A&L - new ploy to get out of paying back PPI?

fusar

Good Morning,

Please can someone give me some advice on the following - many thanks!

Basically, I took out PPI with teh Alliance and Leicester last year for a loan of £6000 over 5 years. On application I had to show the advisor my income, whihc I did through pay slips and invoices, as I am self-employed and also work part-time for a recruitment agency on a temp contract. I have since learned that I could not claim on my PPI due to my employment status.

I wrote A&L explaining this, and as I was not told of this by the very pushy advisor that I felt I had been mis-sold the policy and want it stopped and a full refund of payment s already made. Alliance and Leicester refused stating:

" I have now carried out a thorough investigation of the sale to you of payment protection insurance and wish to highlight to you that a feature of this policy is that it does not just protect against unemployment but also sickness and death. As a result of this fact, I am unable to agree that because you were self-employed at the time, the policy was mis-sold to you.

As I have been unable to find evidence to suggest that you were pressured into into taking this insurance, I feel that I should point out to you that both the personal loan and PPI had a cooling off period, which allowed you to cancel the loan and PPI, whihc you did not do." Signed Janice Griffin, Group Customer Relations Manager

I really want to fight this, as I didn't take out the PPI for death or sickness, it was incase I became unemployed, whihc apparently I can't claim for, and whihc the advisor never advised on. Are they now using the "also for sickness and death" clause as a way of avoiding claims of mis-selling?

Any advice would be great - many thanks!

MrT_5

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

robert_harper_2000

I've gone the step further - started an online court action. No-one has replied to my thread though ... not sure if anyone has much information about court action on PPI

fusar

Thank you for the link and good luck with your court action. I just want to double check my rights though, as is the advisor right in saying that I can't cancel my PPI and get my payments back for being self-employed as it also covers for sickness and death? If I am in the right, I will fight this all the way, but I don't want to fight this and then find out that they are actually in the right - has anyone had payments refunded due to the "employment status" reason for being mis-sold?
Any help at all would be great - thanks!

ArchieB_2

Ombudsman as suggested already. If you have exhausted A$L's complaints procedure contact the ombudsman to take matters further.

regularsaver1

this is since regulation - A&L would have investigated this by their complaince department = was the person advised or non-advised - you would have policy documents ect and the usual 30 days?

next step ombudsman as suggested before

M_Thomson

regularsaver1 wrote:

next step ombudsman as suggested before

Nope, You have to reach deadlock with A&L before you can go to the ombudsman.

regularsaver1

yeah your right - they have to say that your next steps are to the ombudsman

you can write back to reply to the complaint

jamesd

"Since unemployment cover is a substantial portion of the cost of a combined unemployment, sickness and death policy, perhaps half of the total cost, please explain the reasoning the advisor gave for selling a policy with all three components rather then a policy containing only the applicable cover".

Note that suggesting it is half the value of the cover gives them an opening to offer half of the premiums back. That may well be a fair offer, since you have benefitted from having the sickness and death part of the cover.

fusar

Just bumping this up, as I would like some more advice if possible.

I am about to write back to the bank, as I have a couple of questions, if they can't refund my PPi payments due to the PPi not only covering redundancy but also sickness and death - would they pay PPi if I had to stop work due to illness, even if I am self-employed? I imagine that they will say " you can't claim for sickness as you are self-employed" - do you think I am right, would they say this?

If so, I am going to say to them, you can't pay redundancy and you can't pay sickness, I have enough assets to cover debt if I die, so why was it sold to me in the first place, as the advisor was well aware of my employment status???? Any advice?

(Just so you know....I am claiming that I was mis-sold the policy due to me being self-employed and can't claim PPi if my work stopsm but A&L say that I am not entitled to reimbursed payments because the policy also covers for death and sickness)

Thanks !
sarah