16/08/2010 by Bradders.

It’s been long overdue and everyone from consumer campaigners to the media have been banging the drum about the abuses that large financial institutions have inflicted on their customers for over a decade. The banks have used cynical ploys and sales tactics to increase their already massive profits at the expense of their loyal and long suffering customer base. This has now ground to an earth shuddering halt and no longer will they be able to run their business like the racketeers of 1920’s Chicago with their protection racket scam.

Mis sold ppi has been hot news for the past year as the scale of this racket has come to light. Thousands of people have woken up to the fact that they have been sold expensive, unnecessary and in many instances useless insurance, and are now demanding their money back. However, just like the mobsters of Old Chicago,asking for your money and getting it are two entirely different matters. However, help is at hand in the guise of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) who has ordered the banks to stop automatically rejecting complaints regarding mis sold ppi.

They have been ordered to write to customers who they feel may have been missold this insurance. In an ideal world this makes perfect sense but an image of Al Capone informing the local bar owner that his windows might be safe springs to mind. The regulator also stopped short of a previous recommendation ordering the firms to re-examine complaints that have already been dismissed.

This was due in a large part by the firms telling the FSA in no uncertain terms that they do not have the legal power to enforce it. This shows that whilst the FSA have certain powers they’re clearly not the FBI. 

Complainants running into hundreds of thousands have had their cases rejected which runs into millions of pounds in lost compensation. Their only course of action was to take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman, unfortunately many don’t so their claim never gets paid. This is a real travesty when one considers the FOS are finding in favour of the consumer in 90% of cases.

Despite this the banks have still got the temerity to challenge the regulator that it hasn’t ‘demonstrated there was a genuine problem’ with complaint handling! Big Al must be laughing in his grave at the brass neck of his modern day counterparts. 

They say that eventually everyone gets their comeuppance and Big Al was indicted for tax evasion and incarcerated for the millions of dollars in ill gotten gains. So far, all the banks have received is billions of pounds in a bail out from the very same people it duped. 

If you have been missold payment protection insurance there has never been a better time to start your claim now. 

Mis sold ppi

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10/08/2010 by Bradders.

Controversy still reigns over payment protection insurance the multi billion pound industry that the financial institutions created over the last two decades. The only reason that it has achieved such a high profile is mainly due to the overzealous sales advisers using unethical procedures to increase their already massive profits. This has almost created a byword for bad practice and this activity is known as missold ppi

In countless cases, the finance companies would lie and explain to the potential loan borrower that they would not be granted a loan without getting the PPI. This was a fabrication and a measure to deceive. In these instances, the borrowers that fell for this falsity to buy the PPI were charged a much higher premiums than if they had purchased this insurance on their own volition.In some instances borrowers may not even realize they were sold a payment protection insurance policy. It makes perfect sense if you took out a loan or mortgage and were never offered PPI to check and see if you are paying for a policy you never agreed too!Below is a list of statements to ascertain if you were potentially missold ppi.·     

Did the lending company tell you the policy were optional, or did they suggest that the PPI cover was required in order to receive the loan?

Did the lending company ask about your employment situation and whether you had any pre-existing medical conditions?

Did the lender allow you to check the policy terms and conditions prior to the agreement?

Did the lending company ask you if you owned any other insurance that may cover such risks?

Were you sold PPI while self-employed?

Were you told of the limitations and just what pre-existing conditions would not be covered?

Did the lending company advise you on the total APR would be of your loan with PPI included?

Lastly, if you did purchase payment protection insurance and tried to cancel it, were you denied?If any of these statements refer to your situation it is probable that you may have a case to file a ppi claim. There are many ways one can do this. It is possible to contact specialists in the field that may help you with the claim.

www.missoldppi.net

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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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08/07/2010 by Bradders.

I recently wrote an article about what has been the biggest claim regarding mis sold ppi. As I stated at the time there has been various figures banded around the industry with the highest that I have ever heard of at £50,000. Whilst I have never been one to discount something out of hand for the sake of it I must admit that this figure does seem incredibly high. A more realistic figure I would suggest would be closer to £35,000 but I guess it will be something no one will ever truly know for sure. 

I was discussing this very subject with a colleague last week and happened to mention that I have been working on a case with over £25,000 of mis sold ppi attached. This is by far the biggest claim that I have ever worked on so far. The claim in question has dragged on for nearly 18months and the client had engaged the services of a law firm before we were handed the case. When I first reviewed the case I was a little unsure of its prospects especially after the law firm had sought the services of a barrister to rate its chances of success. However on closer inspection certain things became apparent and I felt it was worth ours and the client’s time in pursuing this complaint.  

