Did you have PPIwith Barclaycard?

Barclaycard and The PPI Scandal

The Financial Conduct Authority has introduced a 'PPI claim by' deadline of 29th August 2019.The big five banks have paid out £24bn in compensation so far and have set aside a further £32.6bn to deal with the estimated claims that will come forward during that time. Don’t delay start a free PPI check today!

PPI seems like a complex issue, however once you drill down into the details it’s very easy to grasp and you can easily figure out if you’ve been mis-sold the product and may therefore be due a refund. We’re here to provide you with the details to make the process as stress free as possible.

What is PPI Anyway?

PPI is an optional add-on that covers repayments on finance agreements such as:

• Loans
• Mortgages
• Credit Cards

PPI was initially designed to cover policy holders who were unable to meet monthly payments due to:

• Sickness
• Injury
• Redundancy

However, many PPI policies were mis-sold to people who would never of been eligible to put in a successful claim and also added unknowingly to loan, credit card and mortgage agreements, thus the scandal began.

It’s easy to start a claim with PPI.co.uk. All we need is your contact details, date of birth, the address you lived at the time of the borrowing and a signature.

Recent figures show that just 6 out 10 claims that are made without the help of a company like ourselves are rejected, either because the claimant hasn’t got access to the required information or because they haven’t got the experience of dealing with these kinds of processes.

PPI.co.uk has been helping customers retrieve what has been rightfully owed to them since 2007 and during this period we’ve successfully processed over 169,000 successful claims and claimed over £274 million for our customers. PPI cases are rarely ever the same, and some, particularly the older policies, can be very difficult to achieve a refund. However, it’s these difficult cases that have helped us build our reputation because we’re able to draw from our experience for other similar cases and achieve excellent results for our customers.

Because of our standing in the industry we have brokered a deal with the major banks and lenders, which means that we’re not required to submit anything more than a name, date of birth and address. Once the banks have this information they’re able to access their databases and determine if any PPI was added onto any finance that customer may have taken out.

This kind of agreement is a relatively new one and is only available to select companies such as PPI.co.uk.

‘Was I Mis-Sold PPI by Barclaycard?’

Barclaycard was by no means the only lender that has been forced to set aside billions to compensate those who were mis-sold PPI. The mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance dates back as far as the seventies, and these policies have been sold over the years in a variety of different ways; on a variety of products including credit cards, loans and mortgages.

Source: FT Graphic

When Did the PPI Scandal Begin?

Problems with PPI were first brought about by the consumer magazine Which?, questioning whether the product was actually above board. The product was under intense scrutiny because of the expense and eligibility of some of the customers who’d purchased PPI and their ability to actually make a claim on the policy. Despite the knowledge that PPI was under the microscope, banks still sold PPI policies until 2005 when a Financial Services Authority released a report on PPI and the poor practices that were being used to sell policies

Only a year later small companies who mis-sold PPI policies were beginning to find themselves the recipients of large fines from the FSA for their part in mis-selling. Big brands that believed they could continue to rip off customers were sadly mistaken, as the huge fines began to come down hard on them.

Research conducted in the late nineties suggested that over 2 million people in the country had been paying for PPI policies that they had absolutely zero chance of being able to claim on if the worst should happen. A further 1.3 million people were believed to have been sold the insurance on the understanding this was the only way they could be approved for a line of credit – which is of course false.

How Did Barclaycard Mislead Customers?

In a shocking number of cases PPI was added onto a customer’s policy without their knowledge or permission. Most customers didn’t notice they were paying for a policy because the PPI payments were hidden within the regular loan payments.

Some sales staff would use hard sell techniques with their customers pressurising them into taking a PPI a policy with their product and banks incentivised staff to sell these policies. If customers weren’t given the full brief about their loan and sales staff went on to encourage and push them to take out PPI, then this could be classed as mis-selling. Some customers reported that bank staff would ask open ended questions making it hard for people to just refuse the policy outright. Other policies were sold to people who would not have been covered as they did not meet the requirements of the policy therefore it would leave them unable to claim on the policy should something happen to them or their employment status.

Sometimes the terms and conditions of the policy were not fully explained at the time of sale; they were told it would cover all instances of illness and absence from work, however it did not cover things like mental or stress related illnesses despite being advertised as such.

