Reclaiming PPI

[Whiskey88]

I'm almost ashamed to admit that I've recently worked reclaiming PPI as a claims management advisor. Would the members here find it useful if I were to post how to reclaim PPI for free by yourselves?

I'm also willing to offer assistance (I'm not meant to call it "advice" as I'm not a trained financial advisor) pro bono to members of the forum, just through exchanges on PMs.

Just to reiterate, in case no-one believes me (I know the reputation PPI has), I'm not asking for any money, selling anything or passing on any of your information, just willing to help out some fellow cyclists.

 

[the_mikey]

I have recently reclaimed PPI myself without going through a PPI claims management service, got my money back and bought a shiny new bike

 

[London Female]

I have recently reclaimed PPI myself without going through a PPI claims management service, got my money back and bought a shiny new bike

Me too, I didn't even have to do anything apart from sign a form as the bank I had the loan with contacted me to say they owed me money back. I had forgotten I even had a loan with them and didn't even know I had paid PPI. It only took 4 weeks to receive the cheque.

 

[Maz]

I remember years and years ago (1989??) I had a 'card protection plan', which was some sort of insurance in case my credit card was lost or stolen.
Would this come under PPI?

 

[the_mikey]

I wrote a letter to the bank (after verifying the terms of my PPI were unfair) stating why I believed my PPI was missold, they arranged a call with an advisor to go through some points and within a month a had a letter offering a full refund with a separate interest payment. Don't forget you have to let HMRC know about this interest payment!

 

[Flying Dodo]

The banks are required to contact anyone who took out a loan or credit card with PPI to invite them to make a claim if they felt it was mis-sold.

No-one should use a claims management company, as they simply skim off 25% simply by acting as a post box to pass on paperwork.

 

[Flying Dodo]

I remember years and years ago (1989??) I had a 'card protection plan', which was some sort of insurance in case my credit card was lost or stolen.
Would this come under PPI?

Not exactly, but similar. Banks are going to soon have to contact all customers who took out that type of protection, as they over exaggerated the need for the product. See here for more details.

 

[TheDoctor]

I was never daft enough to take out PPI in the first place!

 

[the_mikey]

I was never daft enough to take out PPI in the first place!

Not everyone was given a choice, which was one of the ways it was mis-sold!

 

[Maz]

I was never daft enough to take out PPI in the first place!

Bully for you!

 

[Whiskey88]

Me too, I didn't even have to do anything apart from sign a form as the bank I had the loan with contacted me to say they owed me money back. I had forgotten I even had a loan with them and didn't even know I had paid PPI. It only took 4 weeks to receive the cheque.

Be careful of this one. Often the banks will contact people with an offer which is substantially less than what the customer actually paid. In the example of a loan, you should receive the full premium amount (initial cost of the PPI - generally around 25% of the loan value added on top of the loan), plus the interest paid on the PPI payments, plus a further 8% statutory interest. Once you've signed the letter from your bank, you cannot escalate any further complaint, even if you later work out that they have underpaid you using the Financial Ombudsman Service's equation (as mentioned in the paragraph).

@Maz - depends on the exact wording of the protection scheme. Going off how you've described it to be if your card is lost or stolen, it doesn't sound as though that is PPI, as this was designed to cover you in the event of accident, sickness, unemployment or redundancy. It could have been attached to any form of credit with or without the customer's knowledge (@TheDoctor ), or customer's could have simply been told they needed the PPI in order to get the credit (which is factually incorrect, but hey the sales advisor needed a sale).

Just as a note, if you have taken out a credit card or loan before 2009 and are still paying it off, you could still be paying PPI without knowing it. Whilst the sale of PPI was banned by the FSA in May 2009, if it was already applied to the policy, then it was allowed to keep running. Lloyds were by far the worst offenders and have admitted that they "sold" PPI into 2010.

But yes, I fully agree with @Flying Dodo - you do not have to use a claims management company. Definitely avoid any company that asks for an upfront payment and remember that fees charged by percentages vary. The cheapest company I know of charge 15% +VAT (18% all-in-all) and the most expensive (one I worked for) charge 39.99% of any successful claim. One client received over £203,000 in compensation from missold PPI and had to pay that company over £80,000 in fees because of it.

 

[Maz]

One client received over £203,000 in compensation from missold PPI and had to pay that company over £80,000 in fees because of it.

Cheeky bastards.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Was PPI the thing where when you bought £100 of stuff on your credit card, your bill would come back saying £100 for the stuff and £6 for insurance, so you'd send them a cheque for £106 and next month the bill would be £1.25 for insurance even though you'd not bought anything. I bent up my card once I finally succeeded in paying off the insurance on the insurance. I was fully expecting them to send me a bill for 4p.

 

[Whiskey88]

Was PPI the thing where when you bought £100 of stuff on your credit card, your bill would come back saying £100 for the stuff and £6 for insurance, so you'd send them a cheque for £106 and next month the bill would be £1.25 for insurance even though you'd not bought anything. I bent up my card once I finally succeeded in paying off the insurance on the insurance. I was fully expecting them to send me a bill for 4p.

PPI on cards is more complicated. Essentially, it was a percentage of any outstanding balance. When did you finish paying the insurance and do you still have any paperwork from that time?

 

[captain nemo1701]

Last year I got fed up of those annoying PPI texts and casually mentioned it while in my local bank. They gave me their claims line number and I had a five minute conversation. Eight weeks later I received £9,300.

Don't use middle men !

Just be patient and it'll happen.