PPI – The Most Frequently Asked Questions Part 1/8
Millions of people in the UK are still to claim the money that they’re owed from mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).
Thousands of those probably aren’t aware that they’re actually owed any money at all but if you have had a loan, car finance, store card, credit card or a mortgage then you could be entitled to a pay-out.
Yes, there’s been hundreds and hundreds of different adverts on TV and radio in the past 6 or 7 years from different companies saying that you could be entitled to a PPI pay out but that doesn’t explain to people what PPI actually is.
We’re going to go through some of the most commonly asked questions that we get at Your Money Claim and what we think will be some of the most common, unanswered questions about PPI and we’re going to start with this one…
What Is PPI?
Well, as was mentioned earlier, PPI stands for ‘Payment Protection Insurance’ and its purpose is to cover your repayments on any of the things mentioned earlier in the post in the event that you lose your job, become sick or have an accident and aren’t able to make the repayments.
It has been systemically mis-sold and even if you think you’ve had it, you’ve nothing to lose by checking as most claims management companies (CMCs) operate on a no-win, no-fee basis and it may turn out that you’re actually owed thousands.
Is all PPI Bad?
Payment Protection Insurance isn’t necessarily bad product. However, in most instances it was hugely overpriced, generating gigantic profits for those who sold it, which of course led to the temptation to mis-sell the product.
With the profits on offer to banks and lenders it comes as no surprise that bank staff and sales staff were generally heavily incentivised to sell PPI. Therein lies the issue really, as various tactics were adopted including telling customers they couldn’t have the loan / credit without the insurance, telling customers it would ‘help’ the application, and even sneaking it onto the credit agreement without the customer’s knowledge.
Have I Had PPI?
After reading this far you might not be too sure if you’ve ever had Payment Protection Insurance and could be asking yourself that simple question of whether you had PPI. We estimate that half of all people who can claim are not aware that they actually have had, or currently still have PPI.
We’d even go as far as to suggest if you’ve had a mortgage, loan, hire purchase agreement, credit card or store card you may well be in a minority if you didn’t have PPI.
We’ve even heard of Barclays putting PPI on bank overdrafts!
Luckily our experience and expertise within the industry has seen most banks and lenders approach us in order to set up ‘fast-track’ systems that allow us to check whether PPI has been added to accounts, so if you’re unsure and want to check, simply contact us and get the ball rolling.