18/10/2009 by Bradders.

The proposed ban on the sale of payment protection insurance (PPI) alongside a consumer credit agreement may have to wait a little longer.Payment Protection is the highly derided insurance intended to cover the repayments on an unsecured loan if the borrower loses their job or becomes too ill to work.

This form of insurance has been the subject of controversy for years with consumer groups claiming that the market is uncompetitive and the cover frequently mis-sold.Following a recent Competition Commission enquiry, the sale of single premium PPI (whereby the total cost of the insurance was added to the debt) has already been banned.

However, the Commission proposed introducing an outright ban on the sale of PPI alongside a loan and for seven days thereafter, in October 2010.Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group, two of the major advocators of PPI appealed against the decision, disputing some of the findings in the Commission’s enquiry and challenging the scope of the market definition set by the Commission.Barclays also claimed that the watchdog failed to take recommendations made by the bank into account in coming to its decision.The Appeal Tribunal has now asked the Commission to reconsider the ban or justify its position further.

The Financial Services Authority has recently ordered the UK’s banks and building societies to review their ppi complaints procedure regarding the sales of single premium ppi. Nearly 200,000 cases are to be reopened and looked at regarding missold ppi

Brad Martin of Claimline UK said “It seems ironic that two of the worst offenders regarding banking and ppi complaints have the audacity to try and protect their interests in this shoddy overpriced insurance. I would recommend that anyone who has a loan or mortgage, especially with these two banks to check if they have a ppi policy attached.

If they have and they feel that they were pressured into buying this insurance or perhaps didn’t realise that they even had it they should claim back every penny they are owed!”

Claimline UK 0800 622 6988 www.missoldppi.net  

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07/10/2009 by Bradders.

If you have payment protection insurance with a loan, mortgage or credit card there’s a strong possibility that you may have been mis-sold a policy. 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 have definitely been mis-sold ppi There are literally thousands of people every week who are waking up to the fact that they have been mis-sold a policy and now want to lodge a ppi complaint against their lender for all the premiums paid plus interest

The financial institutions have been pushing this insurance for years and it has added billions of pounds in profits to their bottom line. However, due to the high media interest and the many action groups more and more people are becoming aware of the fact that they have been paying over the odds for insurance that they neither wanted nor could even use due to the many exclusions attached. It has also been found necessary by the financial regulators to use their powers to curb sharp practice sales techniques that the major lenders have employed over the years.

Therefore a number of firms have been fined millions of pounds collectively by the Financial Services Authority. 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 literally millions of pounds.

Recent reports suggest that the FOS are currently being inundated with up to a thousand complaints a week and its systems are being overwhelmed. Unfortunately the FOS was not set up as a ppi complaints department for the financial institutions but as an adjudicator in cases that could not be resolved.It has reached such a point that the FSA has declared that it is to reopen nearly 200,000 previously rejected complaints.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 case 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 ppi complaints 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 around 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 as other cases are then put before it.“When making a complaint to the FOS you need to make the case as concise as possible” said Brad “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”It seems that where compensation is concerned it’s an area where institutions are loathe to refund premiums especially in today’s climate. This can only add to the influx of an ever increasing number of claims that the Financial Ombudsman is receiving regarding missold ppi.In this environment one has to be persistent to make sure their claim is dealt with. As previously stated it can take many months to be processed and will potentially be a frustrating time especially if it is quite obvious that the policy was mis-sold.Although the process is time consuming and laborious anyone can make a claim on their own behalf.If however you feel that you may not have the right temperament to deal with this task it is possible to use a company like Claimline UK who will handle the procedure on your behalf.For more details go to www.missoldppi.net  or call 0800 622 6988

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07/10/2009 by Bradders.

Since the Financial Services Authority (FSA) got their teeth into the tetchy subject of missold payment protection insurance a lot of media attention has been generated. It is now apparent that millions of policies that have been taken out over the years alongside loans. mortgages and credit cards could have been missold.

Not surprisingly the credit providers do not share this view and therefore tens of thousands of ppi complaints are rejected out of hand every month. It has got to the stage where the financial ombudsman service is creaking under the deluge. That said it has now come to light that the vast majority of ppi complaints never make it this far which gives an idea on the scale of the problem.

 The FSA has reprimanded a section of the industry that has been providing 40% of the policies that are sold alongside loans. They have now asked for nearly 200,000 complaints to be revisited which means many people are due an unexpected windfall. 

Brad Martin of claims management company Claimline
UK said “This really is the tip of the iceberg and I’m sure there are a lot more horror stories to come out. I would strongly urge anyone who has taken out a finance agreement over the last 6 years to check their policies to see if it contains this overpriced insurance.

Many companies were urging staff to recommend these policies even when people did not want or need this insurance. The profits were vast and in many instances they earnt more profit from the insurance than the loan” 

If you would like further information or advice on claiming back your premiums contact Claimline
UK 0800 622 6988

 www.ppicomplaint.org.uk

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07/10/2009 by Bradders.