Can I Make a Claim Against Barclaycard?

In order to find out if you’ve been mis-sold a PPI policy, you must ask yourself the following questions:

• Did you know that you had a PPI policy while purchasing your Barclaycard credit card?
• Was the cover optional?
• Did Barclaycard ask about your medical history?
• Did Barclaycard ask about any kind of on-hand PPI cover or about any sick pay from your employer?
• Did Barclaycard inform you of the full cost of PPI or about cancelling the policy?
• Did Barclaycard ask you to read any terms and conditions about your PPI policy?
• Did Barclaycard supply you with any written documentation about your PPI policy?
• At any point of time, did Barclaycard discuss with you: the features, benefits, restrictions, and exclusions of a PPI policy?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then you may be eligible to go ahead and make a PPI claim. As per the law, Barclaycard is responsible for offering complete and precise information about any insurance product on offer. Therefore, if they have failed to give you the necessary details about PPI, you could be entitled to claim back the money you have paid for PPI which could amount to thousands of pounds.

In order to have a valid PPI claim and get a hold of what is rightfully yours, you will need to provide Barclaycard with as much information about your PPI claim as possible. According to Barclaycard and most banks, the information that is required from you is as follows:

• PPI policy number.
• Details of the key dates of the policy.
• Information about how the policy was sold.
• Employment status at the time the policy was sold.
• Details of any savings or other insurances you had when you took out the policy.
• What you took out the finance for and the amount you paid off.

If you have attempted to claim back PPI and you were rejected, then don’t give up. You can contact the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service). They will independently assess your claim and decide if your case is worth pursuing or not.

There is however a much simpler way. Simply provide us with your name, date of birth and address and we will check for you completely free. We do not need account numbers that you may longer have.

Why is it Important to Get a Move On?

How To Claim For Mis-Sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) from Barclaycard?

Payment protection insurance, abbreviated as PPI was designed to help you keep up with the repayments on your loans and or credit cards in the case of illness, accident or unemployment. This insurance policy that initially seemed a good thing for consumers who took loans, mortgages or credit cards was mis-sold to millions of customers in the UK. However, the good news is that you’re now able to claim for a refund of the PPI payments that you made. You may not be aware that you were mis-sold PPI so we provide a completely FREE CHECK.

What PPI Compensation You Could Reclaim?

Figures from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) show around 85% of single premium policy claims (policies paid for with a lump sum upfront) have been successful at retrieving a refund. The average customer payout for loan PPI compensation is around £3,000.

How To Find Out If You’ve Been Mis-Sold PPI?

If you’ve had a mortgage, loan or credit card from a bank in the last decade, you might have been mis-sold PPI.

Previously, PPI was sold at the time you took out a loan, credit card or a mortgage.

PPI was added onto a financial product taken from the bank to cover the monthly payments on your credit agreement if you became ill or unemployed.

However, it was evident that the policies didn’t pay out when people needed help as sales staff or bank representatives often didn’t explain the policies properly.

For instance, it was sold to people who were self-employed or with pre-existing medical conditions while they were not eligible to be covered under PPI.

There’s also a chance that the PPI policy was added to your loan, credit card or mortgage without your knowledge and consent.

In some cases it has been found that salespeople didn’t even explain the terms and conditions of the PPI policy to customers who wanted to buy a policy.

A good rule of thumb in order to be assured that you don’t have a PPI claim is to check all of your mortgage, credit card and loan agreements or bank statements.

If you can see any of the following or similar terms, you’ve probably been sold PPI:

• Accident, Sickness, Unemployment cover (ASU)
• Loan care
• Protection plan
• Payment cover
• Loan protection
• Mortgage Protection

Even if you fail to find the documents, it’s worth claiming as you could still have been mis-sold PPI by your bank.

How to claim PPI from Barclaycard?

Step 1

Locate all the documents that shows you had PPI attached to a prior loan or mortgage agreement. Make copies of any documents that prove you have taken out a PPI policy in the past and paid premiums for it. Even if you are not sure whether a particular document is relevant, you should make a copy of it and keep just in case.

