30/04/2010 by Bradders.

With the recent spate of misselling scandals there’s a new kid on the block that looks likely to cause a major problem anytime soon. By now most people would have heard something, or someone involved with ppi complaints but this new misselling scandal will lift the lid on the dubious activities of some mortgage brokers and IFA’s.

These ‘professional ‘advisers abused the trust of their clients to recommend mortgages that were totally unsuitable and in many instances unaffordable. The long term financial suffering endured by their clients was immense and in some instances they have never recovered from it and have lost their homes as a consequence.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been aware of this sharp practice for some time and has implemented measures to try and combat missold mortgages. In November 2004 new regulations were introduced to curb this malpractice and whilst worthwhile, the lure of high commissions proved too much for some and the sharp practice continued. It is these regulations that will establish if a mortgage has been missold and if proven to be the case the client will be entitled to compensation.

One of the major concerns regarding a missale is the fact that a lot of brokers were recommending mortgages that the client did not need to take but they were receiving high commissions from the lenders. A lot of these mortgages were designed for people with adverse credit and were always on a higher interest rate than those obtainable on the high street. It has also become apparent that borrowers were encouraged by the brokers to exaggerate their incomes and take out self cert mortgages.

They were also guilty of not giving best advice and encouraging their clients to borrow beyond their means. If you have a mortgage with one of these lenders that was recommended by your broker it might be well worth your while having a mortgage audit to assess if you have one of the thousands of missold mortgages.  

There are numerous reasons for a possible missale but firstly you need to have been sold the mortgage by a broker on or after the 1^st November 2004. Here are some of the obvious reasons for questioning missold mortgages. Did the broker charge a set up a fee? Did you self certify your income or were you encouraged to falsify income to obtain the mortgage·        Does the mortgage take you past retirement age· Was the mortgage arranged on an interest only basis with no repayment vehicle offered· Did you have any adverse credit issues when you applied for a mortgage· Were you already in financial hardship when you took out the mortgage i.e. CCJ’s,arrears· Were you repeatedly moved from one low start mortgage to another with the same lender incurring fees each time· Were you on state benefits or receiving a Government pension at the time you took out the mortgage?Due to the complexity of the mortgage market and the MCOB rules (laid down by the FSA) a mortgage audit will be required to prove if a missale has taken place. If this can be proven then thousands of pounds in compensation is due back to the borrower.If you have an inkling that you may have been missold a mortgage then now is a good time to get a mortgage audit to see if you could be claiming back thousands in compensation and getting your life back on track.

www.missoldmortgages.org.uk  

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25/04/2010 by Bradders.

Whilst the number of ppi complaints shows no sign of abating in the immediate future, fresh concerns are now being raised regarding mortgage brokers leading up to the financial meltdown. Although banks have been heavily criticised for the part they have played in the ‘greed is good’ culture mortgage brokers are now facing the unwelcome glare of the FSA. 

During the halcyon days of the last decade being a mortgage broker or financial adviser was almost a licence to print money. People wanted to borrow money, lenders obviously wanted to lend and the broker acting as a middle man earned big commissions by acting as an introducer. There was nothing wrong in this per se, except for the fact that a lot of brokers became greedy and wanted to maximise their commissions and inflated arrangement fees. The problem became so astute that the financial regulator introduced certain reforms in 2004 to try and stamp out this practice of missold mortgages. 

Not every mortgage broker or financial adviser indulged in this practice but unfortunately we are not talking about the occasional missale as there are potentially hundreds of thousands of missold mortgages out there. Although proving a missale is a complex procedure and needs a mortgage audit there are obvious reasons that point to a missale. Brad Martin of Claims Management Company said “There was an awful lot of easy credit around up to a few years ago. Mortgage lenders were falling over themselves to thrust money at you especially if you owned a property. For them it was an easy return on investment as whatever money they loaned you at whatever rate they were safe in the knowledge of ever increasing property values” 

