Just to clarify Payment Protection Insurance is not a bad product; in fact it is very useful if sold properly. Payment protection insurance is there to cover payments for a year in the event of accident sickness or unemployment.
However with the recession firmly taking its tole on the economy unemployment has risen to over 1.89 million people the highest in over a decade. This is where insurance policies such as payment protection insurance should essentially help those in need of keeping up payments on car finance, credit cards, loans, mortgages and store cards.
Payments protection insurance should pay a year’s worth of payments on these items but it is the mis – sold of PPI policies that is causing such an uproar for its customers and leaving people with no option to pay for such items when in fact their PPI policies should cover them, after all what is the point in paying for PPI if it never essentially covers you.
With targets set by banks and various organizations to sell PPI to its customers mis – sold has been rife within the industry. Meaning that customers are not getting the cover they are paying for.
Some of the banks to have been fined millions for mis – sold PPI policies are: Natwest, RBS, HBOS, Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Bradford & Bingley, Alliance & Leceister and Abbey, along with many other companies.
“MIS – SOLD PPI?” There are clear rules that finance firms and advisers have to follow when selling payment protection insurance (PPI) policies – despite this our research shows that at least two million people may have a PPI policy they would never be able to make a claim on.
Mis – selling checklist
If you can answer ‘no’ to one or more of these questions, then you may have been mis – sold PPI
- If the insurance was optional, was that made clear to you?
- Did the adviser tell you about any significant exclusions under the policy – for example, the exclusion that says you won’t be covered for any pre – existing medical condition?
- If you took out a loan or finance agreement, did the adviser make it clear that you would have to pay for the insurance up front in one single payment?
- If you had to pay for the PPI as a single payment, did the adviser make it clear that the insurance cost would be added to the loan and you would be paying interest on it?
- Single premium PPI insurance normally only lasts for five years. If your loan or finance agreement was for longer than this, did the adviser make it clear that the insurance would run out before you had finished paying for your loan or finance agreement? The adviser should also have told you that you would continue to pay interest on the insurance premium, even after the insurance expired.
