Wondering what the PPI claims scandal is all about? Over the years, a lot of people have benefited from this kind of insurance as it has provided hundreds of policy holders with financial assistance when it comes to payment of their loans. This is because PPI is a form of security for borrowers, making sure that their loans, credits, or mortgages can be continually paid even if loss of employment arises. It means that policy holders or their beneficiaries are entitled to make for coverage of claims if they happen to lose their regular jobs due to circumstance like sudden illness, physical disability, and even death. Once deemed to be eligible, the insurance company can take over paying for the loans for as long as stated in the policy.
However, despite being beneficial, there are a few cases wherein policy holders were not able to avail of their payment protection insurance because of the reason that they were mis-sold. Banks or insurance companies cannot process claims of premiums because the policy holder does not qualify according to the provisions stated in the policy. But how will you know if you are a victim of mis-selling? Well cases of mis-selling include:
If you are forced by the credit company to purchase payment protection insurance, then you can use this as grounds to file for a PPI reclaim. There have been reported cases wherein credit companies threaten their clients of not processing their loans if they do not secure PPI. State laws say that this kind of insurance remains to be only an option to loaners and they should not be coerced in paying for it.
If you were not aware that you have payment protection insurance and you only found out recently that you have been paying for it alongside your loan, then you have been a victim of mis-selling. Insurance policies should never be sold without the consent of the policy holder. At the same time, it is important to have a full understanding of what the policy entails before the purchase.
If you are offered with payment protection insurance at a time when you are unemployed, self-employed, or retired, then you immediately lose your eligibility to file for claims. This can be a great basis for filing of reclaims especially if you were not aware of this provision or requirement before you even purchased the insurance policy.
Because cases of payment protection insurance mis-selling have been prevalent over the years, authorities have ordered the processing of reclaims for the policy holders who have been victims of mis-selling. Banks and insurance companies are ordered to conduct investigation and process reclaims so that the policy holders can get back the money that they paid for their premiums. However, not all reclaims are rightfully compensated as some companies only give back a fraction of what the policy holders paid for the premium. This is because such companies still wanted to have some profit despite complaints of mis sold ppi. But this can be avoided as claimants may seek the help of an insurance solicitor to represent them during the whole evaluation and processing of reclaims.
Cases of mis-selling has indeed placed payment protection insurance in a bad light but people need to understand that the insurance itself can still be beneficial. What they should be careful of is the unscrupulous selling of the policies by insurance agents or lending companies who are only after the profit. But such mis-selling can easily be avoided if people will only learn how to read insurance policies carefully so that they can have a full understanding of what it entails. At the same time, they need to evaluate whether they need this kind of insurance and if it can really be able to suit their loan payment needs.
The process of reclaiming your payment protection insurance can be handed over to a ppi claims company who manage the entire process for you so you don’t have to deal directly with your lender. Furthermore, such companies usually don’t charge any upfront fees for this service. You can always try to claim yourself but historically lenders have tended to reject a proportion of claims so if this happens you would need to see whether your claim would be eligible for submission to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