Firstly, the legal team had exhausted all of the legal cover that the client had at his disposal which amounted to a few thousand pounds. This meant the case was now on a purely no win no fee agreement which meant this case had to succeed to make it worth their while. Secondly and perhaps more importantly the law works to a completely different set of guidelines to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It would appear that once your signature is on any legally binding document the set of scales weighs very heavily in favour of the person holding that parchment. Mitigating circumstances and evidence although taken into consideration would not seem enough to combat the power of the signed agreement. 

With this is mind we took the case and set off on a journey with more twists and turns than a rollercoaster. We approached the firm which was a broker based in
Wales and put the complaint forward. The response was an 8 page draft that they had obviously used before with the legal team. I asked the client for all the documentation the law firm had provided him with and it was getting on for the size of a telephone directory. After a little bed time reading a pictured emerged of a client who had been duped many times prior by different lenders.  

This was for a £100,000 loan but he had recently been diagnosed with an illness that was potentially life threatening. To this end he requested some form of insurance that might cover this loan in the event of his death so his wife would not be left in an untenable financial position. The salesman for his part (although not totally guilt free) asked the underwriters in Dublin for their view. The opinion came back that although the cover offered would not cover him for this aspect it would for other areas so it was ok to sell.  

It was at this point that I figured it was not at the very least morally right for a man to be sold insurance that would not cover him for the reason he requested. However, even if it did cover him it would only run for five years of a twenty year loan and he was paying £25,000 for the privilege! 

Further correspondence went to the policy seller until finally after 8 weeks we took the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It then transpired that the client had engaged them before he went to the law firm and the case file was now firmly shut.Generally,the FOS cannot get involved if the complaint goes to court so we were fortunate that it never got to that stage.  

After numerous conversations pleading the client’s case the FOS agreed to re-look at the case but I knew at this point I had to speak to the client and explain the situation. The client had a tendency to react to any situation without realising the full implications as was apparent with the ppi cover that started this whole thing rolling. I explained to him that it was nearly a year since he made the initial approach to the firm, then contacted the FOS and engaged the services of a law firm.  

I told him that if I was going to have any chance of winning this case he would need to let me get on with it without being ‘hands on’ himself as this would only confuse the issue. He agreed to this and he said he would only contact me for updates. After many months and countless phone calls from the client we got the decision we were looking for and the adjudicator found in our favour. If only life was that simple, the firm appealed and it needed to go to an Ombudsman for the final decision.  

After six months and by now hours of telephone conversations with the client once again we got the positive news that we had been waiting for. This was a final decision and there could be no more appeals, the client would be awarded all the premiums paid, plus interest and a further £100 for all the stress and inconvenience the client had to endure. Unfortunately, this was not the end of the story as the firm had one final bombshell to drop, the firm went into administration so all bets were off. 

 The mis sold ppi complaint spent a further couple of months in a holding bay before being handed to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. This is a scheme that has basically been set up by the major financial institutions to offer compensation to people caught out by this situation.  

I knew the scheme paid out up to £50,000 so I knew that this particular case was covered. However, what I wasn’t aware of is this scheme works 100% independently from the FOS so as far as the case was concerned we practically had to start from scratch.  

This involved mountains of paperwork to be completed and the case re-presented. Several times in the handover from the FOS the case went off the radar as they have completely different case references which cannot be cross referenced. They also use a third party, Deloittes (the accountants) to make sure the firm is found to be in default. This involves months of painstaking forensic analysis to make sure there is absolutely no money available in the firms coffers to pay the claimant. 

Finally, after eighteen months of trials and tribulations we got the result we were waiting for, an irrevocable yes. The payout was 90% of the premiums paid as these are the guidelines that the FSCS work to and are completely separate from any decision by the FOS. So an award of just under £25,000 was made to the client who was understandably very pleased. He did have one further question though, which I didn’t think would be a problem after the hundreds that I had answered over the last eighteen months. 

 “What about the £100 for stress and inconvenience”? came the response ! 

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28/06/2010 by Bradders.

With the amount of ppi claims the policy sellers have been handling over the last few years one would think the processes could only get better and quicker. Unfortunately, like most thing in life it doesn’t always go to plan or turn out like you would expect. Mis sold ppi is indeed one of those areas where the whole procedure seems to be like walking through treacle. Obviously, where money is concerned no-one likes having to hand it over but in some instances extreme measures are being put in place. These measures in my opinion are a cynical ploy to slow down the whole process with the intent of encouraging a claimant to give up the claim up as a bad job. 

Whilst this may be expected from some of the smaller brokers, or perhaps car dealerships and double glazing companies it’s amazing how many of the big lenders are adopting this stance. The Financial Ombudsman Service is an independent adjudicator that looks after the public’s interests when it comes to mis sold ppi policies but it cannot get involved in the intricacies of the banks complaint handling. To this end the banks are left alone to lead the complainants a merry dance on the complaints procedure. Although the process may look clumsy to the uninitiated on closer inspection it’s a very well thought out sophisticated system of being ‘helpfully unhelpful’. 

