Payment Protection Scotland - PPI Blog

With the payment protection insurance (PPI) selling scandal still making headlines, it can be difficult to see if there is any advantage to having this type of policy.

If you are taking out a loan or credit card, and PPI is offered to you, how do you know whether to accept it or not?

Before signing up for PPI, consider it carefully whether you actually need more insurance cover.  

Ask yourself these key questions:

If you lose your job, can you afford to keep up repayments?

Some people have savings or other policies that would kick in should this happen. For example, do you have;

• Life insurance
• Another type of illness policy such ascritical illnessor anincome protection policy
• Benefits such as sickness or redundancy benefits with your employer
• An insurance combined with your mortgage

If you do have the above, then you may not need PPI.

How much will the policy cost?

The cost of a PPI policy can be notoriously high, with very little level of cover offered in return. It can significantly add to your loan repayments or credit card debt and, as with all financial products, it really does pay to shop around.

Similarly, the more a policy offers, the more expensive it will be.

How long does the policy pay out for?

Many PPI policies only pay out for a set length of time such as for the first 12 months of any claim.

Most PPI policies will also have a 'waiting period' when it comes to making a claim, so you may find that you will still have to meet repayments for a month or so, before the policy 'kicks in'.

Are there any exclusions?

Many customers seeking PPI compensation are doing so because of them not being made aware of significant exclusions under the terms and conditions of the policy. If you have a medical condition, for example, you may find that it will be excluded from any claim that you may make. If it is included under the policy, you may also find that this substantially increases your policy premium.

It pays to shop around when it comes to payment protection insurance but if you think you have been mis-sold PPI on loans and product in the past, you can contact PPI Scotland for help and advice on how to make a claim for compensation.

Do I need to buy it now? Why can I not buy a policy independently?

The best way to buy an insurance policy is to take your time to find one that offers the cover you need, for the price you can afford to pay. If the sales rep. insists you buy it now, walk away because this is not how financial products should be sold.

Payment protection insurance (PPI) is now an infamous term that virtually everybody across the UK is aware of. It is the biggest scandal to have ever rocked the British financial sector.

What is PPI?

It is an insurance policy that is meant to protect the customer and make repayments on loans etc. in the event they are unable to do so.

The problem was that the terms and conditions of PPI are very restrictive and narrow that in all honesty, only a very few people should consider investing in it.

Various financial pundits have also suggested that as a financial product, it offers very poor value for money and better policies are available.

But the biggest problem was the way in which it was sold…

… at the same time as when a product was bought

Customers were often sold their main product e.g. a loan, as a package. This meant that they had everything neatly rolled into one thing and they didn't have to worry about if 'the worst happened' and they couldn't keep up with repayments on the loan, catalogue account and so on.

It gave people a false peace of mind.

… over the phone or other situations in which the terms were not clearly explained

Many banks and lenders rang their customers and sold the policy to them over the phone. But here's the thing: the sales people would most probably have had your details in front of them and would have seen that you were not eligible for cover under the terms and conditions of the PPI policy.

But they sold it to you anyway.

… key information was 'hidden' e.g. commission, brokerage 'fees', successful claim rate and so on

For example, did you know that PPI only paid out in 15% of claims made against it? Or that it was a long and drawn out claim process? Or that the broker who organised the policy took a massive chunk of your money for organising it?

Call us to find out more…

… added after sales and without consent

Yes, that's right. On catalogue accounts and credit card accounts, it was common for PPI to be added without your consent but you may have received a letter that told you what a fabulous product it was. And you took no notice because you thought your lender was acting in a responsible manner.

But they didn't have your best interests at heart.

At Payment Protection Scotland, we can help you to claim the money back owed to you by banks and lenders. Call us NOW before it's too late. The August 2019 PPI deadline is weeks away - don't leave it too late!

Payment protection insurance - commonly known as PPI - is a financial product that will be forever known as the biggest mis-selling scandal ever to have rocked the British financial industry. But it is coming to an end. If you want to claim your money back, you need to do so before 29^th August 2019 or face missing out.

