30/03/2010 by Bradders.

Payment Protection Insurance otherwise known as PPI is an insurance product offered by banks and financial services companies with nearly all credit agreements. This insurance is designed to protect the borrower by covering monthly loan repayment (such as personal loan, credit card payments, mortgages, car bought with finance deals) if the customer is unable to meet the repayments due to an accident, sickness, unemployment.

However the bone of contention is the fact that the institutions were selling this more for their own benefit rather than their army of loyal customersIt has been estimated that PPI generates as much as 5.5 billion pounds of annual revenue for U.K. banks.

The Office of Fair Trading has found serious failings with the way PPI is sold and there is to be a total ban on the selling of single premium ppi (the one the banks love) by October 2010.There has also been serious failings with the exclusions and caveats attached to these policies in the unfortunate event if someone needs to make a claim. This has led to many consumer watchdogs voicing their feelings that the great British public have been getting ripped off for years.However the worm has turned and the amount of ppi complaints for missold ppi is going through the roof.

The banks are being inundated with ppi claims and are having to increase staffing levels in their complaints departments to deal with this huge influx. Whilst a high percentage of these ppi claims are justified the banks are still refuting the majority of these and they are being referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).The FOS is doing a sterling job under the circumstances but the sheer volume of ppi complaints is making the system creak under the strain.It has got to the stage where the FOS out of pure frustration recently published a report that showed the worst offenders with regards to consumer complaints.

The number of ppi claims they are now processing is almost 1000 cases a week which means the time it takes to process a claim is increasing all the time. Anyone who believes they were missold ppi should get their policy out and join the thousands of people who are making successful ppi claims against the institutions and getting their money back with interest. www.claimlineuk.co.uk 

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25/03/2010 by Bradders.

Due to all of the bad press that the banks have been receiving over the past couple of years with their huge bonus’s, it has now come to light the shoddy way they have treated their customers regarding protection insurance.

The majority of people by will by now have read something about the mis-selling of payment protection insurance. For a lot of people who have taken out loans, credit cards or mortgages it will have involved them taking out this insurance without them either realising it or perhaps being pressured into taking it at the time of the agreement. Within this sector there will be a high percentage of people who should never have been sold this in the first place as it would never have paid out when needed for a multitude of reasons.

The most flagrant abuses of this is where the policies were sold to people who were suffering from pre-existing medical conditions such as back ache or even mental disorders. Other sharp practices involve adding this expensive insurance as part of the loan without informing the client or using high pressure sales tactics implying that they would have a better chance of securing the loan with the ppi.However now is the time for the great British public to fight back and make a ppi complaint to get their money back from these institutions. For many people taking on the large banks can seem daunting and they feel they lack the experience to make a successful claim against missold ppi.

Due to the very nature of the industry and how profitable this form of insurance is to the lenders bottom line it’s not in their interest to make a ppi claim a simple and painless procedure. The Ombudsman is doing a sterling job but its resources are being stretched to the limit as it was not set up as a complaints department for the lenders but as a judicator for cases that could not be resolved. To this end when a case is presented to the Ombudsman (where the majority invariably end up) the correspondence needs to be clear and concise as the FOS are receiving nearly a 1000 complaints a week relating to a ppi complaint.

The FOS has a strict procedure that it has to follow and the banks have to be given a fair chance to put their case forward before the Ombudsman deems it necessary to get involved. From the time they receive the initial complaint they have a set time to resolve it and if not it can then be referred to the FOS. Knowing the correct procedures to make a ppi claim obviously helps the process on dealing with the institutions and spotting the smoke and mirror responses that some of them are more than happy to use. www.claimlineuk.co.uk

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24/03/2010 by Bradders.

If you have a loan, mortgage or credit card there is a possibility that you may have a payment protection insurance 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 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.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 making a ppi complaint  as they wake up to the fact that they have been paying over the odds for insurance that they neither wanted or could even use, 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 practically 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 ppi complaint 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 payment protection insurance claim 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. One major high street bank is using delaying tactics on every case presented with the ombudsman powerless to interveneWhen 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 detailsIt 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.In this current environment tenacity is the key ingredient to make sure their payment protection insurance claim receives a positive outcome.www.claimlineuk.co.uk  

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24/03/2010 by Bradders.