These sophisticated systems are being developed on a regular basis and first started out as not replying to correspondence. Considering the banks have up to 8 weeks to resolve this complaint several weeks may pass without receiving an acknowledgment. When an enquiry about this is made the banks state they never received a complaint to acknowledge in the first place. This happened four times with one particular high street bank. It was only after informing them that the fourth complaint pack had been sent by registered post and we had a signature that they acknowledged its existence. This approach although effective was about as subtle as a house brick on the back of the head. New methods had to be implemented and the huge corporations have a steady supply of staff to concoct these measures. So one of the next methods was to acknowledge the mis sold ppi complaint but not give a name as the reference for the complaint. They also did not give the reference that was on the complaint letter but only put their own reference which was meaningless without the former. Then to make the task a little harder they only give the name of the department and not a name of a staff member.  

Then some banks hit on the idea of not giving any phone number on the correspondence, again making the process a lot more drawn out. Other banks gave 0845 numbers which transferred to an Indian call centre where staff with heavy accents inform you that they can only deal with the account holder not a third party. With other banks they decided on the ‘all our lines are busy’ voice message with the end result of the phone never being answered even after 30 minutes of holding. 

Another favourite ruse is with the letter of authority. The refusal to accept this can take many forms but a few examples are as follows.  

The never received it is very popular but can realistically only be used a number of times. A more popular excuse is the ‘it has to be an original’ for us to accept it. Sometimes this is used in conjunction with the never received it as the original gets lost and the copy of the original that you retained is not acceptable as it’s a ‘copy’. Due to the popularity of this with some banks it’s always advisable to get as many ‘original’ letters of authority as is physically possible. 

With some banks this led to the flat denial route of ‘we don’t deal with 3^rd parties’ even with an LOA. This is frowned upon by the FOS and is very rarely used these days. The ‘internal’ questionnaire is one that is being adopted by a number of banks currently which basically asks for the same information that they have already been supplied. With a lot of clients loathe to fill in yet more paperwork this can seriously slow down a lot of claims. Even when this is completed they sometimes also challenge the signature and ask for it to be authenticated. Again adding many extra weeks to the complaint as the Omdudsman likes to see the banks given a fair crack at the complaint 

So the war of attrition goes on and a mountain of paperwork builds up and a lot of mis sold ppi policies never get paid out

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26/06/2010 by Bradders.

A lot of people question if they have been mis sold ppi but the only people who truly know are the staff at the Financial Ombudsman Service who judge on the banks sales processes. However I have drawn up a brief guide that should at least point you in the right direction but should not be treated as a statement of absolute fact. 

If you were suffering from a medical condition at the time of the sale and it was more than probable that you would need to make a claim regarding this, then missold ppi. 

If you were retired, self employed a student or working less than 16 hours a week, again mis sold ppi 

You were employed on a contractual basis or self employed, yes, missold ppi 

You had a discussion with the sales person about payment protection insurance but the terms and conditions were never discussed, missold ppi  

You asked for a loan or mortgage but were pressured into taking this insurance, again, mis sold ppi. 

You discover by chance that you have this insurance but were not told at the time of the sale, missold ppi. 

If you have an inkling for any reason that you may have been missold a ppi policy the best advice is to check it out, you never know. 

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26/06/2010 by Bradders.

Over a few drinks the other night, as a change from the highs and low’s of the World Cup, a colleague and I got chatting about the ppi market. A number of things were discussed such as how big the actual market was in terms of people who were mis sold ppi. There are  countless estimates but no-one actually knows the exact figure. We then discussed what the average claim was in terms of the value of the policy and it’s generally accepted that the figure is around £2,000.This means there are a lot of policies that are less than this but there are also a substantial amount of claims that are a lot more.  

We then decided to compare notes on our own personal knowledge of the claims that we have dealt with. My colleague went first and said he had dealt with several claims above £10,000 and the highest to date was just under £15,500.This was a successful claim and the recipient was eternally grateful as it helped him overcome a difficult financial period in his life.

I knew immediately what the biggest claim I had ever dealt with was. It was attached to a £100k loan and the ppi attached to this was £25,000.When one considers that this insurance only lasts for 5 years that’s a massive £5000 a year just for the insurance and with interest considerably more! Somewhat taken aback my colleague asked if it was a successful claim. I had to say yes and no, due to the fact that the Omdudsman had ruled in favour but the company decided to call it a day and go into administration. The case is ongoing and is with the FSCS so there will be one very happy client when the mess is sorted out. 

So, what is the biggest mis sold ppi policy ever? I suppose like the size of the ppi market no one truly knows for sure. I have heard of a case that was around £35,000 and another that was £50,000 although I think the latter could have been exaggerated. However if anyone has been missold this insurance whether it was £1,000 or £50,000 they should do their utmost to claim this back

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21/06/2010 by Bradders.