Step 2

Write a letter to your loan, mortgage or credit card provider who sold you the PPI policy. Attach all documents that you think is relevant to your claim with your letter. Explain in the letter why you think you were mis-sold PPI.

Step 3

If your loan or mortgage or credit card provider does not respond within eight weeks of you sending the letter, you can escalate the complaint by taking it up with the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service). To determine whether or not you were mis-sold PPI, the Ombudsman will ask you to fill out a questionnaire.

How PPI Could Have Been Mis-Sold To You?

Was It Implied That Taking Out A PPI Policy Was Compulsory?

When you were taking out a loan from your provider were you informed that taking out PPI was compulsory from the same lender? If so, then you were mis-sold your PPI policy. Any financial firm that adheres to the lending code should not insist that a customer buy a PPI product from them at the time of taking out a loan, mortgage or credit card. Here we list a few possible scenarios where PPI might have been mis-sold to you:

• The salesperson did not inform you that taking out a PPI policy was optional.
• The salesperson stated or suggested that it could turn out to be more expensive if you didn’t take out PPI.
• The salesperson stated or suggested that taking out a PPI policy can considerably boost your chances of being approved for a loan or mortgage.
• The salesperson was very insistent about you taking out a PPI policy making you feel that you had to buy one.
• The salesperson refused to allow you to fill out a loan or credit card application, until you agreed to take out a PPI policy.

Did You Buy PPI Online?

These days its common for people to apply for loans online. It can be difficult to prove that you were mis-sold PPI, if you bought your policy online. You will usually find the complete terms and conditions of a policy mentioned online, which puts the onus of understanding them on you, the customer. However, there is one scenario where you might be able to prove that you were mis-sold PPI, even though you bought your policy online. If the provider had pre-ticked the box for PPI when you were filling out your loan application and you had to manually opt out of it, it is highly possible that you bought the policy without realising it. If such a thing has happened, you might be able to successfully claim that you were mis-sold PPI and make a claim for compensation on it.

Did You Buy Your PPI Policy Over The Phone Or Face To Face?

If you took out a PPI policy over the phone or after a face to face consultation with a salesperson, it is the responsibility of the salesperson to ensure that you understood the terms and conditions and exclusions of the policy. This is also applicable if you bought your PPI policy online, but also contacted a salesperson over the phone about it, as is usually the case. Such type of mis-selling occurred primarily due to the fact that the sales staff were being incentivised or pressurised under threats of salary reduction to sell as many PPI policies as possible to customers.

How The Ombudsman can help you?

One of the biggest considerations for the Ombudsman to uphold a case of PPI mis-selling is to see if the position of the consumer would be the same as before if they were not sold the PPI policy. The Regulator has published guidance which requires businesses to adopt a similar approach when handling PPI complaints. The ombudsman will consider the unique scenarios surrounding the claim to assess the fair amount of redress that should be offered to the customer. If the ombudsman finds in favour of a customer, the redress can include both the restructuring of the customer’s account as well as the payment of compensation. The Ombudsman wants a business to take into consideration the following three factors before calculating the amount that should be offered to a customer as redress:

• The type of PPI policy purchased by the customer
• Checking if the PPI policy was taken out with a loan or credit card
• Determining whether the policy was a standalone premium policy

Each individual circumstance surrounding a claim will be considered by the Ombudsman before a reasonable and fair amount for redress is calculated. For example, the amount of redress might be changed if:

• The customer has lagged behind in payments to their creditors
• The customer has been successful with their claim for PPI compensation

Redress For Mis-Sold Single-Premium PPI Attached To A Loan

These types of PPI policies consisted of a one time upfront payment, which was added to the loan amount. The customer is then charged interest on the premium. This means that monthly loan repayments include not only the payment towards the PPI premium, but also to the interest accrued on it. If a customer was mis-sold a single premium PPI policy and the policy is currently active, the Ombudsman will instruct the lender to cancel the policy. The Ombudsman will then instruct the lender to give the customer a fair compensation. The lender will be instructed to calculate a fair redress amount by taking into consideration current position of the loan and also the individual circumstances of the customer. Usually it will involve the following steps:

• If the loan is still active, the loan would need re-structuring. The restructuring is done in a way to ensure that the customer would be in the same position as before in terms of the amount they owe, the monthly repayments they have to make and the charges that reflect those that would have applied, if they had not taken out the PPI policy in the first place.
• If the loan was repaid early by the customer, the Ombudsman will instruct the lender to compare the amount paid by the customer to settle the loan, with the amount they would have otherwise paid if the PPI policy was not taken out. Basically, the calculation involves finding out how much more the customer paid back each month than the amount they would be required to pay, if the PPI policy was not arranged.

