Payment protection insurance your loan or debt repayments in the event that you fall behind in your repayments due to a change of circumstances such as being out of work due to illness, or if you lose your job through redundancy. Payment protection insurance policies are often sold as part of the deal when consumers take out a loan, mortgage or credit card.

Some payment protection policies may have been “mis-sold”, and under these circumstances, you may be entitled to a refund.

Mis-sold PPI policies are:

• You did not realise that you were taking out a policy, and it was simply added to the loan without your knowledge
• That you were told that the PPI was compulsory and you could not have the loan without it
• That the policy was not suitable for your needs at the time it was taken out, and would never have covered you in the event of a claim
• That you were self employed, or not working, when the PPI was taken out
• The extent of the policy was not properly described to you, and did not cover you for what you thought it would

If your complaint is upheld, then you should be entitled to a refund of the payment protection premiums that you have paid, plus any interest that you have paid on them. This refund can be paid directly to you. However, if your loan is in arrears, your lender will be entitled to apply the refund to the arrears initially, to clear these, and reduce the balance of your loan. You can then usually choose whether the remainder of the refund is applied to your loan, or paid to you directly.

You have to remember that if you accept a refund, or reworking of the loan agreement, the PPI policy will be cancelled, and you will not be able to make any claims on it, should you fall into financial difficulties.

Your first step is to send a written complaint to your lender directly.

Make sure that you keep a copy of your letter, and any documents that you send with it. You may need to refer to them later. You should then give your lender a chance to respond to your complaint. Your lender generally has 8 weeks to respond to your complaint before you can take it further. If your lender does not respond within this time, or if they reject your complaint, then the next step is to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

The FOS is an independent body, whose job is to help settle disputes between financial companies and their customers. Their service is free to Consumers, and therefore you do not normally need to instruct a solicitor to handle the complaint for you.

However, if your complaint is complicated, and you would like us to assist, then contact us.

Details of how to make a complaint to the FOS, and all of the relevant forms, can be found on their website: Financial Ombudsman Service.

We do not charge you if your claim is unsuccessful. As such, there is absolutely no risk to you.