The number of news stories about payment protection insurance (PPI) in the media over the last few years has kept increasing. It seems to be a story that won’t go away, and we often hear about huge amounts of money being paid out by the banks to individuals to which they have mis-sold PPI.
So how do you know if you are one of these individuals? You might think that it would be obvious if you had been sold a financial product, but this is not the case with PPI. Part of the problem is that some banks didn’t even inform their customers that they were taking on a PPI agreement, whilst others made it sound like a necessary part of the loan or credit card policy.
If you have taken out one of the above mentioned financial products (a loan or a credit card) in the last decade, then there is a good possibility that you will also have taken out a PPI policy with it, and you may not have needed it at all. The way the policy works is that payments are automatically kept up on your loan or credit card even if you are unable to make them yourself due to sickness or unemployment. However, many PPI policies didn’t work in certain circumstances, such as if the employer already covered sick pay or if the person taking out the loan was self-employed.
This meant that individuals were giving the banks money for no reason, and the banks were more than happy to take it, often lying about what PPI really was in order to sell people on it. Of course, the people who made the sales received bonuses for doing so, and the executives who brought in and pushed the PPI agreements in the first place were very well rewarded.
As you can see, it’s important that you claim the money back if you are entitled to it, as the banks lied and cheated their way into these profits, robbing you of valuable income. The best thing that you can do is to check if any of the financial products you have signed up to in the last decade included a PPI agreement, and there are companies who can help you do this. Credit cards and loans are where you should focus your attention, and you might find that you are in for a hefty compensation payment.