Once this amount is figured out, the Ombudsman will instruct the lender to add interest to each overpayment to reimburse the customer for the loss of the use of their money. Prior to 1 April 1993 lenders were asked to add 15% interest per year, but now that rate stands at a basic 8% per year.

In some scenarios the lender might not be able to restructure the loan as part of paying back compensation to the customer. This could occur if for example, the business that sold the policy was not the lender of the loan to the customer. So, in such scenarios the Ombudsman will instruct the business to pay back the entire compensation amount directly to the customer as it is not possible to restructure the loan.

If a lender chooses to make the compensation amount directly to the customer, it is important to keep in mind that it makes no difference to the balance amount that is owed by the customer to the lender on their loan. The balance amount will be higher than it should have been as it includes the PPI premium and the customer will also have to continue to make payments towards the interest accrued on the PPI premium added to the loan. Therefore, the customer should use some part of their compensation amount to reduce the loan amount and also to avoid paying more because of the interest charged on the loan amount. If a customer is charged for making an early repayment towards the loan, the Ombudsman will instruct the lender to compensate the customer for it.

If the mis-selling of the PPI policy or the handling of its claims process caused the customer significant distress, the Ombudsman will instruct the business to pay additional compensation for the same. Some lenders might use a different method to calculate the amount of redress owed to a customer than the methods described above. For example, certain businesses might present their offer as follows:

• Refund of the entire single premium amount that was added to the loan at the start
• Refund on the entire interest amount that was charged on the loan due to the inclusion of the PPI premium
• Interest on the extra payments the customer was forced to make because of the inclusion of the PPI policy in the loan amount

The lender might choose to pay the entire compensation amount to the customer or in the event the loan is still active, the lender might decide to restructure the loan to pay back some of the compensation amount and then make the balance payment to the customer.

Generally, in a lot of PPI cases the Ombudsman has looked at, it has been found that the compensation offer made to the customer was often done in a manner that was confusing. But irrespective of how the offer is presented, you should check if the offer amount is accurate as per the regulator’s guidance and the Ombudsman approach to figuring out redress. This may mean that compensation amount is paid back to you in cash and your loan is not restructured.

Communicating To the Customer How Their Redress Has Been Calculated

It can be really helpful to customers, if the business can clearly explain how they have carried out their redress calculation.

To compensate a customer for the loss of use of their money, an interest of up to 8% per year is added to the compensation amount. In such a scenario, the Ombudsman will expect the lender to make it very clear whether or not they have deducted income tax from these payments. If income tax has not been deducted, the lender is required to instruct the customer that income tax might be payable on the redress offered.

If The Customer Received a Cashback Payment at the End Of Policy Term

Certain single premium PPI policies return a part of or the entire premium amount as cash at the end of term period of the PPI policy (usually five years) as long as the customer meets certain requirements such as, they have not made a claim on the policy.

This ‘cashback’ amount offered does not actually affect the loan amount as it is added as a single premium at the start of the loan period. However, the lender should take this cashback amount into consideration when deciding on the redress amount, as the customer should not be due any cashback seeing as it did not want the PPI policy in the first place. In such a scenario, the Ombudsman will instruct the lender to do the following:

• Withholding Cashback Payments

Some lenders withhold cashback payments, if a complaint has been made either against them or against the broker that had arranged the policy. The Ombudsman finds such a practice to be unfair because the cashback payment was due as part of the contract agreed between the lender and the customer and not making the payment because of a complaint made about the lender or another business is breach of contract.

In such an event the Ombudsman will instruct the lender to calculate the redress amount in the following way:

• Restructure the loan in a way that removes the effect of PPI from this moment on
• Refund the customer the amount they have paid extra because of the fact that PPI was added to their loan

If the customer has already been provided with the cashback payment, the Ombudsman considers it fair that the business take away the value of the payment from the extra repayments the customer has made as part of PPI being added to the loan.