It was during this period when unscrupulous brokers abused the trust of their clients and recommended that they take out unsuitable mortgages. Many people’s lives have been damaged beyond repair by getting themselves into financial difficulties with mortgages that they could ill afford and have since paid the ultimate financial price by being evicted. Some of the reasons for a possible missale might apply to you if you used a broker to arrange your mortgage. An important date to clarify is if you arranged your mortgage on or after 1^st November 2004. ·         Was the mortgage taken out on or after 1^st November 2004·         Did the broker charge a set up fee·         Did you self certify your income or were you told to falsify income·         Does the mortgage take you past retirement age·         Did you have ant adverse credit issues when you took out the mortgage i.e.CCJ’s or mortgage arrears·         Was the mortgage arranged on an interest only basis with no repayment vehicle?·         Were you repeatedly moved from one low start mortgage to another with the same lender incurring fees each time·         Were you on state benefits or receiving a Government pension at the time you took out the mortgageThese are just some of the areas where a missale could have occurred and we haven’t even touched on the buy to let mortgages! However, if any of the above applies to you or if you have inkling that all is not well then a mortgage audit would seem the sensible route. If it can be proved that you were indeed missold a mortgage then the regulations are such that you will have to be put back into the position you should have been. This could amount to thousands in compensation and more importantly get your life back on track. 

www.missoldmortgages.org.uk

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25/04/2010 by Bradders.

Have you ever had the feeling that you may have been sold the wrong mortgage product? Everything seemed a little rushed at the time and although it’s your signature at the bottom of the forms you never really understood what you were signing. Everything was explained to you, although the terms seemed a little technical and you’ve never really got your head around how interest rates work. 

However, you were being told by the mortgage broker that he handles all the technical details and all you needed to do was sign the forms. After all he had trawled the market for the best deals and you were grateful to have someone who took the stress out of sourcing the best mortgage deals for your situation at the time. Even so, you still didn’t fully understand why he was recommending that product in preference to the others apart from the fact that this one would be processed quicker than the others. If a similar scenario applies to you don’t worry, you are not on your own as thousands of people are now questioning if they were given the right mortgage advice. 

It is now apparent that there are potentially hundreds of thousands of missold mortgages out there. The very people that you employed to glean their professional advice have been recommending mortgages that benefit them more than you. It has been common knowledge for years that high commissions on certain types of mortgages have led to brokers abusing the trust of their clients. The main problem area is brokers advising their clients to take out sub prime mortgages when in reality they could have qualified to get a high street mortgage. The regulators have known about this problem for years and certain regulations were brought into force in 2004 to stamp out this problem. It’s these very codes of conduct that can be used to prove that thousands of people have been missold mortgages and can now claim back compensation. 

Due to the complexity of the mortgage market and associated MCOB rules a mortgage audit will be required to prove if a missale has taken place.However; before this procedure is commissioned certain points need to be established to see if an audit is worthwhile. A quick reference guide is as follows. 

• Was the mortgage taken out on or after 1^st November 2004
• Was the mortgage arranged through a broker
• Did the broker charge a set up fee
• Did you self certify your income or were you told to falsify income
• Does the mortgage take you past retirement age
• Did you have ant adverse credit issues when you took out the mortgage i.e.CCJ’s arrears
• Was the mortgage arranged on an interest only basis with no repayment vehicle?
• Were you repeatedly moved from one low start mortgage to another with the same lender incurring fees each time
• Were you on state benefits or receiving a Government pension at the time you took out the mortgage

These are just some of the areas where a missale could have occurred and we haven’t even touched on the buy to let mortgages! However, if any of the above applies to you or if you have inkling that all is not well then a mortgage audit would seem the sensible route. If it can be proved that you were indeed missold a mortgage then the regulations are such that you will have to be put back into the position you should have been. This could amount to thousands in compensation and more importantly get your life back on track. 

www.missoldmortgages.org.uk   

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23/04/2010 by admin.

How many people are out there at this moment in time wondering how they got into financial mess they are currently in. It should not be a surprise when one considers how easy it was to get credit only up until a few years ago. Every week the recycling box was filled to the brim with junk mail offering credit cards, loans, mortgages, remortgages and everything in between! This was also a time when your friendly loan broker or financial adviser used to give you the annual financial health check. The ‘I’m in the area next week’ phone call to arrange an appointment to see if they can improve your current deals and perhaps get you a better mortgage. 