With our current economy going into meltdown and the very real threat of a serious deep rooted recession, never has there been a more important time for consumers to protect themselves in the face of a rising tide of unemployment.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), believes the UK is now entering a recession that will put hundreds of thousands of people out of work.If unemployment continues to rise at a rapid rate we could potentially see figures that we have not experienced for decades.

Over the past 10 years UK debt has hit unprecedented levels and if people find themselves on the receiving end of redundancy they will be looking at those insurance policies that they purchased at the time of their credit agreement..

However with payment protection insurance hitting the headlines on a regular basis the majority of consumers will feel that they are between a rock and a hard place as the financial turmoil starts to kick in. Over the last 18 months there have been a number of financial institutions that have been fined many millions of pounds for misselling payment protection insurance. The Alliance & Leicester alone were fined an eye watering £7 million for mis-selling policies.

If you believe that you were missold then you should make a ppi complaint Some of the reasons for misselling are:-Not being told that a pre-diagnosed medical condition will not be covered.The cost of the policy not fully explained and informed that you could buy it elsewhere, potentially at a cheaper price. -Were led to believe that the cover was a condition of the loan. -Were not aware that PPI was attached to the borrowing-Were not told that being unemployed, self employed or on a fixed term contract would make it ineligible to payout.If any of the above applies to anyone with payment protection insurance attached to a credit agreement they should make a claim against the seller to get their ppi refund 

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23/03/2010 by Bradders.

With the sheer volume of complaints increasing against the financial institutions and rising at an alarming rate, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the complaints procedure is now taking much longer. Some of the major lenders continue to reject the vast majority of claims made against them which is in turn adding unnecessary pressure on the Financial Ombudsman Service. One major high street bank in particular rejects virtually every claim made against it even when there is clear evidence to suggest that this form of insurance should never have been sold to the borrower in the first place.

With sub prime lenders the situation is even worse with a lot of them going out of business and leaving it to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to get the borrowers ppi refunded.The situation has got so bad that the FOS recently announced individual figures for the level of ppi complaints that banks and financial institutions have received in a name & shame ploy. As predicted a number of the major institutions found themselves at the top of the list.

To add insult to injury a number of these included banks that have been bailed out using tax payer’s money!It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the lenders are using these high rejection rates as a deliberate tactic to slow down the process of getting ppi refunded but even more cynically as a deliberate tactic to try and get consumers to give up their claim. Brad Martin of claims management company Claimline
Uk said “in today’s environment tenacity is the key ingredient to making a claim. I’m often asked the best ways on getting ppi refunded and I always offer the same response. You have to be very persistent in putting your claim forward to have any real chance of success”One particular big household name bank is the worst offender in rejecting customer complaints unfairly.

With the FOS leading the charge on PPI mis-selling many of these banks will be found in breach of regulations relating to ppi complaints. The FOS is calling for borrowers to be treated fairly in relation to these complaints and it’s clearly something that the banks are failing to do. It has now reached the stage where the Ombudsman has reached the end of its tether and will name and shame the individual banks on a regular basis.“I said six months ago that we are heading for the same scenario we had with endowment mis-selling.I have since been proved wrong as it’s worse than predicted” said Brad “This will continue and there will be no easy solution to get missold ppi refunded easily in the short term.

However, you must persist with the claim. It will be time consuming and if you feel that you don’t have the right inclination for this then get a CMC like Claimline UK to handle it on your behalf”The war of attrition is just beginning, so be prepared for the long haul.

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22/03/2010 by Bradders.

Cast your mind back, when you took out that credit agreement do you remember payment protection insurance being attached to it? Do you remember feeling pressured at the time to take it out. Did the adviser take time out to make sure that you fully understood what you were purchasing i.e. your loan was for 10 years but the policy only covered you for 5 years?

