The British Banking Association’s (BBA) decision to drop its legal battle over Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) is a long overdue triumph of common sense. But what is PPI and what does this latest move mean for you?

PPI started being offered in the 1990s as an insurance policy on mortgages, loans and credit cards – it would cover people’s repayments if their income fell due to illness or unemployment. However, once the banks discovered how profitable PPI was – in 2004 The Guardian revealed that many banks were returning just 15% of their PPI income to claimants – they started to push it more and more. This cash cow was eventually targeted by the regulators who spotted four problems with it.

Firstly, PPI was overly expensive – premiums often added 20% to the cost of a loan, but in some cases it was more than 50%. Secondly, PPI was carefully structured to minimise the chances of anyone actually being able to make a claim. Thirdly, the product was being mis-sold either to customers who didn’t realise what they were buying, or to people who would never be able to claim on it (such as the self-employed). Finally, PPI was branded inefficient as even the very few claimants who stood a chance of getting a payout faced a lengthy and complicated claims procedure.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has brought in strict rules about PPI now and has insisted that these be applied retrospectively – meaning the banks should refund anyone who has ever been affected by a breach of the new PPI rules. The banks had been resisting this via a lengthy court battle. But now they’ve thrown in the towel after both Lloyds and Barclays announced they were withdrawing from the court case and preparing to pay refunds to victims.

So, if you have, or ever had, a PPI policy, the first thing to check is whether it was mis-sold. Check what your policy covered and whether it was appropriate for your circumstances when you were sold it. If you were mis-sold PPI then you could go to a claims firm like Brunel Franklin for advice and next steps in securing your refund.

Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of Brunel Franklin, said: “We are pleased to have been able to help thousands of clients and get the maximum PPI refund they are entitled to; many PPI cases we see illustrate just how careful you need to be when taking out loans and credit agreements, particularly over the phone. It is easy to rush things over the phone and all too easy for the vendor not to make clear the all important detail of the policy. It really does pay to check the small print.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51

Consumers can now reclaim Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) refunds plus interest in certain situations. Banks, lenders and credit card companies responsible for mis-selling this insurance are now having to make refunds, and with the help of a company like Brunel Franklin, claiming your refund could be easier than you might think.

Payment Protection Insurance or PPI, is usually attached to any type of loan or borrowing agreement. This applies to basic loans, credit cards, mortgages and other types of borrowing situations. Until recently, many of the lending companies were selling this coverage to consumers as an add-on without disclosure and in some cases, consumers were not even aware that they were purchasing PPI.

The good news is that getting PPI refunds can be a relatively simple process of determining that you were not aware of the terms of the agreement, or perhaps that you even had the insurance in the first place.

A firm like Brunel Franklin provides a full refund service on a ‘no win no fee’ basis, so in the event your PPI refund is unsuccessful, you pay nothing. Brunel Franklin only charges a fee if it is successful on your behalf.

Brunel Franklin has years of experience, having made thousands of successful claims on behalf of clients, so you can be sure your case is in safe hands and will be vigorously pursued. It is possible to claim yourself, but the process can be time consuming and not to mention daunting for some people facing the prospect of taking on a bank or other financial institution. Another piece of good news is that even if you have begun the process on your own and become stuck, you can still talk to Brunel Franklin.

“Chasing a vendor can be a difficult and time consuming process to undertake with no support or technical knowledge, and this is where Brunel Franklin comes in,” said Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of Brunel Franklin. “We would encourage anyone who believes they may have been mis-sold a PPI policy to talk to us, as a quick initial assessment is usually enough for us to decide if you have grounds for a refund.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51

Have you been mis sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) or currently pay PPI premiums? If so, you should be aware you may now be able to make a claim for a refund, should your PPI have been mis sold.

PPI can be described as a product that is supposed to protect loan repayments. If you are made redundant and struggle to pay your monthly repayment, PPI will cover the payments.

If PPI was sold to you without the seller advising you of its use or in some cases, if you did not realise PPI was part of your agreement, then you may have been mis-sold PPI and be entitled to claim a refund. One of the most common causes of mis-sold PPI occurs when people are led to believe the loan acceptance is conditional on the PPI policy being taken out, or if the PPI is simply included automatically as part of the agreement.

