Important information regarding PPI on behalf of the Financial Conduct of Authority

RNaismith

There is a deadline of 29 August 2019 to complain about the sale of a PPI policy. You will not be able to complain after this date.

You’ve probably heard about PPI (Payment Protection Insurance). Over 50 million PPI policies have been mis-sold as far back as 1970.Many people who were mis-sold have complained and billions of pounds have been paid back.

If you’ve ever taken out a loan, mortgage, credit card, store card, or bought something on credit, such as a car, you may have been sold PPI. If you think you have or have had PPI, you need to decide whether or not you want to complain.

The process is simple:

Step 1 - Check if you have or have had PPI by either:

• Checking your paperwork, including the terms and conditions, and more recent statements to see if ‘PPI’ or ‘payment protection insurance’ is mentioned. The product may also be called loan protection, credit insurance, loan repayment insurance, ASU (accident, sickness and unemployment) insurance, account cover or payment cover. Other names can also be used.

• Checking your bank statements for an additional charge next to your repayment information.

• If you still aren’t sure, or you don’t have any paperwork, you can contact your bank or other provider to ask them if you have ever had PPI. There are contact details for many providers on the FCA website www.fca.org.uk/ppi

• or from our helpline on 0800 101 8800.

Step 2 - Decide if you are eligible to complain. If you think you have had PPI, there are two reasons why you might decide to complain:

1. PPI mis-selling: complain that PPI was mis-sold to you

2. Commission earned by a provider: complain that your bank or other provider earned a high level of commission from the sale of PPI, but didn’t tell you this when you bought it (following a court case often called ‘Plevin’)

Step 3 - If you want to complain it is free to do this yourself. You do not need to provide any documents with your complaints form. You should complain directly to your bank or other provider either:

• by phone - you can call your provider and explain you want to make a PPI complaint

• by post - you can download a complaints form from the FCA website at http://www.fca.org.uk/ppi and post it to your provider

• online – many providers have a complaints form you can complete on their website

• in branch – you can go into your local branch and explain you want to make a PPI complaint

There are contact details for many providers on the FCA website http://www.fca.org.uk/ppi or from our helpline on 0800 101 8800.

Step 4 - Your provider looks into your complaint – they may ask you for more information so it’s important you provide your contact details on your complaints form

Step 5 - Your provider must respond within 8 weeks to tell you if your complaint has been successful and you are owed some money, or to explain why they need more time to look into your complaint.

If you are not happy with the final response you receive from your provider, or you do not get a response within 8 weeks, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service on 0800 023 4567.

The Financial Conduct Authority has all the information you need to make a decision about PPI. Visit fca.org.uk/ppi or call 0800 101 8800.

This article has been created on behalf of the Financial Conduct of Authority

Pippa_Alumni

The above has been posted with permission from Scope. Thanks for sharing this, @RNaismith!

You can see FCA's previous post on the community here and get in touch with them directly at fca.org.uk/ppi.