Although cases of PPI mis selling is extremely high not all PPI have been mis sold so take a look when you took out your policy and was to have PPI the best option for you at the time? Was the Payment protection insurance explained properly? Where you told is wasn’t compulsory? Where you instructed of the policy should you have needed to make a claim? If you are thinking “no” to any of these questions you have a case to reclaim your PPI back.

If you do have PPI you can claim back from a loan or credit agreement up to ten years prior to making a claim so don’t worry if you already have paid back all your instalments to the lender, you will still have a case. If you do think you have PPI and you may have been a victim of PPI mis selling take out any statements and it will be stated on those under payment protection, loan protection or similar.

PPI is the largest complained about financial product on the high street and some say the banks and lenders have made a money making scheme by mis selling PPI and now have had to pay billions of pounds back to customers. You could be next to received thousands back so start your investigation today to see if you have PPI.

So if this refers to you here is a simplified explanation of some confusing terms.

ASU or Accident Sickness and Unemployment Insurance – this is another term for PPI.

BBA or British Bankers Association – all lenders are members of this.  You may come across this in your documentation.  Basically their role is to take the side of the financial companies and banks.

CPI or Credit Protection Insurance – this is another term for PPI.

FOS or Financial Ombudsman Service – this is an independent body whose role is to deal with disputes between individuals and banks and other lending agencies.  This service can only be used if the financial institution has attempted to resolve your complaint and you are unhappy with the outcome.  It is to your benefit to have knowledge of this body as they are able to make decisions and judgements which must be adhered to.

FSA or Financial Services Authority – this is the government regulatory body for banks and other financial agencies.

FSCS or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme – by the time many claims are made the original lender has gone out of business.  If this affects you do not worry you can make a claim through this agency.

LPI or Loan Protection Insurance – this is yet another term for PPI.

Single Premium Policy – this is where you had a lump sum added on when PPI was taken out.  As it is not being paid monthly it is easily missed.

So there you have it a clear explanation of some baffling terms, if you are not a financier, you need not be afraid of them any more.

Over the past 10 years finance companies, banks and other financial institutions have been selling PPI (Payment Protection Insurance) to customers.  This insurance was designed to protect people if they were unable to make repayments.  This was all good and well, but unfortunately, millions of people were mis-sold PPI and millions of pounds have been repaid and many millions more are outstanding.  This glossary should help to clarify some of the terms and procedures.

Accident Sickness and Unemployment Insurance – another name for PPI, you may unwittingly not realise that the same conditions apply as with PPI.

Compulsory – it was never obligatory to take out PPI, there was a choice.

Credit – a sum of money offered to allow an individual  to make a purchase

Cut – the amount of money that a firm will take from your winnings.

Licensed – all companies working in the field of PPI recovery are required to be licensed.  This should be checked out before starting proceedings.

Loan Protection Insurance – yet another name for PPI, also the same conditions apply as with PPI, you may be unaware of this.

Lump sum – a single payment of money in place of many, a great number of people have found that their PPI was added at the beginning of the transaction, so that it was paid up front.  This does not mean that the amount cannot be recovered.

No-win-no-fee – agencies helping people to establish their PPI position will only charge if they are able to recover money for someone.

Optional – the person making the purchase had the right of choice to buy into the scheme.

Percentage – this is the rate per hundred charged.  Before committing to a company insist on knowing what percentage cut will be taken

Pre-existing medical condition – –where the person taking out the insurance already suffered from a condition, this group were never covered by PPI.

Reference Number – this number will be present on any finance agreement where you may have been sold PPI.  It is all you require to instigate a claim.

Retired – no longer working, this group were never covered by PPI.

Self-employed – a person who works for themselves, this group were never covered by PPI.

Shop Around – the person making the purchase had the right to check other providers before accepting a PPI offer.

Unemployed – a person who is not in employment of any kind, this group were never covered by PPI.

If you think you have been Mis sold PPI then check out the below terms to see if they apply to you;

Accident Sickness and Unemployment Insurance – another name for PPI

Credit – a sum of money offered to someone to allow them to make a purchase.

Interest – an amount repayable on top of the original sum borrowed.  This is usually calculated as a percentage either monthly or weekly.

Insurance – a contract taken out to protect a person should matters go wrong.

Loan – a sum of money loaned to a person by a third party

Loan Protection Insurance – yet another name for PPI.

Lump sum – a single payment of money in place of many.

Malpractice – professional misconduct on the part of a company.

Mortgage – a sum of money offered to a person to allow them to purchase property

Optional – the person has the right of choice to buy into the scheme

PPI – Payment Protection Insurance.  This is the policy people took out to protect themselves if they were unable to repay credit.

Pre-existing – a situation already in place beforehand.  In PPI terms this referred to medical conditions which a person already had before they took out the insurance.  If this condition later caused the default then they would not be covered.

Self-employed – a person who works for themselves.

Single premium policy – a lump sum added at the beginning of the agreement.

Unemployed – a person who is not in employment of any kind.

