how do they know....

Aymz

...that they (whichever company you are claiming from) genuinely mis-sold ppi and are happy to refund your monies, or whether you are applying to all companies you have taken loans/credit cards out with x amount of years ago in the hope that they'll cave and give you something?

After reading some of the information on here (which is quite a lot...i STILL dont know where to start!) I would like to try seeing whether I had been mis-sold ppi, especially on a couple of welcome loans i had around 2005/6, (last payment made recently) and the other is for an HSBC loan for a total of £9k that was taken out 2003 (re-written a couple of years later and we did default on when i lost my job but have been paying back now since i started work in 2004 (via application of earnings they got shortly after i started work)

I dont want them to think though that I am just jumping on the bandwagon, if you know what i mean...(I did have a couple of cards although i cannot say i remember for sure whether i knew about it or not so im not going ahead with those.) ive heard welcome had lots of pre ticked boxes and it was a case of 'this is what you pay each month, sign here here and here' and HSBC was done in branch on a similar thing.

Can everyone here genuinely remember whether they were mis-sold or is it a case of 'i'll give it a go anyway'?

I think im going to have to send a SAR request (?) to them both as i dont have copies of any paperwork. Obviously will have to find out my court number to find details of the creditor there (think was passed to some DCA/Solictor, cannot remember who) but im not sure where to start with Welcome, if anyone could sort of quickly point me in the right direction, that would be lovely.

Thanks

DrSqueeze

To answer one of your questions, in a lot of cases it has become clear that the person was not eligible for the PPI cover in the first place (sometimes due to age, occupation, medical history etc). So that's clearly a missale. There are also plenty of examples of people not being told the PPI was optional, so the person was misled. And in other cases, when looking at the other arrangements they had in place (such as existing income protection policies, or employer provided benefits), it becomes clear that the PPI was not really necessary - which is something the sales person should have discussed.

Sometimes it's unclear whether there was a missale and some banks seem to be following a fairly generous line when coming to a decision where doubts exist, others are much stricter and reject many more complaints. And of course there are examples where the bank has made a business decision to refund PPI since they acknowledge there were failings in the way it was sold.

Clearly, all the publicity around PPI has generated a lot of interest and some people are undoubtedly taking advantage of the opportunity and "trying their luck" so to speak without necessarily having genuine grounds. At the same time, some of the lenders are doing their best to avoid making payouts in genuine cases by not investigating properly and sending standard rejection letters which are usually full of phrases like "would have been discussed" and "as you would have been aware".

DrSqueeze

For your own circumstances, I'd suggest starting by making a list of all the loans / credit cards you remember having. Then see what you can recall about the sales process for each one - that's really the key point. Having PPI on a loan or credit card does not mean it was missold, there needs to be some reason why you feel you shouldn't have had it.

If there are any where you can't recall whether they had PPI, that's where you start your investigations by contacting banks and asking them to confirm whether you had PPI (and asking for copies of application forms / agreements).

Again, when you get this information it's important you can explain why you feel the PPI should not have been sold.

Aymz

Thank you for that. Im pretty sure the HSBC one had ppi, but it wasnt sold to us directly, as i said, it was a case of 'this is what new payments will be, just sign where indicated'.

Thanks for the advice

emlet

For example in my case ... I had ppi on loans for many years. I was never told to check existing policies or asked what I else I had in place / what sick pay I got etc - and lo and behold my income protection insurance through my mortgage pretty much nulled any ppi - if I had made a claim on the ppi then the monies I get through the income protection would go down by whatever the amount is. I only found this out earlier this year when renewing my mortgage policy (which I did myself this time rather than through a broker). I also had a couple of loans when I was younger that I do remember being told I had to take ppi on or I wouldnt get the money (I was young, in debt and in need of money!)

So now me and hubby have gone back through all our accounts - I cant remember the details of them all when they were sold/whether we asked for it or not - but given that the policy would have been useless to us I can categorically say we wouldnt have taken it out! So we have submitted our claims. One succes so far - waiting on the next four!

emlets

ALIBOBSY

The thing is the whole industry on mass systematically miss sold and pushed a product that made them a fortune and was rarely claimed on (ppi). The rare cases will be the ones NOT miss sold,but the more of the catagories for miss selling you fit the better the chances of your claim.

The reality is sales persons who directly benefited from sales of the product were trusted to give insurance advice and recommendations and expected to exercise a duty of care to borrowers. It was easy money so most looked to the bottom line and any pretence of proper advice etc went out the window 9 times out of 10 people were given the line no PPI no loan.

Other PPI such as on cards were very often added on without peoples knowledge or from a basic phone call-certainly little or no advice was given when for an insurance product it should have been.

Go get em.
Ali x

Aymz

Thank you for your replies...as i say i can't say for definate with some whether i knew or not, but i too remember the days of being young, in debt and in need of money! Will try those two to begin with perhaps and see hwo i go.

Again, thanks

dunstonh

There are lots of reasons people may give to complain but there are four main reasons that complaints get upheld.

1 - Single premium
2 - not eligible
3 - no financial need
4 - too busy to look at each complaint so auto upholding (a couple of banks are in this position).

src007

Aymz wrote: »

After reading some of the information on here (which is quite a lot...i STILL dont know where to start!) I would like to try seeing whether I had been mis-sold ppi, especially on a couple of welcome loans i had around 2005/6, (last payment made recently) and the other is for an HSBC loan for a total of £9k that was taken out 2003

ive heard welcome had lots of pre ticked boxes and it was a case of 'this is what you pay each month, sign here here and here' and HSBC was done in branch on a similar thing.

Can everyone here genuinely remember whether they were mis-sold or is it a case of 'i'll give it a go anyway'?

Generally speaking people's recollection of events are given little weight when complaints are reviewed, as no-ones memory of what happened 5-6 years ago can be relied upon. I wouldn't worry too much about the fact that you can't remember the sale.

When the complaints are reviewed it will be your circumstances at the time of the sale that will be looked at and the type of product that was sold to you.

If the type of product wasn't right for your situation, the complaint will be upheld.

Some of the worst PPI was sold alongside loans. HSBC and Welcome Finance ONLY sold single-premium PPI.

Welcome Finance would charge VERY high interest rates on their PPI polcies and also hit the customer with an additional charge if they settled a loan early. For this reason if your loans were settled early, you would have very strong mis-selling complaints.

The best thing to do:

1) Check if you had PPI if you don't know. It would always be listed in the paperwork. Alternatively give your lender a quick call and they should be able to tell you over the phone.

2) Write a complaint. Its best to add details of your situation at the time of the sale however if you use a general template letter the lender will still have to fully investigate.

I hope this helps!