Did you wonder at the time why they were offering you a policy that covered sickness but you were already under medical supervision for an illness? Or perhaps you were self employed or very close to retirement at the time of the sale so redundancy cover was not an issue.If any of these sound familiar there’s a good chance that you were missold and should be working towards getting a PPI refund.

You’ve probably read all the recent media reports of how reticent the banks are to giving ppi refunds to their customers and you might even be thinking that you will be wasting your time in trying to claim your premiums back. If the complaint is rejected perhaps you feel it will be just your word against a major institution and their word will be accepted in front of yours. Perhaps you consider that your letter writing skills are not up to it or you do not know what documentation you need to supply.

Whatever the reason push the excuses aside as there is no time like the present to get the wheels in motion and get the premiums back on your missold ppi policy.Claimline UK specialises in helping people get a PPI refund on all the premiums they have paid plus any interest owed on a no win no fee basis. They are regulated by the Ministry of Justice to act on your behalf in getting back what is rightfully yours. They work on a low 20% success fee and you don’t pay a penny until you receive your cheque.Remember if you have a claim this is your money that the lender is sitting on and I’m sure you would want it in your account rather than theirs.

Please remember that due to the huge volume of ppi complaints currently being processed by the financial institutions cases are taking longer now than they have ever done. Therefore if you have a claim it’s in your best interest to start the claims process as soon as possible.Do it today!Claimline UK 0800 622 6988

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22/03/2010 by Bradders.

The financial watchdog has doubled its original estimate for the cost to insurers of compensating people who are mis-sold ppi the controversial insurance product designed to cover loan repaymentsThe Financial Services Authority said it was now expecting firms to have to handle around 450,000 ppi complaints each year going forward, rather than the 158,000 it had originally estimated.

The inflated number of projected complaints is expected to push up the cost of settling future mis-selling claims from around £80 million, to as much as £203 million a year!In addition, banks and insurers are also expected to have to pay out between £900 million and £2.7 billion to compensate people who have previously been mis-sold one of the policies.

However, despite conceding that the costs were likely to be higher than it had originally envisaged, the FSA insisted it was not watering down its proposals.In September last year, the regulator said firms representing more than 40% of sales in the single premium PPI market had agreed to review sales going back to July 2007.It also said it was issuing new guidance to ensure PPI complaints were handled properly in future, adding that 185,000 previously rejected claims would have to be reassessed against this benchmark.

The measures aim to ensure that consumers are treated consistently and fairly, either when they buy a new PPI policy or complain about an existing one.Publishing feedback on responses it had received in relation to the proposals today, the FSA said consumer groups were very supportive, but PPI providers and industry groups had been highly critical.The industry complained that the FSA had not shown there was a genuine problem around the sale of PPI, which covers debt repayments if the holder is ill or loses their job, or the way complaints about the product were handled.

It added that the proposed solution was not “appropriate or proportionate”, and it took issue with the regulator’s estimates of the costs involved.

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22/03/2010 by Bradders.

An air of discontent is now starting to build as angry borrowers across the country are gradually waking up to the fact that they may have been missold expensive, unnecessary and in many instances useless insurance. This insurance is known as payment protection insurance or PPI as it’s more commonly referred to. In the borrowing frenzy of the last ten years, lenders were able to sell this expensive insurance alongside credit arrangements to borrowers who were far more interested in the loan rather than reading through the small print of the key facts documentation.

However, over the last few years various financial watchdogs have discovered blatant misselling of PPI and have fined several lenders including major banks many millions of pounds the largest being £7m against Alliance & Leicester. The good news for the victims of this misselling is the fact that thousands of people are now successfully claiming back their premiums plus interest!

