A Definitive Guide To The PPI Claims Process
Posted on 21. May, 2013 by Iqcguest in Insurance
The Payment Protection Insurance issue has been going on for years now in the UK and it has somehow failed to show any cause to become smaller or less intense. Financial institutions involved with insurers providing PPI have been relentlessly working to investigate and give the money back to the people who have been mis-sold them in the past several years. If you are one of them, you might find it a bit troublesome to go through such process and compare it to how ridiculously it has been easier for them to “trick” you into taking it out with your loan, credit card, mortgage, and any other financing agreement.
While Payment Protection Insurance was intended to cover the monthly repayment of your debts in the event of your unemployment, sickness, accident, or death, a lot of this policy has been sold without clearly informing the customers of its processes, coverage, and limitation. This has led thousands, maybe even millions, of borrowers who have taken out the policy, to want to get what they paid for back, including the interest.
But how do you really go about making ppi claims? Well, you may need to find out situation that you were in at the time you were offered the insurance and take it from there. Generally, what you need to establish at this point is whether you have been clearly informed of the procedures that should have been followed at the time you were taking it out. Limitations to insurance coverage generally include self-employment, employment in a family owned business, retirement or nearing the age of retirement, overage individuals, changes in work circumstances, and pre-existing medical conditions. These general situations should have been clearly mentioned to be ineligible for claims and you should have been informed of the other surrounding circumstances before you were convinced to have taken out the policy.
Once you have established that you were not fully informed of the general insurance guidelines and what it limits you to, you may start gathering your paperwork and other relevant information to be presented to your provider’s claims office. Statements of your account, address changes, payment receipts and other relevant documents need to be in place to back-up your PPI claim.
If by any chance you may have lost these documents, you can still file for a claim. You need to, however, get in touch with the credit bureau to find information regarding your loan and insurance provider. You can take it up to the bank and have them retrieve your account information. Credit bureau offices are mandated by the law to keep credit files within the past six years active, so you may have bigger chances to get the information and back up your PPI claim.
As soon as you’ve got the paperwork and the pertinent details ready, your PPI claims treatment and investigation will begin. Banks and mainstream financial providers generally allow a six to eight week process for the PPI claim. They are required by the law to thoroughly look into every case and ensure that the service standards are maintained. Within the said timescales, you may voluntarily get in touch with them for a follow-up and they should at least be able to give you an update as to how far they have gone through the investigation of your claim. Some mis-sold PPI claims take less than six weeks while others may take beyond eight weeks. It is important that the financial institutions give you an update from time to time about it.
Although there is no deadline or a time-coverage of reclaiming mis-sold policies, it is ideal to make a claim for one that was active in the past six years – the timescales within banks and credit offices are mandated to keep information about the loan. However, it doesn’t mean your ineligibility for a claim if your loan was taken out ten years ago. If that’s the case and you have paid it off five years ago, your account information will still be intact and can be retrieved. Even if your loan was way beyond the timescales, if you have kept your paperwork with you, you can still make a claim.
In any case of rejection or delays to the claim, you can bring this case up to the Financial Ombudsman Service, particularly if you believe that your case has not been thoroughly looked into. The Financial Services Authority has published information regarding complaints handling related Payment Protection Insurance which could come in handy.
For several years now, financial institutions have had huge profits from selling Payment Protection Insurance even though it was not asked for, or maybe unsuitable for its customers, by using sales tactics and pressure from their staff. Filing a claim for the premium and the interest of this policy can now be a way to hold them accountable for such unlawful conduct.