Payment Protection Insurance Mis-selling Claims.

Payment protection insurance or PPI is an insurance product that was specifically designed to cover a dept that is currently outstanding. This debt can be in the form of a loan or an overdraft and is sold as an add-on to the loan or overdraft product. Typically it covers a person against an accident, sickness, unemployment or death. These circumstances could potentially prevent a person from earning a salary or wage by which they can pay off their debt. On the surface PPI seems like a god product to have put it is the way it is sometimes sold by banks and other financial institutions that ahs given it a bad name. There have been many cases of PPI being mis-sold to the public and it is estimated that there are around 20 million policies in existence in the UK, this is a massive number.

Since it was uncovered that many people have been mis-sold PPI to consumers regulations have been improved and become stricter but there are still some people being ripped off without even knowing it. It is thought that the main reason for this gross mis-selling is though to be that bank employees are being forced to sell these policies in order to meet targets and to keep their level of pay. The frightening thing is that some people will not even notice a PPI policy being added onto a loan and not realise that they are actually paying extra to have a policy added that they do not want. Many people do not even realise that they have actually agreed to this policy. It may even be the case that the policy is not suitable for their needs and is therefore worthless and a waste of money. It may also be that if a person had shopped around they may have been able to get the policy cheaper. 

Statistics show that over 2 million people in the UK alone have been mis-sold PPI policies since 2003 and this is very unnerving when you consider that some of these policies have very high monthly payment and then may not even be suitable for the policy holder. The proper way to sell PPI policies is to explain to consumers so that the individual can then decide for themselves whether or not they want the policy. PPI policies should not be automatically added on to loans or mortgages, unfortunately this seems to be what is happening.

People who will more than likely not need a PPI policy but are sometimes unknowingly charged for one are people who are self-employed, retired or people who are forced to give up work because of stress, back problems or a pre-existing medical condition. A standard PPI policy will not cover these people so you could be paying for something that is completely worthless.

So if you think you have been mis-sold a PPI policy what can you do about it? Current legislation means that you can claim if you were mis-sold PPI after January 2005 but you may also be able to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you were sold a policy before this date. Your case will be made stronger if you can prove that the policy was not even relevant to you, for example if you are retired or self-employed. You will need to seek legal advice as PPI claims can get quite complicated and professional legal solicitors will be able to help you on your way to a successful claim and recover your unnecessary payments.