How is Payment Protection Insurance Mis Sold and Am I Entitled to Claim?

What is Payment Protection Insurance (PPI)?

Payment Protection Insurance, sometimes called PPI, is Accident, Sickness and Unemployment Cover (ASU), which is sold with loans, credit cards, hire purchase agreements and mortgages. PPI is a form of insurance which will make repayments on a debt if your circumstances change leaving you unable to repay them yourself. Credit protection insurance and loan repayment insurance are other names for PPI.

Payment Protection Insurance will often cover repayments if you are left unable to work through illness or an accident, made unemployed, become incapacitated or die. It is often sold by banks or other credit providers as an add-on to the loan or overdraft which it is protecting. Payment Protection Insurance will cover minimum loan, credit or overdraft payments for a set period, such as 12 months.

PPI is very expensive and has caused much controversy. Millions of people have been mis sold unnecessary or unwanted Payment Protection Insurance in the past.

Why has Payment Protection Insurance been mis sold?

Some lenders have added PPI to borrower's policies without their knowledge. This means that many people have taken out credit cards or loans and paying for PPI policies which they do not know exists and therefore will never claim on, even if they needed to.

Other people were led to believe that PPI was not optional or that their loan is more likely to be approved if they took out the insurance policy.

Some companies, such as telesales operations, led customers into PPI policies by offering a credit card or loan and mentioning that it was 'protected' without fully explaining that the PPI protection was optional or explaining the plan in detail.

PPI was mis sold across the industry to millions of people. By May 2008 20 million PPI policies existed in the UK, with an additional 7 million policies being purchased every year since then. Some estimates suggest that 40% of PPI policyholders claim to be unaware that they even have the insurance.

PPI was mis sold for decades, and one major high street bank sold almost £400m worth of PPI, making around an 80% profit, much of which is suspected to be from unknowing customers. Payment Protection Insurance made lenders more money than the interest from the loans themselves.

In April 2011 the UK courts ruled in favour of consumers, preventing the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance in the future. Now PPI should be fully explained to prospective policyholders, and they should be given the time to carefully consider whether they need the policy and to shop around comparing prices.

What can I do if I have been mis sold payment protection insurance?

If you have taken out a loan, credit card or mortgage in the last 30 years with payment protection you might have been mis sold PPI. You have been mis sold payment protection insurance if you didn't ask for PPI but it was added to your policy anyway, you were told that insurance was compulsory, you were told that your loan was more likely to be approved with PPI, you were not told that PPI was optional, or you were unemployed, retired or self-employed when you took out the cover. You are still entitled to claim even if the loan which your PPI covered has been paid off.

The first step to claiming is to contact an insurance claims company which specialise in PPI. They will consider whether or not you have a case and lead you to a claim.