Borrowers have successfully made ppi complaints against several aspects of the sales procedure. These have included PPI being added without their knowledge or being led to believe to believe that the insurance was compulsory to get the loan. If they had a pre-existing medical condition or was self employed or retired at the time of the loan this would have excluded them from being able to claim.Several million policies have been sold over the years which will mean the borrowing frenzy of a few years ago will make millions of people eligible to claim a ppi refund

A claims management company can help guide you through the process and this should be handled on a no win no fee basis. Claimline UK specialises in getting clients their ppi refund and charge no upfront fees. Only when the case is successfully completed is the 20% fee applied.Thousands of people are claiming back a ppi refund every week, shouldn’t you be one of them?

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11/03/2010 by Bradders.

Since the great ppi misselling debacle began in earnest around 18 months ago hundreds of thousands of people have tried to claim back their premiums on a missold ppi policy. Unfortunately a large number of these claims have been rejected by the credit supplier that sold them the policy in the first place. This has become normal procedure and the financial institutions are relying on the fact that a lot of people will accept this final response as the end of the matter. Selling this type of insurance has been big business for the banks and a major profit earner. Therefore it really is not in the lenders interest to roll over and let the customer have all there premiums back plus interest.

The whole process can be a tedious exercise and the credit providers are complicating the procedure beyond what it should be with ‘smoke and mirror tactics. In a lot of instances it’s not complicated although there are exceptions to the rule where a professional eye can cut through the maze of jargon. Brad Martin of Claimline UK encourages anyone who has had a claim turned down by the credit provider within the last six months to give his company a chance to get their money back on a no win no fee arrangement. Brad said “just because a lender refutes your claim for whatever reason does not make it the end of the road. We recently claimed back nearly £4000 for a client who had their claim rejected by a major high street lender nearly a year before they approached us. Although the final response letter from the lender was outside the 6 month time limit laid down by the FOS we persuaded the Ombudsman to open the case as we could prove mitigating circumstances. We also have the facility to take the case to one of our panel of solicitors who again will take the case on a no win no fee basis.

The only time constraint we have is the fact that the loan needs to have been taken out in the last six years. If you have a credit card agreement this can go back further especially if you are still paying for it”  For these reasons alone it’s worthwhile in engaging the services of a professional claims handler if you have a ppi complaint  especially if your claim is going nowhere.

Fees vary but Claimline UK offer their services at a competitive 20% even when solicitor’s services are required. Generally speaking there should be no need to pay more than 20% for a claims company and you should be wary of companies charging a 10% fee. They normally make up the difference by retaining the interest part of the claim which exceeds the 20% rate by a long way.Claimline UK was specifically set up to handle PPI claims and in instances where the PPI element of the claim exceeds £8000 the fee is negotiable.

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

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05/03/2010 by Bradders.

The great debate on missold payment protection insurance continues across all sectors. The media has picked up on it writing huge articles on the wrongdoings of the finance industry. Consumer champions like Martin Lewis and Which are constantly in the news fighting the cause and there are literally hundreds of websites offering help. In case anyone reading this does not know what PPI is it’s the hugely expensive insurance that is sold alongside credit agreements whether you want it or not. The financial institutions have been getting fat on the back of the profits that this type of insurance brings in. 

If you think you have been missold a policy the obvious thing to do one would assume would be to make a ppi complaint to get back your hard earned cash. However it’s becoming increasingly apparent that this is not always the case as literally hundreds of thousands of people have not bothered to claim their money back. This is even more confusing when one considers that a single call to Clamline
uk would enable the clam to commence on a no win no fee basis. What’s more on completion of a successful claim they will only charge a fee of 20% of the sum recovered.  

However to help us all understand the reasons for not claiming here’s a useful list that may help 

-The banks deserve to keep my hard earned cash to help with their bonuses-The banks cannot be blamed for my naivety in thinking I needed to take PPI  -I‘ve already got some money, I don’t really need anymore.-It’s a lot of fuss finding the loan policy to get a few thousand in compensation-I don’t like using the telephone to initiate a claim or use a web form-If I got compensation, I’d only spend it.-If I had a genuine claim the banks would send me the money anyway  

If the above list does not make any sense to you visit www.claimlineuk.co.uk

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