09/08/2010 by Bradders.

Over the last 15 years there have been an estimated thirty million missold ppi policies sold by finance companies including the major high street banks. Unfortunately for a vast majority of people who were sold these policies time lines involving the 6 year statute of limitation and FSA regulations means they will never get a penny back. The total figure amounts to billions of pounds and there are still billions that could be claimed.Refunds averaging thousands of pounds are potentially awaiting anyone who has applied for credit cards, store cards or loans during the previous six years.

This is all due to a substantial amount of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) that was sold in addition to any one of these products. However, people are still in the dark and unaware that they were mis-sold PPI.Payment protection insurance was designed to assist borrowers who find they are having difficulties paying these debts through illness, an accident or by being made redundant.

However, certain abuses came to light at the manner in which the financial institutions sold the product. Employees at banks and other financial lenders were frowned upon if they did not sell the products alongside the credit. They were encouraged to increase their volume in sales by using a number of dubious sales techniques In some instances the consumer was informed that taking out a policy is compulsory in order to secure the finance.

This is not a true statement and will account for missold ppi. In a lot of instances the consumer will already have some form of cover in place for any eventualities but this enquiry from the loan provider is very rarely asked. In a lot of cases a client will phone the loan provider for a quote on the monthly payments for a loan they intend to apply for. The consultant will quote a figure whilst at the same time informing the customer that the loan is fully protected, which is another way of sliding a very expensive policy attached to the loan under the door.

If the loan has been extended over a longer period the borrower, who will be unable to make the repayment calculations in his head, considers the payments reasonable, accepts the quote and not realise they have been mis-sold PPI.Enormous sums are generated from the products sold together with the loans and in many instances are more lucrative to the loan provider than the actual loan.

It has been estimated that over £5,000,000,000 a year is generated by this insurance!There are thousands of people with this insurance who would not be able to claim on it even if they wished to. The institutions did not discriminate against anyone when it came to selling this product. It did not matter if you were unemployed, self employed or retired you were still sold it.

Pre-existing medical conditions that borrowers suffered with and could never claim for were not discussed at the time of the sale yet they were still sold insurance! Terms and conditions were never made 100% clear to the consumers so in the vast majority of cases they were completely  unsure of what is and what isn’t coveredAnyone suspecting that they have been sold a product unnecessarily has every right to demand a refund of their premiums.

Why wait and become yet another statistic added to the millions of people who will never get a refund due to time constraints.

www.missoldppi.net

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21/06/2010 by Bradders.

The misselling of payment protection insurance has rumbled on for several years. However, I’m still amazed that with the amount of press reports and media coverage that I have seen more people are not aware of this rip off insurance. I was speaking to a friend the other day and he was able to shed a little light on this for me. He said the reason that I was surprised that more people had not heard about missold ppi was the fact that I was involved in the industry.

He said technology was a prime example of this with something like the mobile phone. When you see someone who is struggling to use a ‘simple’ application like a text one forgets how frustrating it was when you used a mobile phone for the first time. As time progressed the use of a mobile became easier and you could not understand how you managed without one before. 

When you put this into context its hard to believe that someone who is now aware that they have been missold ppi are not putting forward a claim to get their money back This got me thinking about a related area where people would be incensed if they thought they were being ripped off and would definitely complain big time. Let’s think about this, payment protection insurance was sold alongside a loan even when people did not want it, could not use it or didn’t even know they had it. So to draw comparisons I thought I would come up with examples and consider if people would complain. 

One of the striking things about ppi is the fact that the cover lasts for five years even if your loan lasts 10, 15 or even 25 years. So would you complain if you booked a two week holiday was told you had to take travel insurance that costs around 20% of the value of the holiday but it only covers you for the first three days? What about if the insurance will not cover you for sunburn if you have ever been treated for sunburn in the past? How would you feel when you discovered many years later that the holiday you booked could have been a lot cheaper except for the fact that you had been sold expensive travel insurance that you didn’t even know you had. Perhaps you would also be upset if you discovered when making a claim that you and your wife were covered but the kids weren’t as they were too young to insure. Or how about when you tried to claim it was only the bags that were in your personal possession that were covered and not the suitcases that were loaded on to the plane or left in the hotel room. 

If anyone was to hear of constraints like this there would be a queue a mile long around the travel agents so it’s still surprising to me why more people are not complaining about missold ppi. 

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03/06/2010 by Bradders.

Consumers who were mis-sold ppi now have longer to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service if their bank refuses to refund their money.

