PPI

PPI is a type of insurance that was sold with loans, credit cards, mortgages and other types of credit, like car finance or catalogue accounts. It was designed to make credit repayments that someone might not be able to make if they were unable to work. For example, if you had PPI and then couldn’t work because you were ill or made redundant, you could have made a claim. Depending on what your policy covered, it would pay some or all of your credit repayments for a certain amount of time.

If you had PPI, there are different ways you might have paid for it, depending on what it was sold with. On some loans, the whole cost of the PPI premium was added upfront to the amount borrowed. The borrower would then pay it off over the term of the loan, including interest added to the premium. This type of “single premium” PPI policy was banned in 2009, and shouldn’t have been sold after that.

On other loans, including mortgages, borrowers mostly paid for PPI by a “monthly premium”. This is where the PPI was paid for in monthly instalments separate from the credit it was bought with and interest wasn’t charged on it. PPI policies sold with credit cards were normally paid for by monthly premiums, which were added to the monthly card balance. The cost of the premium was a percentage of the total balance owed for that month, and if the balance wasn’t repaid, then interest would be added. If a claim was paid out, the monthly benefit was a percentage of what was owed.

If you’ve ever had any of these products in the past, it’s possible you were sold PPI with them: 

• credit cards
• store cards
• mortgages
• personal and secured loans
• flexible loans
• business loans
• overdrafts
• hire-purchase agreements (for example, on a car)
• catalogue shopping accounts
• point-of-sale loans (for example, for furniture or appliances)

If you’ve still got your credit agreements or statements, you can check if PPI is mentioned on them. Some businesses used different names for PPI, which may include:

• credit card repayments cover
• credit repayment protector
• mortgage repayments protector
• mortgage care
• creditcare
• loanguard
• payment protection cover
• creditguard

The business you’re complaining to might tell you that you didn’t have a PPI policy. This might happen if: 

• their records don’t show that a policy was sold
• the credit was taken out so long ago there are no records about it
• they don’t have enough information to track down the details of a PPI policy

But, as the deadline has passed, businesses are unlikely to check for PPI if you contact them now. 

If a business has already told you that you didn’t have PPI – but you’re not sure they’re right, contact us.

Some of the most common complaints about mis-sold PPI are from customers who: 

• weren’t aware they had the policy
• didn’t want the policy
• felt pressured into taking out the policy – for example, they were told that if they didn’t take out PPI, they wouldn’t get a credit card
• were advised to take out a policy that was unsuitable – for example, they were self-employed, but they were advised to take out a policy that was difficult for self-employed people to claim on
• weren’t made aware of the main things the policy didn’t cover – for example, if it didn’t cover a medical condition they already had

Plevin case and commission

A court case known as Plevin found that in some cases, if the business was paid a lot of commission and it didn’t tell the consumer, it might have been unfair. 

After the case, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published new rules and guidance relating to the commission earned on a PPI sale. The rules say that if the commission made up over half the cost of the PPI and this wasn’t made clear, the lender should give some of this money back to the consumer.

This might be relevant to your complaint if:

• you took out the credit the PPI was sold with (for example, a loan or credit card) on or after 6 April 2007
• you took out the credit the PPI was sold with before 6 April 2007, and it was still running on or after 6 April 2008

Not everyone who complained about PPI was affected. If you’ve already had a full refund, there’s no need to complain about commission. You’ve already had everything back that you paid.

In any case, it’s too late to make a complaint about undisclosed commission to the business as the PPI deadline has now passed. 

We look at your individual circumstances and decide if the business acted unfairly when they sold you PPI based on the information we have. We’ll usually look at whether:

• it was made clear to you that the policy was optional
• any important limits to what the policy covered were explained
• the costs and benefits of the policy were made clear
• any advice you were given was right for you
• you could have made a claim on the policy you had, and
• if the sales process had been done, you would not have chosen to take out the policy 

The information we look at might include:

• paperwork from the time the policy was taken out
• what you and the business say about what happened
• the business’s sales scripts and any relevant training material

Read our PPI case studies for detailed examples of how we look into and resolve complaints

The deadline for complaining to a business about PPI has passed. You can find out more about the PPI deadline on the FCA’s website. But if you can clearly prove that there were exceptional circumstances, you may still be able to make a complaint. 

Once you’ve heard from the financial business, you’ll need to contact us within 6 months of the business’s response.

If you want to bring your complaint to us, we'll need to have as much information as possible from both sides about your complaint. It might take a bit of time to remember all the facts and find the paperwork needed. We’ll investigate the case, and if we think the business has acted unfairly, we’ll explain how we think they should put things right.

To make things easier, you can complete our PPI questionnaire to organise the key information about your complaint. 

If you need help or have any questions, you can get in touch with us and we can explain anything you’re unsure about. 

Find out more about how to make a complaint

The time it takes for us to investigate a complaint depends on what it's about, how complex it is and how quickly we can get all the information we need. For most complaints relating to fraud and scams, it takes one to two months for us to allocate cases, but can sometimes take longer.

We’re working hard to reduce the time it takes to allocate cases for investigation, so you may hear from us sooner than this.

• If you’re facing financial hardship or severe ill health, please let us know.
• The Money Advice Service website has a list of online debt advice services where you can get immediate and personalised help, if you’re experiencing financial difficulties.

How long it takes

Once we’ve looked at all the facts of your case, we’ll decide whether or not you were mis-sold PPI.

If we decide the business treated you fairly and didn’t mis-sell your PPI policy, we’ll explain why. But if we decide the business did something wrong, we’ll tell them to put things right.

We’d usually expect you to be put in the position you’d be in if you hadn’t taken out the policy. But any compensation should take into account your individual circumstances. For example, if you made a successful claim on your PPI, any payout you received is likely to be taken off the compensation. Or if you fell behind with repayments on the credit that the PPI was added to, the compensation is likely to be used to reduce the amount you owe.

The amount of compensation you receive will depend on:

• the type of PPI you were sold
• how you paid for the policy
• how much you paid for PPI
• any interest you paid on top
• how long you had the PPI for

Read more about how we decide and award compensation.

If you’re a business looking for information to help you resolve complaints, detailed information about PPI complaints can be found in the business section of our website.