Within the UK, 24 financial firms are responsible for 96% of the claims with a variety of banks finding they have had to add considerable amounts of money to their PPI compensation pots - the Royal Bank of Scotland, for example, has added a reported £450million, while Barclays has added even more to its PPI compensation fund.

And why are banks adding funds to their compensation pots? Because customers are exercising their rights and asking for their money back - and you could be next in line to claim your money back with our help.

What is 'mis-selling'?

It is a phrase linked with PPI but what does it actually mean? PPI was mis-sold for a variety of reasons but essentially, it means that it is not suitable for many people.

Customers who, for example, were;

• self-employed or
• retired or
• suffering from pre-existing medical conditions

and were sold PPIwould not have been able to make a claimunder the terms and conditions of the PPI policy as they were not covered.

And some of these terms and conditions also present many mis-selling issues - significant exclusions, such as pre-existing medical conditions were not fully explained to customers. Thus, when some customers thought they were covered, they were not.

Make sure you exercise your consumer rights

PPI was mis-sold on a large number of products to thousands of customers. If you have had a loan, credit card, mortgage, car finance, catalogue account with any company - or any combination of any of these products -  contact PPI Scotland.

How to claim your money back

You need to;

1. Look through all your accounts on which you borrowed money- this means checking catalogue accounts, credit cards, loans and more. And check carefully as PPI was not always called PPI and neither will premiums always be obvious.
2. If you find PPI, make a claim-even if you are unsure how or why it was mis-sold to you. The likelihood is it was mis-sold and you will be due to all your premiums back, and interest too.

Who we are

As a claims management company specialising in PPI compensation claims, we have helped thousands of customers to successfully exercise their consumer rights - and claim their money back. We charge a fee for our service but offer our expertise on a no win, no fee basis. Interested? Call us!

You may have noticed texts telling you to claim the thousands owed to you in PPI compensation. Or maybe you have received phone calls suggesting you make your claim for PPI compensation now.

Some may have looked part way convincing. For example, it may say something like "we have calculated you are owed £3,621.18p in PPI compensation" and so on.

These texts and phone calls relating to PPI have been a nuisance since the PPI scandal broke. They are from claim management companies who say they have your best interests at heart.

Professional and reputable claim management companies have a more responsible attitude to promoting their claim management services.

But back in March 2017, the media on hearing the announcement of a PPI deadline for August 2019, told us that these scam calls and irritating texts would explode and we would all face the nuisance that are PPI calls.

But has this happened?

The PPI Deadline Promotional Campaign

Alongside a deadline of 29^th August 2019, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has determined that in order for everyone to have the opportunity to claim their money back, there needs to be a massive promotional campaign.

This campaign is reputed to be costing £42 million, a bill being paid for by the banks and lenders responsible for the PPI mis-selling debacle.

The number of PPI compensation claims have been steadily increasing and are expected to remain high as the August 2019 PPI deadline approaches.

How Will the PPI Deadline Work?

You can lodge your PPI complaint about mis-selling anytime between 29^th August 2019. After this date, no new cases relating to PPI complaints that pre-date 2017 will be looked into.

In other words, they are drawing a line under historic mis-selling of PPI and any new cases that could possibly have happened in these last few months.

How Does the PPI August 2019 Deadline Effect Payment Protection Scotland Services?

As yet, it doesn't in relation to PPI compensation claims. We will continue to accept and pursue genuine PPI compensation claims we are confident the policy or policies were mis-sold to you.

We will continue to accept and lodge new PPI complaints up until the deadline of August 2019. After that date, we will no longer be able to lodge new complaints with banks and lenders.

Don't Miss Out!

Lodge your complaint about PPI compensation TODAY! Don't wait for the deadline.

The PPI mis-selling scandal is set to come to an end very soon with the August 2019 PPI deadline looming ever closer. Over the past eight years of compensation claims, there have been many highs and lows, not including those that happened from the mid-1990s onwards when the PPI scandal was spotted.

