PPIeu

PPI. It has been hard to avoid stories in the news about PPI in the last few years, but what is it, how was it mis-sold and could you be entitled to make a claim?. . PPI stands for Payment Protection Insurance and it is a type of insurance cover sold with mortgages, loans and credit cards as well as store cards and hire purchase agreements. It is designed to cover the borrower or cardholder if they are unable to make their monthly repayments as a result of involuntary unemployment, accident or sickness. For many people PPI is a valuable cover, but it is not suitable for everyone, unfortunately, many lenders sold Payment Protection as though it was and this resulted in many customers being left with policies they didn’t need or couldn’t use. . The issue of mis-selling was first highlighted in 2005 when the Citizens Advice Bureau launched a super complaint. The Bureau heavily criticised the cover claiming it was often over-priced and represented poor value for money. It also criticised the way many lenders approached the sale of PPI. The complaint was followed by formal investigation by the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Services Authority and several lenders were handed fines as a result of their failures. . Since the formal investigations the number of people making complaints has risen to over 1.5 million and it is thought that many more people may have been mis-sold cover. A list of common types of mis-selling is below. . Policies were sold without a clear explanation of terms and conditions. . Policies were sold without costs being fully explained. . Customers who were self-employed, unemployed or retired were sold cover they were ineligible to use. . Policies were added without the customer’s consent. . Customers were pressured into taking out cover. . If you believe your payment protection policy may have been mis-sold and you could be entitled to a PPI refund, you can start the claims process today by completing our simple online form.