If the cashback amount received by the customer is less than the extra amount they had paid because of PPI being added to their loan, the balance amount will be given to the customer in cash.

The situation becomes complicated if they offered the customer a cashback amount, which was greater than the extra payments paid. In this situation the business can choose to use this extra amount to restructure the loan of the customer, again depending on certain circumstances.

If the customer does not have the cashback amount in a realisable or identifiable form, the Ombudsman will check if the lender had informed to the customer either at the time of selling the PPI policy or when the cashback was offered, that in order to reduce the effect of PPI on the loan amount, they would be required to use the cashback payment to reduce their overall loan balance. If the lender had informed the customer of the same, it is very likely that the Ombudsman will rule in favour of the lender in terms of how they choose to restructure the customer’s loan with extra cashback payment made.

However, if the lender failed to inform the customer about the importance of the cashback payment and how it can be used to offset the effect of PPI on the loan and if the customer spent this money freely as a consequence, the Ombudsman will most likely conclude that it is unfair for the business to reduce the amount by which it restructures the customers loan despite the fact that they paid a higher cashback amount.

Why You Should Let Us Handle Your Claim?

There are two important reasons why you should choose us to handle the claim on your behalf:

Banks Indulge In Stalling Tactics

While it is perfectly normal to make a claim for PPI by yourself, the reality is that the entire process is anything but straightforward. Not all banks are playing ball and repaying claimants the rightful amount they are owed. Many still indulge in stalling tactics to frustrate customers into giving up and not pursuing their claim any further, while some banks choose to reject legitimate PPI claims of the belief that once rejected the customer won’t pursue the claim any further. Let’s take a look at how banks are mishandling PPI claims with the help of a case study.

Case Study: Barclaycard

In this scenario, a victim of PPI from Barclays was left seething after being told initially that he was entitled to compensation of more than £22,000 only to then be given a revised paltry compensation offer of £3,581.

The victim was a businessman based in Scotland and he had taken out a PPI policy in 1989. The claimant was adamant that he had been paying £40 each month on the PPI policy for a majority of the years since the policy was first taken out. Initially he was satisfied with original compensation offer of £22,319.

However, after the initial offer was put across there were many delays on the part of Barclaycard. The customer was left furious after receiving a revised compensation offer of £3,500 despite the fact that he had been making regular payments towards the PPI since 1989.

After the claimant had sent across a letter accepting the initial compensation amount put across, he received a further blow when Barclays conducted a review, which led to the final compensation amount being reduced by a staggering 84%.

This blow was further compounded when the FOS deemed the revised offer as acceptable. This led to the claimant pursuing the claim further for 18 months, during which he received very little correspondence from Barclaycard. The claimant was ignored for nearly a year when pursuing the complaint and then at the end of it still had to settle for a paltry amount despite owing PPI money on it for many years.

Barclays sought to explain the discrepancy between the two compensation figures put across to the claimant by saying that the initial offer was due to an ‘estimated calculation’ based on his bank statements up to November 2005, back-dating it to 1989. This estimated calculation determined that the claimant paid £3,307.94 in PPI premiums, £14,535.74 in interest to the premium and an additional 8% in simple tax which came up to £4,475.53.

During the review conducted, the bank found statements dating back to 2001, which prompted the need for re-calculation. This second calculation found that the total interest the claimant was owed stood at merely £866.30. Additionally, the amount paid in premiums was also revised down. To cushion this blow, Barclays bank offered the claimant £500 as a way of apology for the entire time consuming and exhausting process.

The claimant said,” I have had the card for nearly 24 years and apart from a six year period after the Millennium I have always owed money on it.

'The FoS is supposedly a professional service paid... to resolve cases where consumers like me have a legitimate complaint against a lender, yet I was blatantly ignored for 11 months and when it comes to the decision on what amount is to be paid, it is completely wrong and a miniscule amount.

'The whole thing is just a complete shambles.'

