Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) Claims

In April 2011 UK banks and lenders became liable to refund Payment Protection Insurance or PPI if it was mis-sold to you with any loans or credit cards. Claiming back via a PPI Claims company can cost you up to 40% of the money due to you when in actual fact the process of reclaiming PPI is very straight forward.

Don't get duped a second time, claim back PPI yourself!

How To Claim Back PPI

If you were mis-sold PPI then you have a legitimate claim for a full refund. The process of claiming back PPI is straightforward and you do not need to use a 'PPI Claims Company', if you do you are likely to lose up to 40% of the value of your claim settlement for nothing that you wouldn't be able to do yourself. Here's the guide  on how to reclaim PPI yourself:
STEP 1: Find out if you have had a Payment Protection Insurance policy in the 6 years. If you no longer have the paperwork then you can contact banks and lenders directly.  They will resend the paperwork to you. Some may charge a small admin fee but this should only ever be a few pounds but you will need to have a copy of the original agreement.
STEP 2: Once you have verified that you have a PPI policy and you have a copy of your credit agreement and the PPI policy if separate and believe that it was mis-sold to you then you are ready to start the claim process.
You need to describe what happened when you bought the policy. This should be in your own words - it helps the lender to understand the background to your complaint. In addition, you can list precise reasons why you think this wasn't fair. You should also include in your first letter that you are seeking to recover compensation including all sums paid and payable in connection with the policy together with interest as per s69 County Courts Act 1984 (currently 8%).
STEP 3: Your lender may respond refusing to uphold your complaint or they may ask for more information. If they uphold your complaint, go to step 4 for guidance on how to assess whether the offer is fair. If they do not uphold your complaint, look to see whether their letter contains the words 'this is our final response' or contains the address and leaflet regarding the Financial Ombudsman Service.
If it does not, you will have to write to them again saying that you do not accept their point of view and ask for their 'Final Response' to your complaint. You cannot ask the Financial Ombudsman to consider your complaint until the bank or lender you are complaining about has had a fair chance to hear your complaint and put things right. However, you are not expected to wait unduly for a fulsome response and you are entitled to take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service 8 weeks after the bank or lender receives your first letter.
STEP 4: A fair offer should put you back into the position you would have been in if you had not taken out PPI in the first place. This should consist of a refund of all the premiums you've paid so far, the interest charged on them and 8% statutory interest on top. If the loan is still active, PPI should be removed from the loan and the loan restructured so that your monthly payments are reduced by the full amount you were contributing to the PPI.
STEP 5: If you have had a 'final response' from your lender, or if more than eight weeks has passed since they received your letter of complaint, you are entitled to take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Financial Ombudsman can take quite a long while to resolve your complaint, however - sometimes as long as 9 - 12 months. Visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk for full details.