Payment Protection Insurance (or PPI in short) is an insurance which is sold by banks in case of inability to repay the due amount.
If you have ever taken out a loan or you have used a credit card, you may be one of millions of people who had an incorrect insurance policy.
At first it seems that PPI is meaningful. In case of loss of job due to the accident or an illness it is supposed to cover a part of your repayment.
In fact, not many people could use such a policy since they did not fulfill the requirements to obtain the insurance. To sum up, PPI was sold to the clients without their knowledge and often without verification whether they are entitled to it or not.
Amount of the PPI vary from 13% to even 56% of the credit value. In 2005, Citizens Advice Bureau initiated proceedings. The Guardian reports that hundreds of thousands of people won the compensations for an insurance refund. In the first half of 2011, banks paid £557 million of compensation. According to the statistics 9 in 10 compensation cases were won by the client. The average recovered amount equals £2,500, whereas any payments amount from £200 to £10,000. Only in August 2011, banks repaid £230 million to their clients.
You are not sure if you paid PPI?
Read your bank agreement carefully. Look for a phrase “Payment Protection Insurance” or its abbreviation. Payment Protection Insurance may also have different names, such as:
- Accident, Sickness and Unemployment cover (ASU),
- Loan Protection Insurance,
- Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance,
- Credit Card Payment Protection Insurance,
- Credit Protection Insurance,
- Loan Repayment Insurance,
- Personal Loan Protection,
- Credit Card Repayment Protection.
If you cannot find the agreements on credit, loan or credit card, all is not lost! Every financial institution is obliged to archive the documents of their clients for 6 years from the last transaction. You can write a request to your lender for copies of the documents („Subject Access Request”).
If you are still not sure if the bank charged a fee, you can contact us and our lawyers will help you verify your agreements with regard to PPI.
Is it worth seeking a PPI refund?
Of course. Depending on the amount and time of credit or loan repayment, you can recover even thousands of pounds. This money will help you cover a part of the debt. If you want to recover the compensation, you should write a claim directly to your lender. The institution has 8 weeks to reply to your request. In case of refusal – which occurs relatively often since they know that the majority of the clients will give up after the first attempt – you can go to the Financial Department of the Ombudsman.
If the response is positive, be careful. Do not sign anything until you will be sure that the amount, which the lender offers you equals to the amount you paid. It often happens that clients get a quick response along with a cheque. Usually, it is only a part of the compensation which clients should get.
You can also use our services. We are ready to conduct the case for compensation from its beginning to the very end. We treat each client individually, regardless of his or her home country. We do not charge any fees, until we manage to recover the full amount which you incurred by paying unnecessary insurance.