If you were mis sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) by Barclays Bank you may have already considered whether you are eligible to make a claim. During the second half of 2010 Barclays was the most complained about financial institution with a total of 294,891 complaints being made to The Financial Services Authority (FSA). It is likely that a significant number of these complaints are from customers reclaiming PPI from Barclays. The FSA figures attributed approximately 63% of the total number of complaints received to PPI cases.
It is not known exactly how many Barclays PPI claims have been received in total, but the lenders is estimated to have paid out around £200 million in compensations. It also recently announced it had allocated £1 billion to investigate and resolve future claims for mis-selling.
If you are interested in reclaiming PPI from Barclays, but are unsure whether you were mis sold PPI you should begin by establishing whether or not you have the cover. You can usual find this out by examining your original loan agreement or a recent statement. If you are still unsure a quick call to Barclays or a visit to your local branch should confirm whether you have the cover.
Next you should consider what happened and what was said when you were sold the cover. There is an extensive list of things that may be considered ‘mis-selling,’ but they can roughly be divided into two categories – either you were given the wrong or incomplete information or you were sold cover that was unsuitable for your needs.
You were given wrong or incomplete Information
Before deciding whether or not you wished to purchase the payment protection cover your lender should have explained the cover fully to allow you to make an informed decision. If you weren’t given all the facts regarding the cost of your policy or its terms and conditions this may be regarded as mis-selling. You may also be able to make a claim if you were given incorrect information for example that the cover was compulsory or would improve your chance of being approved for the loan.
The policy was unsuitable for your needs
As with most types of insurance there are certain exemptions and exclusions associated with PPI. As a general rule, most PPI policies will not offer cover to people over the age of 65 or those who are suffering from pre-existing medical conditions. This is because people in these categories are perceived as high risk. Despite the fact they should not have been offered the cover, many people in these categories were sold the cover. Some discovered they were ineligible for cover after trying to use the cover, but many more are likely to have never been aware they were paying for a policy, in good faith, that they could never use.
Payment Protection cover was also frequently sold to customers who were unsuitable because of their employment status including customers who were unemployed, in full time education or retired. It seems logical that someone who does not have a job would have no need for an insurance policy that insures against loss of employment, but a shocking amount of people were still sold the cover.
To start making your payment protection insurance claims call our team on 0207 471 2000.