Barclays along with other major banks in the UK have set aside billions of pounds to compensate customers for widespread mis-selling of PPI that has been going on since the early nineties. Barclays recently took a further £600million hit to pay people PPI compensation they were owed bringing their total expenditure up to £2.6 billion.

The Biggest PPI Settlements Have Been Uncovered Through CMC’s

Claims management companies have not just been successful in bringing many PPI claims to the fore they have also at the same time ensured that the customers who were mis-sold the policy got back the money that they were owed. CMC’s have also been involved in some of the biggest PPI payouts to date. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples:

Manchester Client Gets Hands On Massive PPI Payout of £104,500 From Barclaycard

The same claim management company had reclaimed a £27,000 PPI Refund for another client from Barclaycard for PPI mis-sold along with a credit card. Due to the intervention of a CMC the claimant could get her hands on such a mammoth compensation in just 8 weeks.

£82,000 PPI Compensation Paid Out To A Father From Essex

Prior to this mammoth PPI payout, the largest recorded payout was to a father from Essex who received over £82,000 again by Barclaycard for PPI mis-sold to him.

Phil Stephens the claimant was awarded this huge compensation after a 16 month long battle with Barclaycard to get back money that was rightfully owed to him.

How did Phil get the PPI? According to him PPI just appeared on his charge one day and he had no clue as to why the charge was added or what it was for. This kind of mis-selling was quite normal back in the day as a vast majority of customers were unaware of PPI being added to their loan or credit agreements or in some cases it was forged into the loan or mortgage agreement by the salesperson.

After losing a high court appeal, banks across the country faced having to pay back an army of customers PPI compensation they were owed as a result of the widespread mis-selling of PPI. So far compensation to the tune of £9 billion has been paid back to PPI customers in the UK.

Phil made his first claim with PPI back in July 2010, which was rejected by the bank. This strategy is usually employed by banks to discourage people from taking the claim any further. But unlike most people Phil continued his fight with the FOS, who ruled in his favor. The £82,300 was awarded for PPI premiums paid over two cards Phil had applied for from Barclaycard. The compensation amount received by him helped to clear all his debts and also enabled him to book a luxury cruise with his wife.

Start Your Claim For PPI With Ismart

At ISmart we have a dedicated and experienced team to help any claimant get back PPI compensation they are rightfully owed as a result of PPI being mis-sold to them. Our claims process has been designed in a way to ensure that it is easy to use and quick for any customer who wants to start a claim for compensation. Here’s are our three step process to help you claim back PPI compensation you are owed:

Step 1: Check Your Finances

Take a close look at your loan, mortgage, credit card or store card agreements since the start of 2001 and check to see if the word PPI is mentioned in any of those agreements. If the word PPI is not mentioned specifically, it does not mean that you don’t have PPI. Check for terms such as 'loan insurance', 'credit insurance', 'loan protection' or protection insurance or something similar. If you have one of those in your agreement, it means that you had taken out PPI in the past.

Now, if you don’t have your old paperwork or don’t have access to them, don’t worry, you can check through our PPI check tool irrespective of whether you have your paperwork or not.

If you verify through your documents or our free tool that you have had PPI in the past, it means that you could be in line for PPI compensation, if as in most cases this policy was mis-sold.

Step Two: Contact Us

To use our free check tool all you need to do is input information such as your name, current address, date of birth and then choose from a dropdown list the lenders that you have taken out loan’s, mortgages or credit cards from, to identify if you have had PPI attached to any of your prior agreements. We will then send you a LOA (Letter of Authority) for each lender that you might have had PPI from via post. Once you sign and return the LOA we can get the entire claims process started for you.

Step 3: Wait For An Update As We Pursue Your Claim Further

You don’t have worry about checking whether or not you had PPI in the past. We will do it for you. All you need to is relax and wait for us to come back to you with new developments pertaining to your claim. The process can sometimes be time consuming and take up to a maximum of 50 days. We will contact you in the interim, if we need any further information that will help us present a stronger case for your claim.

Step 4: The Results

Once we have managed to establish from your lender that you have had PPI in the past you are left with one of two options on how you can continue with your claim. You could either:

• Make a claim for against your lender by yourself or
• You can allow us to continue with rest of the process and get you the correct compensation amount you are owed by your lender.

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