Major  lenders have been ordered by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to compensate customers to whom they mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).The FSA will be focussing only on lenders who were responsible for the 40 per cent of PPI policies that were sold to customers taking out unsecured loans.

These firms were selling “single-premium” PPI policies.Lenders who offered PPI when taking out a secured loan or credit cards will also be asked to compensate their customers.PPI policies are designed to cover the costs of customer’s loans in the instance of redundancy and illness.

However, many ppi complaints have been made due to the very specific small print which often excludes many customers who were uninformed of this such as pre-existing medical conditionsAll PPI providers will be asked to reopen complaints that were rejected previously, of which there are more than 185,000.FSA figures revealed that providers had been rejecting over 60 per cent of ppi complaints, with as little as 16 per cent of these going to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The FOS declared that many justified complaints had been rejected and customers fobbed off after they upheld over 80 per cent of complaints they received.Many customers complained that it was very difficult to get a policy cancelled once it was taken out and many customers were unaware they had even taken it out alongside a loan.Jon Pain, the retail managing director at FSA, has called the order a last chance for PPI providers.“The outcome of a ppi complaint should not depend on whether or not the complainant persists past the firm on to the FOS.

This is the last chance for the industry to show that it can act fairly, consistently and in the best interest of consumers on PPI.”The FSA has estimated that around £195 million will be refunded in compensation payouts to customers.

Claimline UK 0800 622 6988   www.ppicomplaint.org.uk

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01/10/2009 by Bradders.

The Ombudsman finds in the favour of customers ppi complaints in almost every case against household names which include Lloyds TSB, Egg, MBNA, Capital One, Northern Rock, RBS and Barclays.The worst offender overall is Lloyds-owned Black Horse as 95% of complaints for missold ppi against the loan company were upheld in that period.

Major credit card provider Capital One is another major offender. The Ombudsman rules against it in almost all insurance and credit-related disputes.To refer a complaint to the Ombudsman, it has to have been turned down by the provider initially. Therefore, it has now become common practice for the banks and other institutions rejecting many complaints where they know they are in the wrong, just to put people off.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) revealed last week that Financial Services firms uphold just 40% of complaints they initially receive.However the arbitrator supports consumers in 59% of all cases and the figure jumps to 90% as an average for ppi complaints.

Complaints against all regulated firms (banks, lenders, insurers, investment firms and adviser firms) were compiled during the first six months of the year across all product areas (banking, bank charges, mortgages, credit cards, loans, insurance, pensions and investments).Company totals

The percentage of complaints upheld by the Ombudsman has been steadily rising. In the 2008/09 financial year, consumers won in 57% of cases, compared to the current 59%. The most interesting statistic is the fact that just 6% of consumers whose complaint is rejected by the financial provider do not proceed with their claim any further.

Broken down into product category, the Ombudsman upholds 61% of banking-related complaints, 41% of mortgage-related gripes, 70% of general insurance complaints and 42% of investment-related grievances.During the first six months the year, the Ombudsman received 69,841 new complaints – of which 87% related to 142 financial businesses.

This figure is astounding when one considers that the FOS oversees more than 100,000 businesses!Five banking groups: Lloyds TSB, the Barclays Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Abbey and HSBC accounted for over half of all new complaints in this period. Of these new complaints Barclays accounted for 8,283 on their own.

The Ombudsman stresses, though, that larger providers will naturally attracts more gripes because they have so many customers. Building societies generally perform much better than banks and loan and credit card firms. As an example, Nationwide lost 41% of disputes, out of the 1,149 complaints made against it.Chief Ombudsman Walter Merricks says:

“We have already been providing comparative complaints data on a private basis to the larger financial businesses but this has led to no improvement in the standard of complaints handling by the worse-performing businesses. Putting this information into the open will give those worse-performing businesses vital encouragement to improve – which should mean fewer of their customers bring complaints to the Ombudsman that should already have been resolved.” Brad Martin of Claimline UK said “This is a step in the right direction and now hopefully the major lenders will see sense and agree to award compensation with regards to obvious misselling.

The Ombudsman Service is doing a grand job but is basically creaking under the enormous workload that the institutions are putting it under. If the situation continues in this vein there will be bona fide cases lost in the system for up to a year when they should have been paid out on submission”

www.ppicomplaint.org.uk

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01/10/2009 by Bradders.

Rejected PPI complaints re-opened

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has unveiled tough new measures to tackle missold payment protection insurance (PPI) head on and stated that 185,000 rejected ppi complaints will be re-examined.Lenders representing more than 40 per cent of face-to-face sales in the single premium unsecured personal loan PPI market have agreed to review these sales and redress those consumers identified as mis-sold.

A new rule will require firms to reopen some 185,000 previously rejected PPI complaints and reassess them against the guidance. In addition new guidlines (due to take effect by the end of the year) will also be introduced to ensure PPI complaints are handled properly, and redressed fairly where appropriate.

