Keep calm and reclaim your mis-sold PPI payments

As a credit consumer for some time now, you probably have learnt of people making PPI claims upon discovering that the policy was mis-sold to them. Some have used companies like www.bestppiclaims.org while others have done their own claim. The money they were able to get back from the banks that sold them PPI was beyond belief for some. The high payouts were well deserved by those who felt cheated and were angered by the ways the policy was wrongly applied alongside credit agreements – credit cards, store cards, loans, and mortgages.

At one point in the past ten years, Payment Protection Insurance has become the most profitable source of sales for a lot of financial institutions. It was an ideal solution for people who need a policy to help them keep up with their repayments should they suddenly become unable to due to sickness, redundancy, or accident.

The fiasco started when a lot of credit consumers were unaware that they were being signed up to the policy, and in some cases it was being offered as a condition for the approval of credit applications. Financial institutions have calculated a huge amount of profit from excessive fees without being noticed by their customers, so a lot them devised schemes to sell PPI in highly irregular manners.

When the mis-selling was discovered, the High Court ruled that the money paid to PPI should be returned following an account review, leading people to make PPI claims at the earliest possible time. A great number of these people have never wanted or needed the cover provided by the policy and some were even signed up to it even though they were ineligible to claim if the situation called for it. There were also reported some sellers even forged their customers’ signatures on PPI contracts.

These mis-selling situations could infuriate anyone, including you. However, if you let your anger subside and start thinking about it, you could actually begin making a claim for yourself. You could either hire the services of a PPI claims company, or make the claim on your own. If you opt for the second, here’s a trouble-free guide for you to follow.

Before you even begin running to your bank and make a claim, you need to know how important evidence is to this kind of dispute. You wouldn’t want your case dismissed and be accused if fraudulent-claiming so gather as much proof that it was mis-sold to you. Look though your account-related documents for reference to Payment Protection Insurance. It should be indicated in your statements and credit agreement forms. A policy certificate should also have been sent to you after the sign-up.

When you’ve got your evidence together, write to you bank about the mis-selling and state your intent to claim your money back. Attach the paperwork you gathered for them to review together with your account information in their database. An investigation on PPI claims usually runs for 6 to 8 weeks, given sufficient evidence and the least amount of complications.

When the bank has finished reviewing you case, they’ll let you know about it. If successful, you’ll have to discuss with them how you are going to be paid. If you have an outstanding debt, the reimbursement will have to cover its repayment. If none, they’ll issue a cheque with the full amount paid to PPI and the interest it rolled over time.

In cases where the bank’s decision was unsatisfactory or they failed to initiate contact after the review, you can lodge a complaint against them at the Financial Ombudsman Service. The FOS then takes over the review of your PPI claim and decides on it after they have made further enquiries with the bank regarding their actions to resolve the dispute.

This whole process can take weeks but the prize at the end could be all worth it, especially if you know you’ve got a solid mis-selling case against your bank. By reasonably making this PPI claim, you’d be able to save yourself from an impending financial trouble, and you may still be able to afford a bit of luxury with the extra cash.