Well unfortunately with the credit crunch and the knock on effect in house values everything has come home to roost. Some of the deals that were being offered were more for the benefit of the adviser in terms of the commissions they could earn and it would now seem that certain regulations have been breached. This is good news for borrowers because missold mortgages mean they can get back money they should never have paid out as compensation.   The Financial Services Authority introduced certain regulations at the end of 2004 to basically stamp out bad practice. However, with juicy commissions being payable on certain mortgage products the temptation was too great and the bad practices just rolled on. In addition the lenders were basically falling over themselves to thrust money at people especially if you were a property owner. They had no qualms about lending the money because they knew there was the ever increasing value on their investment. It was during this ‘gold rush’period that there was a high proportion of missold mortgages 

The good news is that the codes of conduct introduced to stop this misselling can now be used to prove that you have a missold mortgage. Due to the complexity of the mortgage market and the MCOB rules a mortgage audit will be required to prove if a missale has occurred. However before this procedure is commissioned certain points need to be established to see if an audit is worthwhile. If a broker or IFA was involved in the mortgage the transaction needs to have taken place after October 31^st 2004.The main problem was brokers advising their clients to take out a sub prime mortgage when in reality they could have qualified to get a mortgage from a high street lender. These sub prime mortgages would have been taken out with lenders like GE Money or Platform although the Northern Rock together mortgage has taken bad press. 

Other areas for consideration is if the broker made you take out a self cert mortgage and you were in full time employment. If the broker charged a set up fee. Will the mortgage take you past retirement age? Were you repeatedly moved from one low-start mortgage to another with the same lender incurring fees each time? If you get the feeling that you have one of the thousands of missold mortgages,now is the time to get an audit and get the claims procedure in action.  www.missoldmortgages.org.uk

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22/04/2010 by Bradders.

It would seem that as soon as one misselling scandal is tackled another one takes its place. First we had the missold pensions scandal back in the 90’s, then came endowment misselling followed by unfair bank charges and now its ppi complaints.

However, it now looks likely that a new scandal is about to erupt and the sums involved are potentially huge. It is now becoming apparent that over the last few years thousands of people have been suffering at the hands of unscrupulous mortgage brokers and independent financial advisers. The very people that you employ to glean their professional wisdom have been recommending mortgages that benefit them more than you. It has been common knowledge for years that high commissions on certain types of mortgages have led to brokers abusing the trust of their clients and made recommendations that are not always in the client’s best interest.

This has led to potentially hundreds of thousands of missold mortgages with borrowers struggling to make their monthly commitments. The main problem is with brokers advising their clients to take out sub prime mortgages when in reality they would have qualified to have got a mortgage from a high street lender. However that is not to say that all high street lenders are holier than thou and the Northern Rock together mortgage is a prime example of this.

The regulators have known about this problem for a number of years and the Financial Services Authority introduced certain regulations at the end of 2004 to try and stamp out this problem. It’s these codes of conduct that can be used to prove that thousands of people have been missold mortgages and can now claim compensation to put them back in a position where they would have been. This could amount to tens of thousands of pounds depending on the size of the mortgage or indeed mortgages as there was an awful lot of buy to let mortgages missold. Brad Martin of claims management company Claimline UK said “In the halcyon days of the last decade there was an awful lot of easy credit. Mortgage lenders were falling over themselves to thrust money at you especially if you owned a property. For them it was a no brainer as whatever money they lent you at whatever rate their investment was safe with the ever increasing value of your property. It was during this ‘gold rush’ period that there were a high proportion of missold mortgages.

However, regulations introduced in November 2004 means there is a way to claim back the thousands that you have lost with this missale.”Due to the complexity of the mortgage market and the MCOB rules a mortgage audit will be required to prove if a missale has taken place.However; before this procedure is commissioned certain points need to be established to see if an audit is worthwhile. There are a number of reasons why a missale has occurred but certain criteria needs to be established and some of the obvious ones are as follows.

Firstly if a broker or an IFA was involved in the sale the mortgage needs to have been taken out from November 2004 onwards. If the mortgage was taken out direct from a lender then this does not apply.However,as already stated the majority of missold mortgages would have come from a non high street lender such as GE Money or Platform etc.If the broker made you take out a self cert mortgage and you were in full time employment is another area that can be looked into. Did the broker charge a set up fee? Were you in financial hardship when you took out the mortgage such as facing legal action or repossession?