The Highs - PPI generates huge profits for banks and healthy commission payments for staff

Let us take you back to a world of banking that looks very different from the banking world we have today.

Loans, credit cards and mortgages were freely available. These products were (and still are) the 'bread and butter' of banks and lenders across the UK. Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) was an 'add-on' product that sales advisors sold to thousands of customers when they took out a loan or other credit facility.

Sales staff enjoyeduncapped commissionwith some bank sales representative earning a staggering £80 or more per case.

And, it was not a short-term thing. This PPI selling had been going on since the mid-1990s, continuing unhindered for many years. The PPI market was estimated to be worth billions to the banks who were making huge profits.

By 2009, there were well over 20 million PPI policies in the UK.

The Lows

The first low was when someone complained. This complaint started an investigation and from this and the many reviews and super-complaints that followed, the banks were told they must repay every penny of these PPI policies.

But the problem isn't the product but the way in which it was sold.Customers were sold the product when they didn't want or need it. And, for many customers, they wouldn't have been able to make a claim on the PPI policy as they weren't covered by it. In other words, the PPI policy didn't fit their needs.

And customers started to claim back PPI compensation in their thousands.

A further low

The banks decided to fight back as obviously, they didn't want this scandal to hit their profits. They asked for a final Judicial Review. The review went against them but by this point in the journey, there was a huge backlog in the number of PPI cases waiting to be assessed by the banks.

Another low

In late 2012, banks had paid far more in PPI compensation than they thought they would have to. Major UK banks set aside more money - in the case of the Lloyds Banking Group they recently added a further £14 million to their compensation pot.

Are you sure that you don't have an eligible PPI claim? If you've had a loan, mortgage or credit card in this last 10 years or so, then you need to check statements and documents.

If you have PPI, then contact Payment Protection Scotland and see what we can do for you.

Since 2011, there have been a large number of articles in the media highlighting the mis-selling of payment protection insurance or PPI on loans, store cards, credit cards and mortgages. We were all being encouraged to look at our credit agreements to see if PPI was part of the contract.

In 2017, the August 2019 PPI deadline was announced meaning that if you were mis-sold PPI before the summer of 2017, you only had a short time left to claim. As a result, the marketing campaign encouraged consumers to make a decision about PPI.

40% of People Have Done Just That

Since the first PPI claims were made until now, just over 40% of people entitled to make a claim for PPI compensation have done so.

That leaves 60% of customers with a claim yet to make one - are you one of them?

Not Always Easy to Spot

Looking at your credit agreement paperwork, you may find it difficult to see if you have been or are paying payment protection insurance because different lenders have different names for payment protection insurance.

Some store or credit cards, for example, called their PPI products 'card care'. Repayment protection insurance was also an oft-used name for payment protection insurance. Mortgage lenders also had a variety of names for these products.

On looking at your credit agreement documentation, if you see a payment for repayment protection insurance you may have a form of PPI on the account.

What PPI Promised…

The basic idea behind payment protection insurance was that in the event you were unable to keep up repayments on your loan or credit card due to illness and not being able to work and so on, the PPI policy should kick in, and make the repayments for you.

But not all customers needed PPI. For example, some customers already had payment protection insurance policies in place and didn't need another policy.

Some PPI policies were also limited in the cover, whilst others had a waiting time of three months or more before a claim could be made. All these limitations and instances of 'no cover' in the terms and conditions of PPI were not made obvious to the customer.

In some cases, some people were not asked or made aware that they had this type of payment protection insurance on their loan!

This mass mis-selling of payment protection insurance to customers across the UK now mean that customers are now claiming back money owed to them 'en masse'. Banks and other financial institutions have put aside billions of pounds to cover PPI compensation claims.

How we Help

The current total for PPI compensation claims is £32 billion. And there is more money yet to claim. We make sure that you have a claim for mis-sold PPI. We will then take your case forward, getting back all of your money. Why not talk to our expert team today?

As many customers are now finding out, they were mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance on their loan, mortgage, store card, catalogue account, car finance and credit cards. Whilst customers make compensation claims to reclaim premiums paid AND interest, there could soon be more compensation coming your way.