After reading this things may have become clearer.  Who knows you may now even be considering that you are one of the millions affected by this scandal.  If so do read the “After” Glossary.

When it comes to PPI, there are a large number of financial terms which many of us have never heard before, and so not know what they mean. To help the person in the street who is not a financial expert, I have put together a few of the commonest ones, along with a simple explanation.

PPI – this stands for Payment Protection Insurance. This is insurance which is sold along with a loan, mortgage or credit card, so that if you cannot repay the original loan, for example if you lose your job, the repayments are covered.

FSA – this stands for Financial Services Authority. This is a government authority which has the power to regulate the banks and other firms who sell financial products such as payment protection insurance.

Financial Ombudsman- this service was set up to deal with complaints about most areas of financial services. They have the power to make a ruling in the case of a dispute, provided the bank or other financial organisation has had the opportunity to resolve the dispute first. The financial ombudsman is impartial.

BBI – this stands for the British Banker’s Association, a group which also includes foreign banks and has over 200 banks as its members. The BBI is the voice of British banking and its role is to promote and defend the banking industry. The BBI fought the court ruling about repayment of PPI before it decided to accept it.

CPI – this stands for Credit Protection Insurance, and is basically PPI under another name.

LPI –this stands for Loan Repayment Insurance and again this is PPI under another name.

FSCS – this is the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. If the bank or financial company you have a problem with goes bust, you can still claim your compensation for money owed through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

T and C – this stands for terms and conditions. Before you can claim mis-sold PPI payments, you will need to know your terms and conditions for the insurance. If you do not know your T and Cs you can obtain a copy from the bank or financial company who sold you the insurance.

The Lending Code – this is a code of practice whereby banks and financial companies agree, among other things, not to mislead the customer, to be responsible when lending money, and to act when things go wrong. They all agree that staff are trained in the Lending Code. This is a voluntary code but most banks have signed up to it.

What is PPI?

Firstly, what does PPI mean? PPI stands for Payment Protection Insurance, and this refers to a type of insurance policy which is meant to protect you if for various reasons you can’t pay back a loan or mortgage, or cannot make the monthly payments. For example if you are made redundant, then PPI could protect your payments on a loan such as a car loan or mortgage. PPI can be useful for some people, sadly many people have been sold PPI when they couldn’t claim on the insurance, or did not need it. Even worse, some people have been paying PPI when they didn’t even realise that they had it.

If you look into claiming back your PPI you will come across the initials FSA. These initials stand for Financial Services Authority and they are an independent body which regulates the financial services in the United Kingdom. They have supported the customer in the PPI debacle and have decreed that anyone who was sold PPI when they did not want or need it are entitled to claim it back. Furthermore customers are entitled to claim interest on the money owed.

Apart from the PPI what else is in place to help those mis – sold PPI. There is the Financial Ombudsman. What is the role of the Financial Ombudsman? The Financial Ombudsman is an impartial body who can settle disputes between consumers and financial organisations such as banks and Insurance companies. The consumer must try to settle any dispute with the financial organisation itself first. If this dispute cannot be resolved, then the Financial Ombudsman can step in.

The banks or credit card company who sold PPI are in the BBA- the British Banker’s Association. The BBA brought a court case against the FSA ruling that the banks should repay any PPI which was wrongfully sold with interests. They lost the case and now they must pay back with interest monies owed to successful claimants. The BBA decided not to appeal the court ruling.

To make it even more confusing, PPI has other names. Credit Protection Insurance and Loan Repayment Insurance are all PPI under another name. So if you have any of these products, you may not realise that you have PPI and the banks are under no obligation to inform you. It is up to you to check your policy and then to go ahead and make a claim.
Hopefully this short explanation will help you understand more of the jargon which surrounds PPI and understand if you can make a claim.

There is nothing wrong with PPI policies as a sellable product, and often consumers may want this level of insurance when taking out a large loan or mortgage, but in recent years it has arisen that millions of people have been systematically mis-sold PPI without proper knowledge or understanding that it was being added to their committed repayments.

If someone is mis-sold payment protection insurance they are entitled to claim this money back, often reclaiming £1000’s back in compensation.

The financial ombudsman service is an independent statutory body established by parliament as a financial expert to settle individual complaints between consumers and any businesses providing financial services. It is a free service used where the consumers are unable to resolve by issues on their own.

The ombudsman service deals with a wide range of financial matters, mortgages, credit cards, and insurance including mis sold PPI (payment protection insurance) cases. As the service is completely independent and impartial, it will assess claims from both sides in the event of a complaint. When it has been decided that a consumer has in fact been treated fairly, they will explain why and close the case. If the decision is made that the business has acted unfairly, the financial ombudsman has the power to seek compensation on behalf of the complainants without it going to court.

If neither party agree on the outcome (for example a consumer trying to claim PPI compensation against a bank), the issue is then passed to the courts to decide, however – independent commentators often recommend that consumers use the ombudsman service as the outcome of a court case can often be unexpected and sometimes disappointing.