To ensure you get the PPI refund you deserve, it can be a good idea to seek professional help from a firm like Brunel Franklin, who will do all the hard work for you.

“Making a refund application against a bank or other large financial institution can be a daunting prospect, which is why it is much better to seek help from an organisation like Brunel Franklin, rather than struggle on and be left to try and work out the details for yourself,” explained Brunel Franklin Managing Director Sally Bowyer. “We operate a no-win-no-fee service and there is nothing to pay until your case is successfully won and the vendor has paid out.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51

When planning how to make repayments on a credit card, mortgage or bank loan, it is vitally important to make sure you can be consistent by creating a repayment structure which means you never fall behind. However, sometimes ill health or sudden unemployment can impact on such a structure and have debilitating consequences for your general finances. Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) guarantees against such problems affecting your repayments for a certain period, offering crucial peace of mind during a difficult period.

There are, though, a number of scenarios where PPI will not apply to someone’s individual requirements and is therefore not necessary. This has not stopped many thousands of PPI policies being sold when they were not needed – and Brunel Franklin can help.

Specialists in handling PPI issues, Brunel Franklin can help to determine whether you have been mis-sold a policy and what steps to take if you need to reclaim those charges. There are a number of reasons why PPI may have been mis-sold. There are even a number of reports of cases emerging where policies were mis-sold without the individual being aware of PPI being included when they were applying for their loans or credit cards.

All of these cases represent examples where PPI was not sold in the correct manner, and where the consumer may be entitled to claim a refund. If you feel that you may have perhaps purchased the policy without a true understanding of what it was, contact Brunel Franklin to see if you can reclaim the money you have paid out already.

The amount of registered payment protection claims has grown rapidly over the last 5 years. Since a complaint was launched by the Citizens Advice Bureau in 2006 regarding PPI, the issue of mis-selling has become increasingly prominent. Established financial institutions such as the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Services Authority carried out their own investigations and confirmed they felt the problem of PPI policies being mis-sold was an increasing concern. When organisations such as those mentioned above become involved, it indicates the severity of the problem, and also how seriously people have been taking the issue for some time.

Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of Brunel Franklin said: “Everyone accepts that banks provide a valuable service and are entitled to make fair and reasonable charges for services. But people shouldn’t be sold PPI without being furnished with the full facts. PPI mis-selling cases serve as timely reminder of how careful we all need to be when taking out new loans and other credit card agreements.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is pushing banks to cut their bonus pools to reflect the heavy losses incurred through the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), according to the Financial Times.

The paper reported that the regulator is demanding banks take into account the multibillion-pound refund bill for PPI mis-selling when they calculate pay-outs for 2011. It said the FSA had been having robust conversations with the banks and had been pushing them hard to recognise PPI in their bonuses.

Pay discussions between the FSA and the big banks are set to continue over the coming weeks. The FSA told the FT it was ‘vigorously engaging’ with the banks to ensure they were not paying out large bonuses if they had not yet met tough new capital requirements.

The FSA does not have power to intervene on bonuses but reportedly believes that as bank shareholders bore the brunt of the charges through write downs made in the first half of 2011, so too should bank staff.

Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of Brunel Franklin, stressed that vendors had a responsibility to ensure their products were appropriate for individual customers before completing the transaction. “Unfortunately, the mis-sale of PPI policies is by no means unusual. Customers may well wish to protect their loan repayments, but all too often they have been sold products that were completely unsuitable for their needs.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51

It’s nice to claim back PPI refunds. The money to be refunded never belonged to the banks and lenders in the first place, and a hefty refund is the least a person can expect after being fleeced by trusted, reputable financial institutions.

Many hard done by people were denied their right to claim when it came time to do so because they were deemed ineligible, the policy seemingly constructed to be utterly unfair and unreasonable in most cases.

The banks initially fought the High Court ruling, which told them how they should deal with PPI complaints back in April 2011 – mainly because they found it unfair that they were ordered to pay back PPI refunds to aggrieved customers that dated back many years – but they eventually succumbed by May 2011, unable to deny the evidence that justified the High Court’s decision.