To reinforce this initiative, the FSA is launching targeted assessment of sales practices for PPI on secured loans and credit cards.If the potential for mis-selling is identified, pro-active reviews by firms may be extended to these areas too, the FSA said.

Jon Pain FSA managing director of retail markets said: “Consumers should not be pressured or deceived into buying PPI and they are entitled to have a policy properly explained to them. “It is unacceptable that despite previous warnings about poor sales practices, backed by 22 enforcement cases and significant fines, the PPI sector still needs the FSA to intervene on this. “And the outcome of a complaint about a PPI sale should not depend on whether or not the complainant persists past the firm on to the FOS.

“This is the last chance for the industry to show that it can act fairly, consistently and in the best interest of consumers on PPI. All firms operating in this sector should take note and where necessary get their house in order. “Where we find questionable practices in sales or complaint handling, firms can expect that we will take action.” 

The misselling of Payment protection insurance is a saga that has been dragging on for many years. It is only within the last year that various initiatives by the regulators and consumer groups have forced the major lenders to reconsider their positions on the sales procedures of this dubious insurance. 

Brad Martin at Claimline UK said “At last there is a little bead of light at the end of a very long tunnel.“The finance industry has known all along that this insurance was not always sold in the best interest of the consumer.“With the vast profits that have been made over the years it is clearly apparent that a blind eye has been turned towards the sale of this expensive insurance especially when it involves a single premium policy.

“I would advise anyone who has been sold this form of insurance, especially where it involves a single upfront premium to get out the documentation and issue a formal ppi complaint .“I’m amazed that there are still potentially hundreds of thousands of genuine ppi complaints to be made against these firms who have clearly shown a complete disregard for their clients best interests”

Claimline UK 0800 622 6988 www.ppicomplaint.org.uk   

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01/10/2009 by Bradders.

Why Payment Protection Insurance is Scandalous 

If taking out a loan, mortgage, credit card or store card, or bought something on credit is something you’ve done, then there’s a strong possibility that you have been sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). The basis for this insurance is it covers your debt repayments if you can’t work due to illness accident or redundancy.So far so good but it does come with a sting in the tail. In the majority of instances the policy won’t cover you for any pre-existing medical conditions or illnesses such as back pain or stress.

If you’re on a short-term contract or self-employed, you may not be covered for any redundancy claim and PPI linked to mortgages, credit cards or store cards usually pays out for a limited amount of time only. On some credit card PPI, the insurance covers only the minimum monthly payment which means your balance may never reduce In addition most PPI policies only last for five years, so if your loan or finance agreement term lasts for longer than this, you are paying interest on insurance that has long since expired.Taking all that into consideration PPI is also expensive!  By adding PPI to a £7,500 five-year loan could cost an additional £2000-£3000.According to a recent Citizens Advice Bureau survey, Payment Protection Insurance can add 20% or more to the cost of your credit agreement and since it’s estimated that there are over 20 million PPI policies in force throughout the UK generating almost £5 billion worth of premium income for the insurers.

The CAB survey also found that 85% of people who had attempted to claim on their policies had been refused. When analysed further, in June 2008, the Competition Commission found that average insurance payout ratios were: 

Car Insurance: 78%, Home Insurance: 54%, Mortgage PPI:  barely 28%, Personal Loan PPI: a lowly15% and Credit Card PPI:  a staggering 11%!So how can you tell if you’ve got a ppi complaint and what can you do about it?

The main difference between sales before and after regulation is that all sales before regulation were ‘non-advised’ because the ‘advised’ regime didn’t start until regulation was introduced.But if you were sold PPI before 14th January 2005, most firms or advisers would be still covered by a code of practice set by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the General insurance Standards Council (GISC) or the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA).All three codes of practice required advisers to provide information at the time the insurance was taken out to help you decide if the policy was suitable for you Even then, advisers and firms had to cover the same points as they must cover today according to the current rules. 

There’s a good chance you have a ppi complaint and can claim compensation if you can answer ‘NO’ to one or more of these questions:

Was it made clear that the insurance was optional?

Did the adviser inform you of any significant exclusions under the policy (like pre-existing medical conditions) ?

Did the adviser make it clear that you would have to pay for the insurance up front in one single payment and did you know you would be paying interest on it?

If your loan or finance agreement was for longer than five years, did the adviser tell you that the insurance would run out before you had finished paying for your loan or finance agreement?

Did the adviser tell you that you would keep paying interest on the insurance premium, even after the insurance had expired?Brad Martin of Claimline UK said “Consumers are waking up to the fact that the insurance they thought they had is not quite what it seems. In some instances we have clients who have only just discovered that they have it after checking their paperwork more out of curiosity. I would advise anyone who has taken out any form of credit over the last six years to check if they a ppi policy” 

Claimline UK 0800 622 6988www.claimlineuk.co.uk .  

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