Selling commission-based products has been an issue for many people all along, and the ruling in the Plevin case has now been interpreted. What this means is that if the commission paid on the sale of PPI was higher than 50% and you were not told, you should be compensated.

How did mis-selling of PPI happening in the first place?

Profits and commission.

As a sales advisor for a bank, an employee would often receive an incentive payment if they sold various products.

This in itself is not a bad idea… if you need the product.

For some people with no savings and possibly employment that may be under threat, taking out a PPI policy or another insurance policy of this kind would be a sensible move.

Did you know...?
It was found that some financial institutions operated a 'first past the post' system in which the first 21 members of sale staff to reach a target would receive a £10,000 bonus

Where it went wrong with the selling of PPI was that advisors received large amounts of commission for selling it, meaning that the banks made staggering profits.

In fact, it has been estimated that at the height of the mis-selling, some banks were making up to 80% of their profits from PPI sales (Source: BBC money)

What measures are being put in place to stop this happening again?

The Financial Conduct Authority is clamping down on commission based sales within the financial industry.

According to one report, bank staff still feels 'under pressure' to sell products. Whilst commission- based selling isn't a problem - after all, it acts as an incentive - it can cloud the judgement of an advisor to sell products to people that don't really need it.

Did you know...?
Sales staff at one financial firm could earn as much as £10,00 on top of their earning with commission-based selling of PPI.

If you have a loan, credit card or mortgage that you have taken out in the last 6 years or so, then it would be worth checking your documentation to see if you have PPI.

If you think you were unfairly sold PPI, you should claim PPI compensation.

Why not call out team for a no obligation chat?

Two years after PPI compensation payments started, lenders and banks were told to send letters to their customers to highlight the fact that they may be entitled to make a compensation claim for mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) on loans, credit card or mortgages. Today, eight years on since the first clutch of PPI compensation claims, banks and lenders are still being urged to contact customers to make sure that as many of their customers receive the money back that they are entitled too. But how do you know this is a genuine letter and not a 'marketing letter'?

Letter guidelines

The then Financial Services Authority - now the Financial Conduct Authority - issued a set of guidelines for the PPI letters to ensure that potential claimants did not dismiss it as yet another marketing letter, a common vehicle for some less than scrupulous claim management companies used.

Banks were heavily criticised by the leading consumer group 'Which?' for making the PPI mess worse by ineffectively communicating with customers.

Advertising activities, such as unsolicited text messages or SPAM messages, have made many people wary of anything that mentions PPI or suggests they could be entitled to claim huge amounts of money.

Therefore, these letters had to:

• Be free from marketing material as well as financial jargon
• State clearly the letter contains important information and should be read carefully
• Be clear that the customer may have been mis-sold PPI type policy
• Inform the customer that as a result, they may have suffered 'financial loss' and may be entitled to compensation (also termed a 'redress')
• Clearly emphasise that there is atime limitin making a compensation claim from the date the customer receives the letter and that they need to carefully consider making a claim…

… And this means that if you received a letter back, the time limit is ticking down now! Have you made your claim for PPI compensation?

What can you do NOW?

• Don't wait for the time limit nor the PPI deadline of August 2019 - Check your account, statements, documentation etc. It may take time, especially if you have several credit accounts but it is worth investing the time NOW. If you see some form of PPI (it may have a different name), consider whether you agreed to this policy or, read the terms and conditions of the policy: are you covered?
• You can contact your bank and/or lenders yourself or you can use a claims management company like Payment Protection Scotland.
• We offer an effective service to help people make a PPI compensation claims. We charge a fee for this service, payable on successful completion of your compensation claim.

As an established PPI compensation claim specialist company, we have an enviable reputation for making successful claims on behalf of our customers.

If you decide to continue with us, then all you need to do is sign a few forms, sit back let us to do the chasing on your behalf! Why not contact us, and see what Payment Protection Scotland could do for you?

The payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling fiasco has led to several annoying things to happen - unsolicited phone calls and annoying spam texts. You know the type, because you have probably received one or two, maybe even more over the years that the PPI compensation saga has been running. You may have received a text that claimed "Our records show you are entitled to £4,658 in PPI compensation! Reply INFO or stop". Or one that says "your name is on a list to receive PPI". It's easy to be caught out but these texts are nothing more than spam, a sad reflection of the PPI mis-selling scandal.

The Mis-selling of PPI

PPI was widely mis-sold to customers and has become the biggest mis-sold product ever in UK financial industry history. The scandal of mis-selling - usually a commission based product for customer advisers - has shaken the financial sector to its core, with no bank or lender being untouched by the saga.

As a result of the PPI mis-selling scandal, another industry was created - the claim management company (CMC). For many critics, the claim management company is not a welcome development. To others, they are welcome and are happy to pay a fee for professional help in claiming PPI compensation.

The Key Term - 'Professional'

There are many CMCs who do NOT send unsolicited or spam text messages and follow advertising guidelines when connecting with customers and promoting their services to them. However, when you do receive a text about PPI,  bear this important fact in mind:

• These firms do NOT have access to your personal or financial details so don't be swayed by these text messages that promise you a certain compensation figure. The sender has no idea of your personal circumstances.

Payment Protection Scotland - our pledge

As a professional claim management company, we do not send unsolicited text messages to anyone with false information. All our customers contact us through our website and neither do we make vexatious claims- in other words, if we do not think you have a claim, we will not take your claim any further.

Claim PPI Compensation with Payment Protection Scotland

The idea behind PPI is simple and will remain valid right up to the PPI deadline August 2019 - in the event of you being unable to work due to illness, accident, redundancy or death, this insurance policy should cover your repayments on your loan, mortgage, catalogue accounts or credit card.

Banks and lenders offered this product on specific products but it was mis-sold by banks and lenders to millions of customers. The PPI policy rarely paid out when people needed help.

PPI was not explained fully and was of little, if any benefit, to most customers, such as those retired, self-employed or with pre-existing medical conditions.

Do not be swayed by spam text messages! If you think you have a PPI compensation claim then contact Payment Protection Scotland. We can talk you through the whole process and don't forget, you are under no obligation to continue.

We have all read the headlines and marvelled at some of the large payment protection insurance (PPI) compensation settlements customers have received. But, just why are some of these compensation settlements so high when compared to the average pay out of £2,750?

PPI & Credit Cards

Many of the larger PPI compensation pay outs are around PPI policies on credit cards. There are several factors why PPI compensation can reach such large proportions:

TIME - many of the customers who have received five-figure sums in PPI compensation had their credit card over along period of time and therefore, could have been paying out hundreds of pounds each year for the PPI policy.

NUMBER of credit cards - one customer who received a large pay out of over £65,000 hadmore than one credit card and had also had these for a long period of time. These two factors combined meant that the compensation due soon totalled a large amount.

INTEREST - what does significantly boost PPI compensation is the application of interest and how the premium each month was calculated. PPI premiums varied on credit cards as the amount a customer paid in PPI premiums each month depended on the outstanding balance. Hence, if you were up to the card limit and only paid the minimum each month, your monthly premium would be higher than if you paid it off. In this way, one businesswoman with two cards over many years which were often at their limit received over £82,000 in compensation.

Why do credit card providers have such a large slice of the PPI compensation market?

Applications for credit cards were easy forms to fill in back in the economic heyday of the 1980s and 1990s, more so with the advent of easy credit with online applications. Many applicants will not have noticed a small box at the end of the very small print that informed the customer PPI was available on their account.

Our Terms of Services - Clear, Transparent and Easy to Understand

Payment Protection Scotland's 'small print' is not small or hidden. We offer a fully transparent service and our terms and conditions are available on our website. Our friendly customer service advisers will be more than happy to talk through the no win, no fee terms of service we offer.

We are a claims management company that specialises in making PPI claims on behalf of customers. We will assess your case and suggest the best way forward.

Contact us today for further information.