Up until this month, a complainant who had unsuccessfully complained to the policy seller had up to six months from the final response letter to take their case to the Financial Ombudsman Service. However, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has announced a temporary extension.Consumers who received ‘final response letters’ from providers rejecting their PPI complaints between 28 November 2009 and 28 April 2010 will have an extra five months to take their cases to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

 The extension is set to end on 27 October 2010.The FSA says the temporary rule change has been introduced to ensure that consumers who have recently complained about PPI don’t run out of time while trying to achieve a resolution.The regulator is currently working to find a long-term solution to the problems in the PPI market, and make sure consumers are treated consistently and fairly when purchasing, or complaining about, payment protection insurance.PPI is a form of insurance that is designed to protect repayments on credit cards, loans and mortgages in the event a borrower loses their job or is unable to work. However, it has attracted massive criticism from consumer groups and the media. It is very expensive for what it is and in many instances deemed to be useless depending on the borrower’s circumstances. It has also been a huge cash cow for many of the leading banks and Barclays have been particularly vociferous in defending its meritsVera Cottrell of consumer champion Which said: ‘Of the two million people we reckon have been missold PPI, only a minority ever complain.

It’s outrageous that so many consumers are still waiting for fair redress, and we hope that this decision encourages more of them to persist. Our advice to people is: don’t let  the banks fob you off”

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17/05/2010 by Bradders.

Payment protection insurance will no longer be allowed to be sold alongside the product for which it is intended, the Competition Commission has announced this week.

After many months of deliberation, the Competition Commission has followed through on previous proposals to prohibit lenders from cashing in on a captive audience by selling payment protection insurance at the same time as the loan or credit card the customers are taking out.

Point of sale PPI puts the consumer at a disadvantage, because they are often not given all the information necessary about the product, and are not given a chance to shop around. Many have even been missold ppi which was not appropriate or they did not need.

All forms of payment protection will be banned at point of sale, with the exception of retail PPI, such as repayments for shopping through home catalogues, which accounts for about 2.5 per cent of all PPI premiums.

Through its investigations into the PPI market, the Competition Commission said today that it has “concluded that the benefits of a package of remedies including the prohibition, by introducing greater competition and choice and lower prices to the market, will outweigh the disadvantages, in particular the potential inconvenience to some customers.”

Peter Davis, inquiry chairman and CC deputy chairman, said: “We found that many customers would place very significant value on being given the time and space to choose the right PPI product – or indeed to decide that PPI is not right for them. We also found that a significant number of customers appreciate the convenience of buying PPI instantly at the point of sale of credit.

“Overall we concluded that PPI providers are overstating the loss of convenience that would result from the introduction of a prohibition on selling PPI during the credit sale. All customers of course will appreciate the lower prices for PPI and the greater choice we expect to result from more competitive PPI markets.”

Commenting on the CC’s decision, Tim Moss, head of loans and debt at moneysupermarket.com, said “The PPI industry has suffered at the hands of a few unscrupulous lenders,and has become a “cash cow” for the banking industry, resulting in instances of misselling for many.

But, he added, “we need to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater - PPI is a useful product for many consumers giving them peace of mind at a time of financial uncertainty.”"Consumers should still consider protecting their repayments, and shop around to find the best solution for them, which may be through specialist insurers, rather than from their loan provider.”Barclays, whose complaint was supported by Lloyds Banking Group and Shop Direct Group Financial Services Ltd, said it was disappointed with the Commission’s decision. “We know that PPI is a product that is of value to many people. In these times of economic uncertainty, adequate financial protection is more important than ever,” a Barclay’s spokeswoman said. “We still maintain that to prohibit PPI being sold at the point of credit sale and for a fixed period afterwards will limit, rather than enhance, customer options and will result in customers being exposed as unprotected.” Consumer organisations have complained for some years about people being mis-sold ppi polices. Actions already taken by authorities include: ·         In October last year, mortgage lenders and insurers agreed to refund £60m to customers whose premiums for mortgage payment protection insurance went up in 2009 ·         In September 2009, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) told banks and other lenders to compensate customers who may have been mis-sold payment protection insurance when selling “single-premium” PPI policies alongside unsecured personal loans ·         At the same time, all financial firms were told to reopen 185,000 old complaints about PPI they had previously dismissed ·         In May last year, the FSA told the banks, and other lenders who sell PPI, to immediately stop selling one version of the insurance, called single premium PPI, where the premiums are added onto the loan as an upfront lump sum.  

Brad Martin of Claims Management Company Claimline UK said “For absolute brass neck the award must go to Barclays with their pseudo caring attitude regarding their customers best interests.Anyone who has been sold Payment protection insurance should think long and hard if it is something they really wanted or needed or if they have cause for a ppi complaint”

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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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