The savour of many a person taking out finance and then finding themselves in the unfortunate position of being unable to repay their financial obligations. Payment protection insurance isn’t a bad thing. In fact, its very good, sold in the right way to the right people. Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) is commonly sold alongside financial products such as mortgages, loans, cards and store finance. It is meant to give the purchaser peace of mind should they lose their job or suffer from ill health and not be able to meet their repayments to the company lending them the money. A great idea? Of course, but here’s the catch. Payment Protection Insurance is classified as a big risk. It can add up to 40% to the cost of your original finance, and also earns the seller big commissions, and I mean big !

So like everything in life that is good, it is also open to abuse. Therefore, it is no surprise to hear that in the last 5 years The Financial Ombudsman Service has been swamped with people who have been mis sold ppi. For many consumers it was a case of being told they had to have PPI in order to get the finance they needed. The sales person “prayed” on them. For others it was a case of being pressured into taking out PPI with a store card or when buying furniture.  When times are good and finance is freely available even for those with bad credit the temptation for financial sales staff to offer such products must have been too good to be true.Now times are tougher and people are scrutinising their accounts, it has become apparent that many people have been mis sold ppi for many reasons.

Not only those listed above but also some have been sold PPI who have had pre-existing medical conditions that the PPI policy would not even cover. Even if they made a claim the insurance company would turn it down.If you have a finance agreement of any kind that was taken out  in the last 6 years it is worth checking the payment statements, you may not even know you have PPI running alongside your normal monthly repayments. If you have and you think you have been mis sold ppi you should take immediate action.You now have the choice to approach the lender directly or use a claims management company. The choice is yours. Going it alone is free but remember the banks and lenders employ teams of highly paid legal staff whose job it is to deflect and ultimately reject your claim. PPI cases can be very complex and you need to have the time and knowledge to fight them. Alternatively, you can use a claims management company who has the legal backing to fight the policy seller for you. They may take a percentage of the payout in commission but this will be well worth it and better than nothing. 

It is estimated that the average payout for mis sold ppi is over £2000. This is your money and something you never expected to see. Even if you pay a claims management company their fee you will still get a lot of money back. Some claims management companies charge up to 35% commission on successful claims and others want upfront fees before they even consider your claim.

If you think you have been mis sold ppi choose a company that only works on a no win no fee basis and charges a lower rate. Do some research on the internet and make sure you get a reputable company who will treat you fairly and not rip you off.Remember PPI can be a good thing but you need to balance this with your situation and needs. The salesperson should have taken this into consideration at the time they sold you the PPI policy. You should have been explained the policy terms and conditions and exclusions. If you feel you have been mis sold PPI then take action today.Do not leave your commission in the hands of the financial salesmen. You do have tthe recourse to claim your money back if you take a little amount of time to make a claim and fill in the necessary forms. It doesn’t take long to get back £2000 of your hard earned cash.

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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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06/06/2010 by Bradders.

For the past two years PPI complaints have been steadily increasing in the
UK as thousands of people discover they have been conned into additional payments with unwanted payment protection insurance tacked onto their loans without their full understanding or in many instances knowledge.Payment protection insurance is placed on a loan, mortgage, store card or credit card by the seller as a means to protect the borrower against default on the finance agreement.

This is protection if there is a change in the borrowers circumstances like the loss of a job, an accident or long term illness.However, some loan companies realised how easy it was for them to add PPI to a debtors account without receiving their permission and thousands of borrowers are discovering that they have unwittingly purchased a PPI policy. A high percentage of credit card companies took this tack and its only now that the British public are waking up to this fact..Now missold ppi is attracting huge media attention consumers are now realising after looking at their statements that they are paying for payment protection insurance, but did not ask for it. These people have a case for a ppi complaint and should be entitled to receive a full refund of the moneys paid. In most instances a six year time limit applies from the time the agreement is signed but with credit cards being ongoing you can go back much further with a claim.

There are a number of reasons for a missale and one or more may apply to you. If the borrower was under the age of 18 or over the age of 65; if their current work status, at the time of the loan and payment protection insurance policy addition was in question such as knowing they were about to be fired or if they were a temporary or seasonal worker, or if their work was under 16 hours a week. Other conditions that could be considered for a case against wrongful doing on the part of the PPI policy people would be the health of the consumer like a pre-existing condition.

Yet the most frequently noted reason for a consumer receiving PPI insurance on a loan or credit is because they were either told they could not obtain the loan without the PPI or that they were never told that PPI was attached to the agreement.Many people are reluctant to make a ppi claim because they fear this may affect their credit scores. The good news is there is absolutely nothing to fear regarding this and they will get back all the premiums they have paid with associated and in some cases statutory interest .

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