claims and make an application for refunds or compensation of some kind. When you have a currently active PPI policy or one that has only recently expired you can look at checking your details to see whether you’re permitted to avail of PPI refunds. The Financial Services Authority offers several remedial measures to fix any wrongs that may have happened in this way.

The startling thing concerning the entire issue is that when PPI claims started coming to the fore, an extremely worrisome fact came to light: even many of the most well-known and reputed names in the industry were accountable for mis-selling PPI policies to clients. To avoid such fallacies from occurring again down the road the Financial Services Authority introduced several regulations and guidelines to govern trade practices.

A lot more people than not have PPI policies. They're extremely common in instances where a mortgage has been obtained or you may have signed a credit agreement or you may have agreed to a loan. It is very important make sure that if you have a PPI policy or recently had one, it is only because you really needed it.

PPI policies are essential in order to be capable of making the payments on an active policy in case one is not naturally capable of making the payments by themselves, for which there can be several reasons such as sickness, old age, infirmity, unemployment, bankruptcy and the suchlike.

Here are a few indicators that you've been wrongly sold a PPI policy and may have valid grounds to claim a refund-

· If you were sold the PPI under false pretences; in case you didn't really need a PPI cover but the insurance broker or seller or lender convinced you that it's “essential”, when it's actually not, or tried to make a case out of an existing illness you may have and use it as the basis for needing a PPI cover sometime in the long run.

· If you were not given enough time and space to consider on your own. It is necessary for lenders and agents to suggest a PPI cover to you they also need to leave you alone to make up your own mind about whether you want it or not.

· It is important that you get the chance to research other market options as well before narrowing down your choices. It is the lender’s duty to permit you the liberty of choice.

What are PPI Claims and refunds?

How to reclaim mis-sold PPI.mpg

Welcome Finance Refund over £2200!

Miss L from Grimsby has been refunded over £2200 after complaining about her PPI being Mis-sold. She started her PPI Claim with us in May and after successful negotiation we managed to reclaim her mis-sold PPI from her previous loans aswell!

To see if you could be able to reclaim your ppi visit our site www.ppiclaimsreview.co.uk or you can call us on 0845 409 0797

Barclays tops complaints list!

Barclays has been named and shamed as the high street bank that wrongly rejects the highest proportion of complaints from angry customers.

A whopping 61% of consumers who took their gripe to the independent arbitrator, the Financial Ombudsman Service, about Barclays won their case during the first half of 2010, compared to the industry average uphold rate of 44% for the period (see the Best Bank Accounts guide).

But the bank was not the subject of the most complaints to the Ombudsman in that time. That unwanted title fell to taxpayer-backed Lloyds TSB with a mammoth 12,750, though Barclays was second with 7,991.

Barclays was not the worst financial provider for wrongly rejecting complaints, even if it was the high street name with the most appalling figures.

All protests against insurance provider Eisis, 99% against loan lender Ocean Finance and 90% against Lloyds-owned Black Horse were upheld by the Ombudsman in the first six months of the year.

Most of these relate to mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI), a category that saw a 23% rise in complaints compared to the previous six months.

For the arbitration service to uphold a complaint it must first have been thrown out by the firm in question.

Lloyds TSB (where the Ombudsman upheld 45% of complaints against it), Welcome Finance (82%) and part Government owned Royal Bank of Scotland (50%) also performed worse, compared to the industry average.

Santander, beset by recent customer service problems, recevied a relatively high 4,881 complaints against it but only a fifth were upheld indicating, while service may be poor, it may be dealing with complaints reasonably fairly (see the Santander service scandal MSE News story).

The figures are part of stats released this morning showing the number of gripes against financial firms that were taken to the Ombudsman during the first half of this year.

It received 84,212 new complaints in that time – a small increase on the 82,136 received in the final six months of 2009. A whopping 30,000 new protests related to mis-sold PPI.

Yet these numbers are a fraction of overall complaints as fewer than 10% of people rejected by their financial provider take their case to the independent arbitrator.

The table below shows the ten providers the Ombudsman received most complaints about, ranked by the percentage upheld.

Complaints to Ombudsman – firm-by-firm

Black Horse 2,136 90% upheld by FOS
Welcome Finance 1,954 82% upheld by FOS
Barclays 7,991 61% upheld by FOS
Royal Bank of Scotland 2,250 50% upheld by FOS
Lloyds TSB 12,750 45% upheld by FOS
Natwest 2,810 43% upheld by FOS
Clydesdale Bank 1,807 39% upheld by FOS
HSBC 3,286 34% upheld by FOS
Halifax / Bank of Scotland 6,211 23% upheld by FOS
Santander 4,881 19% upheld by FOS

Data for first six months of 2010. Source: Financial Ombudsman Service

Martin Lewis, MoneySavingExpert.com creator, says: "The great shame is less than 10% of people take their case to the Ombudsman. All these people complain but banks say 'no' as a tactic but we don’t take it further.

"The message here is when you complain expect the firm to say 'no' but ignore that and go to the Ombudsman. It’s a disgrace and we really need to invent a system where banks deal with you fairly."

The Ombudsman says the overall 44% uphold rate is skewed by the 15,000 bank charges complaints that had been on hold that were thrown out after the banks won the historic test case on charges late last year. Discounting those cases, the uphold rate would have been similar to the 53% recorded for the second half of 2009, it stresses.

Natalie Ceeney, chief Ombudsman, says: "The latest set of data shows some businesses are committed to ensuring complaints are handled well but that there is still more that some businesses need to do to ensure that complaints are properly investigated and fairly resolved."

To start your PPI complaint visit www.ppiclaimsreview.co.uk

This article first appeared at www.moneysavingexpert.com

The Great PPI Clean Up

They say sunlight is the best disinfectant, and if it is true, there is no better than for the clear light of day shone on the Payment Protection Insurance industry.

Greater customer awareness, television advertising and the increasing number of PPI complaints have almost forced firms, credit institutions and banks to stop mis-selling and clean up their act.

For example, there has been widespread stalling of the sale of PPI integrated loans, lenders have been drained and huge institutions have stopped selling policies altoghether, it has also been spoken of sales staff having to get financial qualifications to be able to sell further products or services. Exposure to shady practices have also affected other insurance products, such as serious illness cover, which has seen the refund reclaims be increased from 8 in 10 to 9 in 10.

For more on PPI Reclaims click this link

PPI Claims Can Go Back Pre-regulation

The new policy on PPI of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been barely a week and is already receiving heavy criticism from the industry.

The last comment is a financial services partner at Beachcroft LLP, Dan Preddy, who had a particular problem with the application of rules for sales made before mediation PPI regulated by the FSA general insurance. Mr Preddy said: "There will be a deep disappointment at the retrospective rules for sales made before the general insurance intermediary, regulated by the FSA."

Overall, the changes are intended to prevent more harm from mis-sold PPI and paying back the PPI insurance will cost the industry between £ 2 billion to 4 billion pounds. The FSA acknowledges that if done correctly there will be victims of 5-10% and provides that some general insurance intermediaries will fail because of the refunds.

Click here to reclaim mis-sold PPI