Does the mortgage take you past retirement age? Was the mortgage arranged on an interest only basis with no repayment vehicle being offered?These are just some of the areas where a missale could have taken place but if you have an inkling that you have one of the thousands of missold mortgages now is as good a time as any to get the claim process in motion. www.missoldmortgages.org.uk

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20/04/2010 by Bradders.

It looks like the great PPI debacle is not going to end anytime soon. Literally millions of people have been missold this expensive and in many instances useless insurance over the years. All the financial institutions have jumped on this gravy train from the mighty high street banks to the not so mighty loan brokers. Although both sectors were as bad as each other for the crime of missold ppi it’s the latter sector that might be the most problematical. That great expression ‘too big to fail’ can certainly be aimed at the banks after the massive bail out the great British public had to give these big old institutions.  

It would seem ironic that the banks were quite happy to involve themselves in the down and dirty market of sub prime lending, but once the market took a downturn the very people they were ripping off were now expected to keep them in the champagne lifestyle they were accustomed to. Those not so fortunate were the crusted old sharks that had inhabited this world before the bankers swapped their pin striped suits for the more shiny mohair variety. Unfortunately for them they did not have a generous benefactor in the rotund shape of Mr Brown and were left to fend for themselves. It was only a matter of time before the obvious happened which was no more lending=no more commissions= no more business! 

Therefore it is this group that should cause the most concern for people with ppi attached to their credit. It is now becoming increasingly common that someone with a ppi complaint is finding the broker who sold them the policy has now gone of business. People who have a loan with a sub prime lender are astonished to find out that the responsibility for the missold ppi policy rests with the broker and not the lender. They cannot believe that just when they feel they have a case for reclaiming their premiums they have no-one to make the ppi claim against.  

Brad Martin of Claims Management Company Claimline
UK said “Anyone who thinks they have a ppi complaint should first check their policy details. If they discover that the policy is with a broker I would urge them to waste no time in making a complaint. If the firm has gone to the wall then we need to take the case to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. This is a very long drawn out process and many claims management companies will not take these cases on and if they do they want to charge a large upfront fee. We will look at all cases on their merits, we do not charge any upfront fees and unlike others do not hike our existing 20% success fee to 30% or beyond”   

It would seem the best advice is to make a claim sooner rather than later if you have a missold ppi policy with a broker rather than a lender. If the broker is still in business then you are at least at the front of the queue as indeed you would be if the claim had to be taken to the FSCS. 

Finally it should be pointed out that brokers were brokering deals other than loans. A number of large brokers were also involved in non high street mortgages. It is now becoming apparent that a number of these transactions were breaking certain codes laid down by the Financial Services Authority. In a number of cases these brokers were guilty of breaking a number of regulations and there are a number of mis sold mortgages out there. It is too early to say what the extent of this mis-selling is but it could be as high as hundreds of thousands of mortgages. 

“In the halcyon days of the last decade there was an awful lot of easy credit” said Brad. “Credit companies were falling over themselves to thrust money at you especially if you owned a property. For them it was a no brainer as whatever money they lent you at whatever rate their investment was safe in the knowledge that their investment was secured to the ever increasing value of your property. It was during this ‘gold rush’ period that there were a high proportion of mis sold mortgages. However, regulations introduced in November 2004 means there is a way to claim back the thousands that you have lost with this missale.” 

So, whether you took out a loan or mortgage with a broker over the last six years check for a missale and make sure you start your claim now and get back what’s rightfully yours before the stampede!       

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15/04/2010 by Bradders.

If you have a loan, mortgage or credit card there is a strong possibility that you may have payment protection insurance. If you do have payment protection insurance there is also a strong possibility that you may have been missold and entitled to make a claim. If you discover that you have this type of insurance policy attached to a credit agreement that you didn’t even know about then you definitely have a claim.

