PPI, or payment protection insurance is a legacy of loan sales and other financial products in the last 10 years or so. One of the major problems with PPI is in many cases it wasn’t asked for, or wanted, or even understood. In a small minority of cases, it was bundled into the loan without the person knowing about it, and in a very few cases, these people don’t realise until the loan is repaid.
My loan is already cleared, can I do anything about it?
Many people don’t pursue PPI claims because they’ve repaid the loan and think that they don’t need to pursue it once it’s over with. While that might be true of other financial products, reclaiming PPI isn’t affected by the length of time you’ve been paying, or whether it’s repaid. In fact, in many cases people are reclaiming PPI years after they’ve finished paying off the loan, and it can be worthwhile to pursue.
It’s critical to ensure that you’ve got the paperwork, if you can, otherwise there could be a time limit on your claim. It’s also important to ensure that you’re giving as accurate information as possible on your PPI claim form – that way, you can be sure that whomever is helping you reclaim has all of the information to proceed.
I’m still repaying – do I need to keep paying my PPI?
In many cases, yes, you should continue paying PPI while your claim is being reviewed. While it seems contrary to common sense, you’ve got to ensure that you’re covering your loan payments. With sales of PPI often being bundled into loans, you need to ensure that cancelling it doesn’t put you in the position of either defaulting, or ensuring that you’re not going to jeopardise your claim.
It’s important in other words, to ensure that you’re in the correct position before cancelling your PPI. One of the major things you need to do is ensure that your legal team works with you to protect your position, before changing or removing PPI from your loan. Once you’re in the position to do so and know that it’s not going to damage your claim, or your loan, you can do so.
