Failed PPI claim declined by ombudsman

They wrote to me to say that my claim had been declined and if I wanted to appeal I should contact the ombudsman. They didn!!!8217;t explain why.

That is an unusual process. The process is basically uniform across providers to comply with the FCA guidelines.

1 - You get an acknowledgement of your complaint
2 - In that acknowledgement, they will repeat what they believe are the reasons for your complaint in a bullet point style or summary style. They also tell you about the FOS and what happens next
3 - Once the complaint is declined, they write to give you the reasons for the decline. Not necessarily in detail but say your reason was eligibility, they would say that the reason you gave for thinking you were not eligible does not apply and you would have been covered. Not big detail but summary style. Some points may be ignored if they are not applicable for the product. That letter tells you that you can refer to the FOS if you wish.

So, in that process they should have done more than what you have said.

The reason was that I had ticked the box myself.

That certainly eliminates a number of the possible complaint reasons. It doesnt prevent a complaint from succeeding but does limit the odds.

My question is, does the ombudsman look at other reasons or just the one I put forward (I was made redundant twice in the period and a hernia op whilst having the card and didn!!!8217;t claim as I didn!!!8217;t realise this was covered).

Both the bank and the FOS consider your reasons for complaint. They do also consider credibility. For example, if you used a template letter (rather than a personalised letter of a PPI form) and your template contained a load of BS reasons (as many templates do) then you lose credibility. For example, if you said you were told this that and the other that was all wrong and it turned out you bought it via a mailshot and no staff member was involved, then your credibility is much reduced.

Forgetting to claim on the policy does not make it missold.

Or is it dead because I didn!!!8217;t ask the right questions.

The FOS and the provider dont just look at your reasons. They look at the scenario of the sale as the provider has it documented and how you have said it happened. Your reasons are important as they are seen as the trigger of your complaint. If you have given duff questions then it can harm you but only if the reasons given were lies and caught out as such.

What were your complaint reasons? Were they strong complaint reasons where evidence is likely to exist? Or were they the weak unprovable reasons where there is likely to be nothing to support your allegations?

societys_child wrote: »

It's only charged on an outstanding balance, so if you paid the balance off each month, you'd pay nothing.

Indeed, as I touched on earlier, any amounts paid would be clearly shown on the monthly statement.

But I hadn't considered the idea that he possibly always cleared his balance and therefore actually never paid it, in which case, there's nothing to potentially repay anyway.