Thousands of people every week are waking up to the fact that they have been mis-sold ppi and now want to know how to make a payment protection insurance claim to get their premiums back plus interest. What’s more every week thousands of people are doing just that and getting a ppi refund

For over a decade the financial institutions have been pushing this form of insurance hard as it has added healthy profits to their bottom line.However, more and more people are waking up to the fact that they have been paying over the odds for insurance that they neither wanted or could even use in many instances due to the exclusions attached. It has also been found necessary by the various financial regulators to use their powers to curb the sharp practices that have been occurring over the years.

To this end a number of firms have been fined millions of pounds collectively by the FSA which has also stepped in to ban the sale of ppi alongside loans and credit cards. This has been due to a large part on the increasing amount of people who have successfully made a payment protection insurance claim.The regulator had already introduced a ban on the sale of single premium PPI which is due to come into force in October 2010 but has now acted to ban lenders from promoting the schemes.The Financial Ombudsman Service which was set up by the banks as a self regulatory system has also ordered the lenders to pay back the premiums on tens of thousands of mis-sold ppi policies which amounts to millions of pounds. Recent reports suggest that the FOS is currently being inundated with up to a thousand complaints a week and it will only get worse. Unfortunately the FOS is being used as a complaints department for the major financial institutions.Brad Martin of Claimline
UK said “we see many instances where a client should never have been sold this type of insurance due to the exclusions of the policy. Yet when the payment protection insurance claim is presented to the lender more often than not the claim will be rejected and it then has to be referred to the FOS.Unfortunately this means that genuine claims are taking longer than they need to process due to the back log of cases” 

Bearing this in mind if anyone feels that they have reason to make a ppi complaint they should not put it off any longer than necessary. From commencement to a completed claim can now take six months plus as the Ombudsman likes to see a case fully presented with as much detail as possible.

It is now not unusual for paperwork to be returned on the smallest technicality and this will then delay the case further still. When presenting a payment protection insurance claim to the Ombudsman one needs to make the case as concise as possible. You will also need to make sure all the information asked for is supplied and as much information about the events leading up to the sale will also help especially concerning issues such as pre- existing medical conditions or employment details.

 The FOS is going someway towards this by issuing new complaint forms which although seem a little more complicated they will at least stop the majority of stalling tactics that the banks are adopting

It seems that where compensation is concerned it’s an area where institutions are loathe to refund premiums especially in today’s economic climate. This can only add to the influx of an ever increasing number of claims that the Financial Ombudsman is receiving. In this current environment tenacity is the key ingredient to make sure your payment protection insurance claim receives a positive outcome.

This is where a good claims management company working on a no win no fee basis can prove their worth by taking the hassle out of the claims procedure. If the case is not successful the CMC actually loses money with the time and resource put into the process. This actually means in many instances they want a successful claim more than their client so will be 100% committed to the cause. If you decide to use a claims management company expect to pay a fee on a successful conclusion and a decent CMC should not charge more than 20% of the fee.www.claimlineuk.co.uk  

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13/04/2010 by Bradders.

If you are one of the millions of people who have payment protection insurance attached to a loan, mortgage or credit card there is a possibility that you may have been mis-sold ppi.If you discover that you have this type of insurance policy that you didn’t even know about then you have clearly been mis-sold!

Thousands of people every week are waking up to the fact that they have been mis-sold a policy and now want to know how they can claim their ppi premiums back by making a ppi complaint.For many years the financial institutions have been aggressively selling this type of insurance cover as it has added massive profits to their bottom line and in many instances is more profitable than the loan.

However, as the misselling scandal hits the headlines more and more people are waking up to the fact that they have been paying over the odds for insurance that they neither wanted or could even use in many instances due to the exclusions attached. It has also been found necessary by the various financial regulators to use their powers to curb the sharp practices that have been occurring over the years. Therefore a number of firms have been fined millions of pounds collectively by the FSA.The FSA has also stepped in to ban the sale of payment protection insurance alongside loans and credit cards following the increasing amount of complaints. The regulator had already introduced a ban on the sale of single premium PPI which is due to come into force in October 2010 but has now acted to ban lenders from promoting the schemes.

