Whenever you go for financial assistance to any bank or a financial company, the first thing that they ask you about is the alternative arrangements that you have for paying them back in case your primary arrangements dont work. Banks are pretty good at creating elaborate situations wherein you cannot pay back your loan and the dire consequences you may face if you are caught in them – the worst being the decrease in your credit rating and foreclosure (in case of mortgage loans). Of course you dont think twice in such a situation and go for the first payment protection plan (PPI) that they offer. This is where it all begins.
It is not that all PPIs are dupe-documents and are forcefully taken from unsuspecting customer; however, most of them are. And check twice, may be you have been taken in for a ride too. PPI claims is the answer to such misleading PPIs and a chance to reclaim your money back with a standard 8 percent interest on your premium payments.
There are many circumstances in which a PPI may be wrongly sold; the most common among them is when, a) You are unemployed or self employed when you take the loan, b) You have a medical condition which makes you ineligible to get the claim, c) A PPI was stated as a precondition for the approval of your loan and, d) You had other existing policies to cover the payment and did not need PPI. In all such cases which come under the fraudulent selling of the PPI, you are entitled to a PPI claim for a full refund with interest on all your premiums from the bank which gave you the policy (the lender). Remember, claiming the PPI claims is completely risk free and does not affect your credit rating in any which way.
All banks have different procedures to make a claim; generally, the claims are made through the Financial Service Ombudsmen (FSO) present at the bank which provides the compensation. They study all claims and based on the application decide which applicant is entitled to the application, hence, you should provide all documentary evidence of the fraud to build a strong case. Most banks are finicky in accepting these claims and thus you need to make a strong application.
This process through the FSO is usually long and most of the times results in rejection or payment of a much lesser compensation amount. A better bet is to go through PPI claims service companies who have strong legal departments and are thus better suited to fight a claims case for you than you are by yourself. These companies (most of them) work on a pay-only-when-you-win basis, which means that you only pay when you get a claim amount from the bank and not otherwise, i.e. there is no upfront payment in making the claim. They charge anything from 15-25 percent of the claim amount plus VAT and take care of all your claim related needs.
These companies are better suited for your claim process as they specialise in them and hence can counter all the bogus counter-claims made by your bank. They also make sure that you get the right compensation and not some arbitrary amount set by the bank. In short, they are your specialised hand in getting back money that is rightfully yours.
For more information regarding PPI claims service companies, check out http://claimlinelegal.co.uk/index.htm
