Payment Protection Insurance is a policy that helps you to cover your future repayments if you were to lose your job, or if you were to become invalid. They are usually taken for loans or credit cards or when going for a credit on purchases like cars. It covers you for a period of 12 or 24 months after which the payment would have to be covered by you. PPI does not cover you if you are unemployed or is a person suffering from medical problems like heart ailments, high blood pressure or even diabetes.
A return on Payment Protection Plan is high for lenders, hence many lenders follow unscrupulous practices to lure or force the customer into buying a PPI, when going for a loan. This is especially rampant in instances where the user opts for a single premium policy. In single premium policy, PPI premiums are taken for 36 to 60 months as a onetime payment and are added to the main loan. Many a times the bank wouldn't allow you to cancel a PPI, even if you have repaid the loan.
Another common instance of miss sell is when users are not informed about the PPI being added to their loan, or instances where users are forced to buy PPI, by informing them that a PPI helps in speeding up the loan process. Another instance of a missell is when lenders sell PPI, to users, even with the knowledge that their reclaims would be rejected.
The FSA, taking into account the huge number of complaints about banks rejecting claims has tightened the process of PPI. According to the FSA, the Financial Ombudsman Services has received around 100,000 complaints until now, and about 4 out of five decisions have been made in favor of the consumer.
Filing a PPI reclaim is to be made to the company that sold you the PPI. If you think you have been mis sold the PPI, state the reasons why you think you have been mis sold. If the bank rejects the claim (which it would most certainly do) you could get in touch with a claims management company or an attorney who would guide you and let you know if your claims are valid. The claims process would take anywhere around 12 weeks, though in some instances it could take just 4-5 weeks. Claims that are to be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service would take a longer time.
If you claim is successful you could get back all the PPI premiums that you have paid in addition to the 8% interest added. You could also get a return on all the payments that you would have paid towards the PPI.
The author of this article has immense knowledge in PPI Claims and is in close association with Real Claims. Real Claims is one of the leading companies in the UK specializing in Payment Protection Insurance reclaims. Unlike other PPI Claim companies Real Claims [http://www.realclaims.co.uk/] will take on larger PPI claims going through a litigation process allowing them to potentially claim more money for the client.
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