The Financial Ombudsman Service which was set up by the banks as a self regulatory system has also ordered the lenders to pay back the premiums on thousands of mis-sold ppi policies which amounts to millions of pounds. Recent reports suggest that the FOS are currently being inundated with up to a thousand complaints a week as consumers initiate proceedings to claim ppi back from the lenders.It also looks likely that the situation can only get worse as more consumers attempt to claim ppi whilst at the same time the institutions continue to refute the claims.

The Financial Ombudsman service was not set up as a complaints department for the institutions and its resource is being stretched by the sheer volume of complainants seeking to claim ppi premiums.Bearing this in mind if anyone wants to claim ppi premiums back they should not put it off any longer than necessary.

From commencement to a completed claim can now take six months plus as the Ombudsman likes to see a case fully presented with as much detail as possible. If you believe you have cause for complaint now is the time to find out how to claim ppi

www.clamlneuk.co.uk

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08/04/2010 by Bradders.

The financial services industry is bracing itself for a barrage of ppi complaints  from self-employed people following the recent Competition Commission investigation into PPI misselling. The commission ruled that there was little or no competition between the different providers of payment protection insurance (PPI), and that the 12 biggest firms in the market had basically overcharged customers by up to £1.4bn on premiums of £3.5bn.

The cost of PPI can often be as high as 40-50 per cent of the value of the loan being insured against and providers have been criticised for not being clear enough over policy terms.

A policy claiming to cover redundancy will not pay out a claim to a self-employed person so the idea of somebody who is self-employed being in a position where they would sack themselves defies logic.

As a result, a number of financial services companies have already found themselves on the receiving end of some hefty fines from the Financial Services Authority. Earlier this year Alliance & Leicester was fined more than £7m for misselling ppi..Brad Martin CEO of claims management company Claimline UK Limited said anyone but especially the self employed who has taken out a loan or credit agreement over the last 6 years should check the following to see if they have been the victim of missold ppi.-Were you told that being self employed, unemployed or on a fixed term contract would make you ineligible for a payout.-Were you told that a pre-diagnosed medical condition will not be covered?-Was the costs of the policy explained to you and were you informed that you could buy it elsewhere, potentially at a far more competitive price. -Were you led to believe that the cover was a condition of the loan? -Were you even aware that PPI was attached to your borrowing? 

www.claimlineuk.co.uk

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06/04/2010 by Bradders.

Consumer groups like Which have campaigned against the misselling of ppi for nearly a decade. They estimate that there are as many as 2m missold ppi policies making those people eligible for payment protection insurance compensation. These policies were often sold with personal loans and in a lot of instances buyers would not have been ble to claim due to pre-existing health conditions or other caveats in the small print.

For example stress and back pains are not covered in any PPI policies or indeed are any mental disorders.The vast majority of people buying PPI with long term loans might also be unaware that PPI policies may only be effective for five years leaving them without cover for the duration of the loan. In addition, they might not realise that the single premium for the policy, added to the loan, is also incurring interest charges for years into the repayment period! However, that is now starting to change on a grand scale as people are now realising that they are entitled to payment protection insurance compensation.

This controversial insurance makes huge profits for the major lenders as only 14% of PPI premium income goes back to policyholders making successful claims on the policies. This is in sharp contrast to 54% for home insurance and 78% for motor insurance. The Competition Commission claims the 12 largest PPI providers enjoy a return on their equity of 490%.It says borrowers are in a captive market – worth £5.5bn a year – dominated in 2006 by Lloyds TSB, Barclays, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC.Due to the high levels of profit that ppi generates for the institutions has meant critics leveling accusations of high pressure sales tactics on the consumers. This is turn has led to various industry watchdogs assessing the situation and making judgments on who are in line for payment protection insurance compensation.

For their part the banks, claim loan rates would be far less attractive if their PPI income was slashed. Nationwide BS stopped selling PPI on personal loans and credit cards last August, and now only sells it with mortgages. Nationwide now refers customers to the FSA website for advice on protecting their finances against accident, sickness and unemployment.The Association of British Insurers (ABI) maintains quite rightly that PPI can be a useful defence against financial crises, if it’s bought at the right price.

However for now the spotlight rests on the misselling cases and how many people are entitled to a payment protection insurance claim.Now is the time to lodge a ppi complaint www.claimlineuk.co.uk

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