If you have even taken out a loan or mortgage, use a credit card or have a consolidation loan then you may have been paying for payment protection insurance.

Payment Protection insurance is highly profitable for the bank or insurance company that issues it. It may have been included as part of your monthly repayment and may account for as much 20% of the total amount. It is sold on the basis that repayments will still be met even if you fell into financial hardship. The reality is that in most case there is so much red-tape and the small print has so many exclusion clauses  that the claims are rarely successful.

The Citizens Advice Bureau recently conducted a survey and discovered that a staggering 85% of claims had been denied. As such it is estimated that up to half of all policys have been mis-sold on the basis that customers were led to believe that their changing circumstances would be covered when in fact they were not. The CAB have gone as far as calling the problem a “Protection Racket” and have complaint to the Office of Fair Trading who are now investigating the situation. Many policyholders were given high pressure sales tactics and urged to take out PPI that they did not need, could not afford and could never claim on.

If you beleive you were mis-sold a policy, even if it is now paid off or consolidated into another loan, you can make a claim for compensation and a refund of the premiums paid.