PPI claims appear to be most discussed by those making a claim on a historic policy which is no longer active, being paid for or attached to a loan or credit card and as a result the claims process on policies which are currently still active and being paid for are often overlooked. The number of such policies is reducing as it has now been a number of years since several practices which commonly led to mis sold payment protection insurance have now been banned. This includes online opt out application forms which ceased to exist in July 2007 once it was banned by the Office of Fair Trading due to its misleading nature that many applicants did not pick up on. Another such practice which has been banned is the sale of payment protection insurance policies at the point of sale of the credit products. This means that sales of PPI cannot happen at the same time that the credit cards, loans, store cards and mortgages are taken out and the provider has to now wait for a 7 day period to elapse before attempting to do so. This particular practice was banned by the Competition Commission in 2010 and although it was appealed, said appeal failed and this is now in force.
As payment protection insurance was typically paid for over the length of the loan or finance and as these were generally on a short term basis of 5 years or under most are now approaching the end of their lifespan and should be claimed on within six years of the date the policy was sold or within three years of the date of the discovery that the policy was mis sold. There is not an unlimited window for making a claim for both active and old policies so it is necessary to look into starting the PPI claims procedure as soon as you possibly can to avoid missing out on the opportunity to make a claim and get your money back as well as receiving an additional sum on top of the refund as compensation.
After you have exposed the fact your payment protection insurance policy was mis sold then you need to start the claims process and this can be done on an independent basis by contacting the bank directly to cancel your policy and then make a complaint. Alternatively PPI Claims Management can be hired to complete the claim for you and get your money back without any difficulties on your part.
The first part of the PPI claim will be to cancel the policy, as you were mis sold it and therefore were not eligible or did not want it, need it or even know you had it then this should not be a problem. Following this a complain needs to be made to the bank and you need to include the ways in which you believe that the payment protection insurance policy was mis sold to you with lots of detail. From this point of submitting your claim you should hear from the bank within 6 to 8 weeks with a decision. If you have not heard from the bank within a suitable time frame it is advised that your claim is then sent to the Financial Ombudsman as the bank is failing to meet its obligations and further action can be taken by the Ombudsman.
If your PPI claim is found to be successful a refund will then be made but this is where the process differs from those who are claiming on an old policy. As you are likely to still have a debt with the bank or loan lender if you have an active payment protection insurance policy the bank has the right to hold the money which you would receive through your PPI claim and instead of paying it out direct to the claimant they can instead use it to pay off the debt that the claimant currently has with the bank. If all of the debt is paid off with the PPI claims refund with funds left over this will then be paid to the claimant and they will be debt free with that particular bank. If the payment protection insurance policy refund is put towards the repayment of the debt but does not fully cover it then the monthly repayments or the term of the loan will be reduced. If in the event you are suffering financial difficulties due to not being paid your payment protection insurance refund in full, directly to you then you have the opportunity to appeal the decision to pay off the debt with the bank or loan provider.