This is a huge victory for consumers. Banks have set aside billions to refund customers, and it is now a great time for anyone who suspects they had PPI to claim a refund. The money is literally waiting to be claimed and collected.

A PPI claimant should first of all collect any documents relevant to the PPI policy that was sold to them and contact their bank. Or they can contact a company like Brunel Franklin, who will do all the hard work for them.

There are a plethora of reasons pertaining to why a person has a rightful claim, all involving how the policy was implemented alongside a loan, mortgage or credit card agreement. Some of the main reasons a person can claim back PPI include:

• Their age (retiring during the lifetime of the policy, or retired already means they cannot claim)
• The type of work they were involved in (e.g. a self-employed person cannot claim)
• The policy was added without the customer’s knowledge
• The policy was not explained properly

When a person makes a claim one of two things will happen:

1. The bank or lender will accept their claim and either give a person the full amount they are entitled or to persuade them to accept a minimal settlement
2. They will deny the claim.

In the event that a person is denied by their bank and still wish to pursue the claim (which could be utterly valid even if the banks have dismissed it), then contacting the Financial Ombudsman Service(FOS) or a claims management company could take the claim to the next step.

“Chasing a vendor can be a difficult and time consuming process to undertake with no support or technical knowledge, and this is where Brunel Franklin comes in. We would encourage anyone who believes they may have been mis-sold a PPI policy to talk to us, as a quick initial assessment is usually enough for us to decide if you have grounds for a refund.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51

The proportion of Payment Protection insurance (PPI) complaints being resolved in the consumer’s favour has declined, figures from the finance watchdog have shown.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) said just under seven out of 10 (68%) of PPI complaints cases were settled in the consumer’s favour in the last three months of 2011, compared with more than nine out of 10 (92%) between July and September. The typical refund sum paid out is £2,750, but the figure can “vary considerably” and run into tens of thousands of pounds in some cases.

The FOS pointed out that the previous spike of 92% of complaints going the consumer’s way came shortly after a legal challenge of PPI complaints was dropped. The figure includes cases in which businesses have decided to settle in the consumer’s favour once FOS proceedings have started, as well as complaints which the FOS has upheld itself.

The British Bankers’ Association confirmed in May 2011 that it was not going to appeal against a High Court ruling that rules relating to the mis-selling of PPI could be applied retrospectively. Despite the legal developments, the FOS has warned that cases are likely to become “more entrenched” and could take longer than the typical three to six months to clear up.

The FOS, which makes rulings on complaints that financial firms have failed to resolve, has received more than 300,000 PPI complaints in total, and said it upholds the “vast majority” in consumers’ favour.

The latest figures showed that a surge in PPI complaints drove the number of new cases received by the finance watchdog up by 10%, compared with the previous quarter. New PPI complaints rose by more than 50%, from just under 20,000 between July and September 2011 to more than 30,000 between October and December, by far outstripping other types of problem.

The FOS said feedback suggests it will continue to receive “substantial” volumes of PPI complaints for “another two or three years”.

“Making a refund application against a bank or other large financial institution can be a daunting prospect, which is why it is much better to seek help from an organisation like Brunel Franklin, rather than struggle on and be left to try and work out the details for yourself. We operate a no-win-no-fee service and there is nothing to pay until your case is successfully won and the vendor has paid out.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51

Banks are under pressure from their watchdog to shrink their bonuses to reflect their multi billion-pound bill for the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA), the industry regulator, holds that institutions must bear in mind the costs of refunds as bonus season begins in the City.

Consumers took out PPI to help repay their loans if they fell ill for a long period or became unemployed, but a widespread mis-selling occurred. Some customers took out the policy without realising they did not have to have it, or felt pressured into doing so. The FSA does not intervene in how much is paid out to individuals, but bonuses can fall within its remit if they impact a bank’s finances.

The FSA is working to make sure banks are complying with the recent instruction from the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) to protect their capital buffers. Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays, has already said that the bank is taking its £1bn fine for mis-selling the loan insurance into account when it considers remuneration, but other banks may protest that those responsible have left.

A FSA spokesman said: “We are vigorously engaging with the majorUKbanks to ensure they comply with the FPC’s recommendation to retain capital by reducing distributions such as bonuses.”

Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of Brunel Franklin said: “Everyone accepts that banks provide a valuable service and are entitled to make fair and reasonable charges for services. But people shouldn’t be sold PPI without being furnished with the full facts. PPI mis-selling cases serve as timely reminder of how careful we all need to be when taking out new loans and other credit card agreements.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51

The number of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) complaints referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service has jumped by almost 60 per cent over the last three months.

Data published by the FOS shows that the FOS received 30,301 PPI complaints between October and December, an increase of 57 per cent from the 19,259 PPI complaints in the three months to September. While the number of complaints on PPI have increased over the quarter, the proportion being upheld has fallen from 92 per cent in the three months to September to 68 per cent.

The FOS is expecting to receive 165,000 new PPI complaints in 2012/13, accounting for 60 per cent of new cases.

Between October and December 59 per cent of portfolio management complaints were upheld.

Complaints about unit-linked investment bonds stayed relatively flat at 194, with 59 per cent of complaints upheld.

The FOS is funded by a mixture of case fees and an industry levy. It is currently consulting on introducing a supplementary case fee from April of £350, on top of the standard case fee of £500, for each PPI complaint where businesses have more than 25 PPI complaints referred to the FOS each year.

FOS chief executive Natalie Ceeney says: “The challenges of our PPI workload are unprecedented. Initial feedback from stakeholders suggests that most believe we will continue to receive substantial volumes of PPI complaints for another two or three years. This seems a sensible basis on which to plan, given the size of the PPI market, the number of PPI complaints made direct to banks and other financial businesses last year alone, and the potential extent of detriment to consumers.”

Separately the FOS is also consulting on increasing the number of free cases small firms have each year before paying the £500 case fee from three to 25 a year. If agreed this would come into effect in April 2013.

Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of financial claims specialist BrunelFranklin.com says that the public are slowly becoming wiser to the tactics of mis-selling, but that a lot of the damage is already done: “It is important to realise that we may all unwittingly have taken out PPI during the years when lenders were offering a seemingly endless line of credit in the form of loans and credit cards in particular. It costs nothing to check your paperwork for insurances that you may not even know you are paying for. PPI per se is not a bad product, however the onus is on the vendor to ensure the product is the best for your needs at the time of sale. If the best product for your needs was not offered, or if you were unaware of the true cost, for example, you may have grounds for a refund.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51

The number of complaints about Payment Protection Insurance rose by 10% in the final three months of 2011 to 55,907, according to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

But the FOS said just under seven out of 10 (68%) of PPI complaints cases were settled in the consumer’s favour in the period, compared with more than nine out of 10 (92%) between July and September. The typical refund is £2,750, but the figure can “vary considerably” and run into tens of thousands of pounds in some cases, the ombudsman said.

The FOS pointed out that the previous spike of 92 % of complaints going the consumer’s way came shortly after a legal challenge to PPI complaints was dropped. The figure includes cases in which businesses have decided to settle in the consumer’s favour once FOS proceedings have started, as well as complaints that the FOS has upheld itself.

In December it emerged that more than £1bn was paid in the first 10 months of last year to customers complaining that they had been mis-sold PPI. The refund was paid by 16 unnamed firms, accounting for 92% of PPI complaints in the first half of 2011.

Consumers took out PPI to help repay their loans if they fell ill for a long period or became unemployed, but a widespread mis-selling scandal emerged.

Some customers found they had taken out the policy without realising they did not have to have it or felt pressured into doing so. The banking industry dropped its legal challenge in May over whether new rules on PPI mis-selling claims could be applied retrospectively.

The move meant more than three million people were in line for refunds, expected to result in an overall bill of between £7bn and £9bn. The FOS said feedback suggests it will continue to receive “substantial” volumes of PPI complaints for “another two or three years”.

Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of Brunel Franklin said: “Everyone accepts that banks provide a valuable service and are entitled to make fair and reasonable charges for services. But people shouldn’t be sold PPI without being furnished with the full facts. PPI mis-selling cases serve as a reminder of how careful we all need to be when taking out new loans and other credit card agreements.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51