Preventative Measures taken to overcome the Problems of PPI Policies

With an increasing trend in use of consumer loans, purchase of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) is also increasing. Although, this insurance is supposed to provide relief to the consumers it gives rise to some problems as well. One of the problems arises when a claim on PPI is turned down i.e. after buying a protection policy when the consumer claims its payment the issuer company of the insurance refuses to pay it back. Another problem is of mis sold PPI, which mainly is our concern here. In the past few years immense amount of complaints were made against the lenders, and so to assist these people in making PPI claims many PPI claim companies came into being.

Payment Protection Insurance (PPI):

What happens if you take a loan and due to some reasons it becomes impossible for you to pay it back? This was the question that the makers of PPI policy had in mind. PPI is something that can be purchased to assure payments of any kind of consumer loans in case a borrower is unable to work, it may include circumstance, such as, where the borrower becomes ill or handicapped or dies. The issuers of these PPI are usually banks or insurance companies. PPI are usually purchased when a loan or mortgage is taken but that’s not necessary, sometimes they are also acquired independently. In UK, PPI are also given other names such as loan protection, loan insurance and so on.

Mis Sold PPI:

The policy was apparently prepared to advantage the borrowers; this new creation was introduced as a smart option for the customer. But things did not work as smoothly for the borrowers, as they were perceived to be. Instead, they turned out to be in favor of lenders and the insurance companies or banks. The lenders used some tricks to mis sell these PPI. In some cases, when you took a loan they made acquisition of PPI mandatory. Sometimes, the buyers were not given proper information when they could have ended up buying cheaper PPI. Most of the times, the buyers were unaware of the fact that PPI is being added to the policy.

How the system works when complaints are filed?

Over last ten years in UK, PPI claims have grown in number. Many reputed financial institutions have been fined heavily due to their involvement with mis selling the PPI’s. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have also shown their concern and have made general guidelines as to how these PPI’s should be sold. A system has been made where individuals file cases with the help of the claim companies. Once it is determined that they have been affected by the PPI policy, these individuals are refunded back their money and the ones who mis sold the PPI are given punishment.

In last few years, lots of efforts have been put in to try and overcome the problems of PPI policies.