barclaycard-payment-protection payment protection
Barclaycard is the country’s most widely held credit card with one in every five credit cards in the UK provided by the lender. Within the last five years two separate scandals have affected the credit card industry. The first concerned the sale of payment protection insurance and the second the application of unfair penalty fees.
Payment protection mis-selling
Barclaycard payment protection like other forms of credit card PPI is usually offered at the point of sale. Payment protection is not, in itself, a bad product. It aims to cover the policyholder if they cannot work as a result of sickness, accident or involuntary redundancy. Issues arise where the cover is not sold correctly. This can either be because a customer is not given full or correct information or because they are sold a policy which is, fundamentally not suitable for them.
- Inaccurate, incomplete or incorrect information
In order to boost sales and earn commission or sometimes simply as a result of a lack of product knowledge, sales staff gave customers incorrect or misleading information. This could include telling a customer they had to have the cover or that it would guarantee the approval of their application. Another example is where customers are not given full information regarding the costs and terms before taking out their insurance policy.
- A customer was sold a policy that was unsuitable for them
Payment protection cover is not suitable for everyone. Certain circumstances will make a policy unsuitable for the cover or ineligible to make a claim. Examples of this include customers who are over the age of sixty-five or have serious pre-existing medical conditions. Most policies do not provide cover to customers in these circumstances so, if you were sold a policy, it may have been mis-sold to you. Another common example is policyholders who are unemployed, in full time education or retired. As PPI covers for loss of employment it is not appropriate to customers in without a job.
If you think you may have been mis-sold a Barclaycard payment protection policy you could make a claim for compensation.
Unfair penalty fees
In 2006 The Office of Fair Trading investigated the way penalty fees were applied to credit cards for late payments and over the limit fees. After a thorough investigation, the regulator found that many of the fees charged by lenders were disproportionately high. Lenders claimed fees were appropriate to cover the cost of administrating accounts, but The OFT rejected this finding the maximum justifiable fee was £12. As a result of their investigation you can now make a claim for unfair fees imposed in the past.
To start your claim for mis-sold Barclaycard payment protection insurance or payment protection claims against any other lender call 0207 471 2000. You could receive your PPI refunds in just eight weeks.