Time is running out to claim compensation for mis-sold PPI.
We’ve all seen the adverts, with an Arnold Schwarzenegger head on wheels telling us to put in a claim before it’s too late. And millions of people have – but there are still many who haven’t even checked if they even had PPI.
I was one of those. Now, a huge part of this was that I was confident I’d never had it. I didn’t have many credit products in the time PPI was being mis-sold. But even though I was sure I didn’t agree to having it, there was still the chance that it had been added without me knowing – something that did happen. Plus, I’d got Sentinal Protection compensation back in 2015 so perhaps I had signed up for something else?
Well it turns out I was right, I didn’t have PPI. But it only took a few minutes for me to check. And with just weeks left in order to put in a complaint, it’s well worth you all doing the same – just in case.
So here’s what you need to know in order to find out if you had it and how to put in a complaint.
Listen to the podcast episode on PPI as Andy talks to Naomi Willis from Skint Dad about how to complain
What is PPI?
Payment Protection Insurance, commonly known as PPI, was something often sold to people with some form of credit. That could be loans, credit cards, mortgages, store credit, car finance, catalogue credit, and even overdrafts.
The idea was that in the event you couldn’t repay the money you borrowed, you’d be covered. And that’ might not be a bad thing. I’ve got critical illness cover in case I can’t work. And PPI might have been a good thing for some of those taking it out
Of course you paid for this, like with any protection insurance. And loads of people did. 64 million PPI policies sold! Epic. PPI dates back to the 1970s, but most of the sales happened between 1990 to 2010
What’s the problem with PPI?
It turned out that a huge number of the PPI policies were mis-sold. This could have been that the buyer wouldn’t eligible to ever make a claim as self-employed or retired. Maybe they had a pre-existing medical condition that meant it was worthless. And there were cases where it wasn’t made clear that you’d get charged interest on it if it was added to your loan.
And some people were pressured into taking it out, or told it was compulsory in order to get the credit. While others didn’t even know they had it – it was just added on.
When this came to light in 2005, it started a chain of investigations and court cases that, in 2011, meant people could complain if they felt any of this applied to them – if they were successful they’d get the money they’d paid back.
But you don’t have to have been mis-sold or unaware of a policy to put in a complaint. The people selling PPI also made a huge commission – the typical amount was a massive 67%. If they didn’t tell you about this, then since 2015 you’ve been able to put in a complaint too thanks to what’s called Plevin rules. And essentially, it’s very unlikely they did tell you. So even if you knew you had it and willingly signed-up, you can probably claim for this. Though it’s often a smaller amount than if you had been mis-sold.
With the Plevin rule you can also complain if you had a mis-selling claim rejected previously – but not if you’ve already had a payout. If you’ve complained since late 2017 you probably had both cases assessed at the same time.
Did you have PPI?
So we’ve established you might not have known you had it – and since it goes back a fair while, there’s a good chance you might have forgotten.
In order to complain you have to have had the credit product open on or after 6th April 2007. If it was opened before that date it also needed to still be open by 6th April a year later – 2008.
With both though it doesn’t matter if you still have it and are paying it or not. You can still make a claim. But first you need to know if you ever had it.
One way to find out is to go through your paperwork and look for these extra payments on your credit products. It might not actually be called PPI, so look for anything that indicates some form of insurance to cover repayments if you couldn’t pay.
The FCA website lists these examples:
* accident, sickness and unemployment (ASU) insurance
* account cover
* credit insurance
* credit protection
* loan care
* loan insurance
* loan protection
* loan repayment insurance
* mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI)
* payment cover
* protection plan
If nothing comes up – or you don’t have any paperwork – then your next step is to check your credit report. Doing this will help you see who you’ve had accounts with in the last six years. This won’t tell you if you had PPI, but it will tell you who to get in touch with.
Obviously see some banks and lenders have merged with others, gone out of business or change there names – making it a bit hard to track them down, But the FCA website has a list of providers and who now looks after their PPI cases. For example Egg is with Barclays while Abbey National is now Santander.
Once you’ve got this information, contact the lender. You’ll need your name, recent addresses and date of birth. Some have an easy to complete website form . Though I was confident I’d never had PPI, I still tried for Barclaycard & Nationwide. It took a minute to fill in each one, and a few days latter I got letters confirming I hadn’t had a PPI policy.
How to put in a PPI complaint
First – avoid claim companies. They will take a cut if you did have PPI and win compensation. Instead, do it yourself. It’s free!
If you’ve enquired with a lender about whether you had PPI, many now automatically put forward a complaint on your behalf. Otherwise, you can do it online, by post or over phone. You can go into a branch too if there is one.
The FCA website has a list of where to go, and you can get a template letter places like Resolver and Which .
And don’t forget you can do it for as many products as you had PPI.
You can also complain on behalf of deceased relatives or family members who are too vulnerable to do it themselves. You just need the details of the credit account and why you’re complaining.
The PPI Deadline
There isn’t long left to put in your complaint as the final deadline is 29th August 2019. This is the date in which you need to put in your complaint – it might take longer and further investigation before the payout – if there is one – comes your way.